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Fighting Venereal Diseases: Scandinavian Legislation c.1800 to c.1950

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 July 2012

Ida Blom
Ida Blom
Affiliation:
Department of History, University of Bergen, Sydnesplass 7, 5007 Bergen, Norway; e-mail: ida.blom@hi.uib.no
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During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries the development of bacteriology contributed to a heightened focus on the individual as the carrier of contagious diseases. This raised the question of how the state could shoulder the responsibility of defending public health without infringing on individual civil liberties. How much coercion of the diseased could be tolerated in order to protect the healthy? Pandemics such as plague and cholera had sometimes led to enforced isolation of the diseased; people suffering from leprosy might be confined to special institutions, and tuberculosis could result in long stays in hospitals and sanatoria. In such cases, however, it was also hoped that certain treatments might eventually cure the patients.

Type
Articles
Information
Medical History , Volume 50 , Issue 2 , 01 April 2006 , pp. 209 - 234
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2006. Published by Cambridge University Press

References

1 There is a comprehensive literature on this problem. See, for instance, Dorothy Porter (ed.), The history of public health and the modern state, Amsterdam and Atlanta, Rodopi, 1994; and Peter Baldwin, Contagion and the state in Europe, 1830–1930, Cambridge University Press, 1999. For a recent general overview, see Mark Harrison, Disease and the modern world: 1500 to the present day, Cambridge, Polity Press, 2004, pp. 118–44. See also A-L Seip, Sosialhjelpstaten blir til: norsk sosialpolitikk 1740–1920, Oslo, Gyldendal, 1994, pp. 235–9; O G Moseng, Ansvaret for undersåttenes helse, 1603–1850, series: Det offentlige helsevesen i Norge 1603–2003, vol. 1, Oslo, Universitetsforlaget, 2003, pp. 55–72; Aina Schiøtz, Folkets helse–landets styrke 1850–2003, series: Det offentlige helsevesen i Norge 1603–2003, vol. 2, Oslo, Universitetsforlaget, 2003, pp. 206–18; and Kari Tove Elvbakken, Svanaug Fjær and Thor Øivind Jensen, ‘Forebygging og politikk; historie, dilemma og grenser’, in Kari Tove Elvbakken, Svanaug Fjær and Thor Øivind Jensen (eds), Mellom påbud og påvirkning: tradisjoner, institusjoner og politikk i forebyggende helsearbeid, [Oslo], Gyldendal, 1994, pp. 11–26.

2 Øystein Sørensen and Bo Stråth, ‘Introduction: the cultural construction of Norden’, in Øystein Sørensen and Bo Stråth (eds), The cultural construction of Norden, Oslo, Stockholm, Scandinavian University Press, 1997, pp. 1–24; Uffe Østergård, ‘The geopolitics of Nordic identity: from composite states to nation-states’, in ibid., pp. 25–71, on p. 25. On the Nordic Welfare State, see Gösta Esping-Andersen, The three worlds of welfare capitalism, Cambridge, Polity Press, 1990; Niels Finn Christiansen, ‘What is Nordic about the Nordic welfare states?’ in Kari Melby, Anu Pylkkänen, Bente Rosenbeck, and Christina Carlsson Wetterberg (eds), The Nordic model of marriage and the welfare state, Copenhagen, Nordic Council of Ministers, 2000, pp. 197–205.

3 Søren Kolstrup, Velfærdsstatens rødder: fra kommunesocialisme til Folkepension, SFAH-skriftserie nr. 38, Copenhagen, Selskabet til Forskning i Arbejderbevægelsens Historie, 1996; Anne-Hilde Nagel (ed.), Velferdskommunen: kommunenes rolle i utviklingen av velferdsstaten, Bergen, Alma Mater, 1991; Lena Eriksson, ‘De arbetslöses förening: Förutsättningar för mobilisering och handlingsutrymme 1919: En fallstudie i Stockholm’, in Anders Berge, Walter Korpi, Joakim Palme, Sten-Åke Stenberg and Klas Åmark (eds), Välfärdsstat i brytningstid: historisk-samhällsvetenskapliga studier om genus och klass, ojämlikhet och fattigdom, Ôrebro, Sociologisk forskning: Supplement, 1999, pp. 93–127; Sten-Åke Stenberg, ‘Arbetslöshet och fattigdom i Sverige från 1920-tal till 1990-tal: en kombinerad makro- och mikroanalys’, in ibid., pp. 192–217; Birgitta Plymoth, ‘Familjeförsörjande kvinnor och fattigvård. Om möjligheter och egenansvar under sent 1800-tal’, in ibid., pp. 192–217; Klas Åmark; ‘Arbetarrörelsen, socialförsäkringssystemet och genusordningen 1932–1970’, in ibid., pp. 253–85.

4 Peter Baldwin, The politics of social solidarity: class bases of the European welfare state 1875–1975, Cambridge University Press, 1990; Nagel (ed.), op. cit., note 3 above; Aksel Hatland, Stein Kuhnle and Tor Inge Romøren (eds), Den norske velferdsstaten, Oslo, Ad Notam Gyldendal, 1994; Anne-Hilde Nagel (ed.), Kjønn og velferdsstat, Bergen, Alma Mater, 1998; Hilda Rømer Christensen, ‘Med kvinderne til velfærdstaten. Kvindeorganisering i Danmark, 1920–1940’, Kvinder, Køn og Forskning, 1999, no. 4, pp. 6–20; Marja T Sjöberg and Tinne Vammen (eds), På trøskeln till välfärden, Stockholm, Carlsson bokförlag, 1995; Hilda Rømer Christensen, Urban Lundberg and Klaus Petersen (eds), Frihed, lighed og tryghed. Velfærdspolitik i Norden, Aarhus, Skrifter udgivet af Jysk Selskab for Historie nr. 48, 2001. Among other themes, this report documents the coercion practised in all the Nordic countries from the early 1930s particularly with regard to the laws on sterilization.

5 Lena Sommestad, ‘Privat eller offentlig välfärd? Ett genusperspektiv på välfärdsstaternas historiska formering’, Historisk Tidskrift (Sweden), 1994, 4: 602–29; Ida Blom, ‘“Don't spit on the floor”: changing a social norm in early twentieth-century Norway’, in Hilde Sandvik, Kari Telste and Gunnar Thorvaldsen (eds), Pathways of the past: essays in honour of Sølvi Sogner, Oslo, Novus, 2002, pp. 231–42; Ida Blom, ‘Fra tvang til frivillighet? – Forebygging av veneriske sykdommer i Kristiania, 1888–1910’, in Edgeir Benum, Per Haave, Hilde Ibsen, Aina Schiøtz and Ellen Schrumpf (eds), Den mangfoldige velferden: festskrift til Anne-Lise Seip, Oslo, Gyldendal Norsk Forlag, 2003, pp. 125–40; Signild Vallgårda, ‘Det goda livet och det goda samhället. Styrning i folkhälsopolitiken eller hur välfärdstaten söker forma människor’, in Christensen, Lundberg and Petersen (eds), op. cit., note 4 above, pp. 90–107; Signild Vallgårda, Folkesundhed som politik: Danmark og Sverige fra 1930 til i dag, Aarhus, Aarhus Universitetsforlag, 2003.

6 Lauri Karvonen and Jan Sundberg (eds), Social democracy in transition in northern, southern and eastern Europe, Aldershot, Dartmouth Publishing, 1991; Lauri Karvonen and Per Selle (eds), Women in Nordic politics: closing the gap, Aldershot, Dartmouth Publishing, 1995; Lennart Jørberg, ‘The industrial revolution in Scandinavia, 1850–1914’, in Carlo M Cipolla (ed.), The Fontana economic history of Europe, vol. 4: 1700–1914: the emergence of industrial societies, Part Two, London, Fontana Books, 1970.

7 See ‘Introduction’, Roger Davidson and Leslie Hall (eds), Sex, sin and suffering: venereal disease and European society since 1870, London and New York, Routledge, 2001, pp.1–14, for an excellent overview.

8 Andrew Aisenberg, ‘Syphilis and prostitution: a regulatory couplet in nineteenth-century France’, in Davidson and Hall (eds), op. cit., note 7 above, pp. 15–28; Yvonne Svanstrøm, Policing public women: the regulation of prostitution in Stockholm 1812–1880, Stockholm, Atlas, 2000, pp. 74–9.

9 For a comprehensive overview of regulationist practices, see Svanstrøm op. cit., note 8 above, pp. 69–112.

10 Mary Spongberg, Feminizing venereal disease: the body of the prostitute in nineteenth-century medical discourse, Basingstoke, Macmillan, 1997; Judith Walkowitz, Prostitution and Victorian society: women, class, and the state, Cambridge University Press, 1980; Lutz Sauerteig, Krankheit, Sexualität, Gesellschaft: Geschlechtskrankheiten und Gesundheitspolitik in Deutschland im 19. und frühen 20. Jahrhundert, Stuttgart, Franz Steiner, 1999, pp. 57–62, 89–125. For Sweden, see Svanstrøm, op. cit., note 8 above, pp. 82–6. For Norway, see Aina Schiøtz, ‘Prostitusjon og prostituerte i 1880-åras Kristiania’, in Anne-Marit Gotaas, Brita Gulli, Kari Melby and Aina Schiøtz, Det kriminelle kjønn: om barnefødsel i dølgsmål, abort og prostitusjon, Oslo, Pax, 1980, pp. 35–9; and Kari Melby, ‘Prostitusjon og kontroll’, in ibid., pp. 83–5. For Denmark, see Karin Lützen, Byen tæmmes: kernefamilie, sociale reformer og velgørenhed i 1800-tallets København, Copenhagen, Hans Reitzel, 1998, pp. 219–85. An early analysis of this discussion in the Scandinavian countries is in Elias Bredsdorff, Den store nordiske krig om seksualmoralen, Copenhagen, Gyldendal, 1973.

11 Svanstrøm, op. cit., note 8 above, p. 86. Svanstrøm builds on Walkowitz, op. cit., note 10 above, p. 202.

12 Svanstrøm, op. cit., note 8 above, pp. 90–1, 109.

13 Ibid., pp. 86–8. Svanstrøm builds on Mary Gibson, Prostitution and the state in Italy, 1860–1915, New Brunswick, Rutgers University Press, 1986. See also Bruno P F Wanrooij, ‘“The thorns of love”: sexuality, syphilis and social control in modern Italy’, in Davidson and Hall (eds), op. cit., note 7 above, pp. 137–59.

14 Anne Hardy, Health and medicine in Britain since 1860, Basingstone, Macmillan, 2000, pp. 68–9.

15 Lesley A Hall, ‘Venereal diseases and society in Britain, from the Contagious Diseases Acts to the National Health Service’, in Davidson and Hall (eds), op. cit., note 7 above, pp. 120–36.

16 Hardy, op. cit., note 14 above, pp. 68–9; Hall, op. cit. note 15 above, pp. 120, 124–7.

17 Hardy, op. cit., note 14 above, p. 69; Ulrike Lindner, ‘Unterschiedliche Traditionen und Konzepte: Frauen und Geschlechtskrankheiten als Problem der Gesundheitspolitik in Grossbritannien und Deutschland’, in Ulrike Lindner and Merith Niehuss (eds), Ärztinnen – Patientinnen. Frauen im deutschen und britischen Gesundheitswesen des 20. Jahrhunderts, Cologne, Böhlau, 2002, pp. 216–41, on p. 226.

18 Michaela Freund, ‘Women, venereal disease and the control of female sexuality in post-war Hamburg’, in Davidson and Hall (eds), op. cit., note 7, pp. 205–19.

19 Lutz D H Sauerteig, ‘“The Fatherland is in danger, save the Fatherland!” Venereal disease, sexuality and gender in Imperial and Weimar Germany’, in Davidson and Hall (eds), op. cit., note 7 above, pp. 76–92, on p. 78; Baldwin, op. cit., note 1 above, pp. 476–81; see also Lindner, op. cit., note 17 above.

20 Baldwin, op. cit., note 1 above, pp. 400–18.

21 Ibid., pp. 400–1.

22 Ibid., p. 408.

23 Anna Lundberg, Care and coercion: medical knowledge, social policy and patients with venereal disease in Sweden 1785–1903, Report No. 14 from the Demographic Data Base, Umeå University, 1999, pp. 94–106; Baldwin, op. cit., note 1 above, pp. 401–4.

24 Baldwin, op. cit., note 1 above, p. 142.

25 Svanstrøm, op. cit., note 8, pp. 136–57.

26 Anna Lundberg, ‘Passing the “Black Judgment”: Swedish social policy on venereal disease in the early twentieth century’, in Davidson and Hall (eds), op. cit., note 7 above, pp. 29–43, on p. 30.

27 Ibid., p. 40.

28 Ibid., pp. 39–40.

29 Ibid., p. 41.

30 Ibid., p. 41.

31 Baldwin, op. cit., note 1 above, p. 418.

32 Ibid., p. 408, n.177.

33 Lundberg, op. cit., note 26 above, pp. 40–1; Tomas Söderblom, Horan och batongen. Prostitution och repression i folkhemmet, Stockholm, Gidlund, 1992, cited in Lundberg, op. cit., note 26 above, p. 43; Svanstrøm, op. cit., note 8 above, on pp. 431–2.

34 Berge, et al. (eds), op. cit., note 3 above.

35 Report from the Committee appointed by the Home Secretary concerning Revision of Law no. 81 of 30 March 1906 to Prevent Public Impropriety and Venereal Contagion, Betænkning afgivet af det af Indenrigsministeriet nedsatte Udvalg angaaende Revision af Lov Nr. 81 af 30. Marts 1906 om Modarbejdelse af offentlig Usædelighed og venerisk Smitte, Copenhagen, J H Schultz A/S Universitets-Bogtrykkeri, 1946, p. 7.

36 Lützen, op. cit., note 10 above, pp. 219–46; Merete Bøge Pedersen, Den reglementerede prostitution i København fra 1874 til 1906, Copenhagen, Museum Tusculanums, 2000, pp. 15–22; Svanstrøm, op. cit., note 8 above, pp. 96–100.

37 There were two police laws of 1863: Lov angaaende Omordning af Kjøbenhavns Politi m.v. (Law concerning rearrangements of the Copenhagen police, etc.) and Lov indeholdende nogle Forandringer i Bestemmelserne om Behandlingen af offentlige politisager i Kjøbenhaven m.m. (Law containing some changes in the regulations concerning the treatment of police matters in Copenhagen, etc.). Both were enacted on 11 Feb. 1863. Sections 180 and 181 in Straffeloven av 1866 (the Penal Code of 1866) were interpreted as simultaneously allowing control of, and at the same time prohibiting, prostitution. For a thorough analysis of the development of legislation on prostitution from 1860 to 1906, see Merete Bøge Pedersen, ‘Prostitionen og Grundloven. Regulering af og debat om prostitution i Danmark i perioden ca. 1860–1906’, unpublished PhD thesis, Aarhus, Institut for Historie og Områdestudier, Historisk Afdeling, Aarhus University, 2003.

38 Report, op. cit., note 35 above, p. 8.

39Lov om Foranstaltninger til at modarbeide den veneriske Smittes Udbredelse, sections 3–6.

40 Bøge Pedersen, op. cit., note 37 above, pp. 20–1.

41 Lützen, op. cit., note 10 above, pp. 226, 240; Bøge Pedersen, op. cit., note 37 above, pp. 136–9.

42 Lützen, op. cit., note 10 above, pp. 247–59; Bøge Pedersen, op. cit., note 37 above, pp. 143–50.

43 Report, op. cit., note 35 above, p. 1.

44 Bøge Pedersen, op. cit., note 37 above, pp. 205–40.

45 Kolstrup, op. cit., note 3 above, pp. 50–3.

46 Danish parliamentary documents: Upper House Chronicle (Landstingstidende) and Proceedings of the Upper House (Landstingets Forhandlinger), 1904–1905 and 1905–1906. Lower House Chronicle (Folketingstidende) and Proceedings of the Lower House (Folketingets Forhandlinger) 1905–1906. The author is currently working on an analysis of the Danish debate on the law of 1906.

47 The city or district physician (den offentlig Læge) and the visiting physician (den visiterende Læge), who travelled the rural districts to facilitate access to medical consultation were responsible for efficient measures against VD. The full text of the law is printed in Bøge Petersen, op. cit., note 36 above, pp. 155–9.

48 Report, op. cit., note 35 above, pp. 8–9.

49 Ibid., pp. 8–9.

50 Ibid., p. 67.

51 Ibid., pp. 11–12. Treatment with Salvarsan, sometimes combined with “vismuth” preparations, was mentioned as being helpful in curing syphilis. In the case of gonorrhea a combination of sulfa and fever therapy was indicated, but treatment was expensive and long-lasting.

52 Ibid., pp. 7–20.

53Lov til Bekæmpelse af Kønssygdomme, sections 3 and 11.

54 Municipal clinics in Copenhagen and Aarhus (the second-largest city) and outpatient clinics at some major hospitals were given the same duties as individual physicians. Report, op. cit., note 35 above, pp. 27–31.

55 Ibid., p. 73.

56 Parliamentary documents, Chronicle of the Lower House (Folketingstidende) 1946, cols 51 and 73.

57 Parliamentary documents, Proceedings of the Lower House (Folketingets Forhandlinger) cols 1104–1105, 1110–1111, 1114; Chronicle of the Lower House (Folketingstidende), cols 1314, 1348, 1353, 1355, 1359, 1368. For an in depth analysis of the Parliamentary discussion, see Ida Blom, ‘From coercive policies to voluntary initiatives: legislating to prevent venereal diseases in Denmark 1947–1988’, unpublished manuscript.

58 The bill is printed as Bill no. 20, Law on Prevention of Venereal Disease, The Lower House 1946–47, Sheet No. 37 (Lovforslag Nr. 20. Forslag til Lov om Bekæmpelse af Kønssygdomme. Folketinget 1946–47, Blad Nr. 37), pp. 1–7.

59 Parliamentary documents, Folketingstidende 1946, cols 1108, 1347, 1348, 1364–1365, 1369, 1390, 3813, 3833, 3835.

60 The name of the Norwegian capital was changed from Kristiania to Oslo in 1924. In this paper, the name Oslo will be used for the whole period.

61 For Oslo, see Schiøtz, ‘Prostitusjon og prostituerte’, op. cit., note 10 above; Melby, op. cit., note 10 above; Blom, ‘Fra tvang til frivillighet?’, op. cit., note 5 above, pp. 125–40. For Bergen, see E Koren, ‘“En Trusel for selve Samfundene.” Venerisk sykdom: tiltak, medisinsk forståelse og moraldebatt i Norge 1880–1927’, Bergen, unpublished MA thesis, Department of History, University of Bergen, 2003, pp. 89–91; Christopher J Harris, ‘Kontroll av prostituerte i Bergen’, in Kari Tove Elvbakken and Grete Riise (eds), Byen og helsearbeidet, Bergen, Fagbokforlaget, 2003, pp. 157–74. There are no other local studies of Norwegian VD policies.

62 Schiøtz, ‘Prostitusjon og prostituerte’, op. cit., note 10 above, pp. 43–8, and Schiøtz, Folkets helse, op. cit., note 1 above, pp. 76–7.

63 Melby, op. cit., note 10 above, pp. 89–103; Wenche Rand Øyre, ‘“I lidenskapens storm”: “Kristiania Forening til Fremme af Sædelighed” 1892–1907, analysert gjennom tidsskrifta: Til Moralens Fremme, Moral og Værn’, Bergen, unpublished MA thesis, Department of History, University of Bergen, 1995, pp. 56–63. For a comprehensive analysis of the abolition of regulationism in Oslo, see Blom, ‘Fra tvang til frivillighet?’, op. cit., note 5 above.

64 ‘Sedelighed og prostitusjon’, Tidskrift for Praktisk Medicin, 1888, 8: 116–21.

65 Ibid., p. 117.

66 Ibid., p. 121.

67 Blom, ‘Fra tvang til frivillighet?’, op. cit., note 5 above, p. 101; Melby, op. cit., note 10 above, pp. 113–15.

68 Melby, op. cit., note 10 above, pp. 112–18.

69 Blom, ‘Fra tvang til frivillighet?’, op. cit., note 5 above, pp. 134–6. The municipal authorities in Bergen did not wait for this to happen. From 1893 they gradually offered free treatment to broader circles of patients. By 1927 most VD patients in that city were treated free of charge. Koren, op. cit., note 61 above, pp. 69, 101.

70 Melby, op. cit., note 10 above, pp. 108–13.

71 ‘Introduction’, Kari Melby, Anu Pylkkänen, Bente Rosenbeck, Christina Carlsson Wetterberg (eds), The Nordic model of marriage and the welfare state, Copenhagen, Nordic Council of Ministers, 2000, pp. 13–34, on p. 16.

72 St. meld. nr. 32, 1928, p. 10; Koren, op. cit., note 61 above, pp. 52–5; Anne-Lise Seip, Veiene til velferdsstaten: norsk sosialpolitikk 1920–1975, Oslo, Gyldendal, 1994, pp. 100–3.

73 Ida Blom, ‘Contagious women and male clients: public policies to prevent venereal diseases in Norway, 1888–1960’, Scand. J. Hist., 2004, 29: 97–117.

74 Sweden saw the number of reported cases of syphilis reduced from 100 per 100,000 inhabitants in 1919 to 6 in 1939. For Norway, the figures for syphilis were 57 per 100,000 inhabitants in 1919, down to 12 in 1939. Figures for gonorrhoea in both countries fell only slightly, from 240 cases in Sweden and 210 in Norway in 1919 to 190 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in both countries in 1939. Parliamentary document, Ot.prp.nr. 5, 1947, p. 5. In Denmark, where the number of reported cases was much higher, recorded cases of acquired syphilis fell from 142 in 1919 to 13 in 1940, for gonorrhoea from 477 in 1919 to 204 in 1940, all per 100,000 inhabitants. (Betænkning, op. cit., note 35 above, p. 17).

75 Kåre Olsen, Krigens barn: de norske krigsbarna og deres mødre, Oslo, Forum: Aschehoug, 1998, pp. 284–302; Ida Blom, ‘Krig og kjønnssykdom. Norge 1946–1953’, in Göran Fredriksson, et al. (eds), Könsmaktens förvandlingar: en vänbok till Anita Göransson, Gothenburg, Institutionen för Arbetsvetenskap, 2003, pp. 13–31; Blom, ‘Contagious women’, op. cit., note 73 above.

76 Parliamentary document, Ot.prp.nr. 5, 1947, pp. 2–3.

77 Denmark capitulated to German forces immediately on 9 April 1940, and until 1943 the Danish government attempted to cooperate with the German occupying forces. In Norway the German occupation started only after a short war with Germany. The Norwegian government and King fled to the United Kingdom and the German Reichskommissar Josef Terboven took over the central power, from 1942 with Vidkun Quisling as “ministerpresident”. Berge Furre, Norsk historie 1905–1990, Oslo, Det norske Samlaget, 1993, pp. 169–77. Ditlev Tamm has indicated a more comprehensive and strict legal settlement after the Second World War in Norway than in Denmark. Ditlev Tamm, Retsopgøret efter besættelsen, Copenhagen, Jurist- og Økonomforbundets, 1984, pp. 702–6. Olsen, op. cit., note 75 above, pp. 448–51, suggests that the strong position of the German Lebensborn organization in Norway may be one reason for stricter policies against “the German hussies” (tyskertøsene) and their children than in any other country that had been occupied by German forces. For treatment of Danish women who had had sexual relations with Germans during the war, see Anette Warring, Tyskerpiger: under besættelse og retsopgør, Copenhagen, Gyldendal, 1994, pp. 175, 180, 186–7; and for an analysis of these policies in European countries occupied by Germany during the Second World War, see idem, ‘Intimate and sexual relations’, European Science Foundation Programme, unprinted manuscript.

78 Parliamentary document, Ot.prp.nr. 5, 1947, p. 1.

79 Parliamentary proceedings 1947, Stortingsforhandlinger, p. 848.

80 See references in note 3 above.

81 Parliamentary document, Innstilling til odelstinget O.XXV, 1947, p. 3. For a full account of the enactment of this law, see Blom, ‘Contagious women’, op. cit., note 73 above, pp. 111–17.

82Innstilling til odelstinget, op. cit., note 81 above, p. 4.

83 Baldwin, op. cit., note 1 above, pp. 400–1.

84 Marlene Spanger, ‘Den løsagtige kvinde – prostitution, køn og magt i Danmark 1920–1960’, in Eva Helen Ulvros, Kön makt väld: konferensrapport från det sjunde nordiska kvinnohistorikermötet 8–11 augusti 2002, Gothenburg, Göteborgs Universitet, 2002, pp. 47–52; Anna Lundberg, ‘“Inte får jag väl fängelse?” En studie av Lex veneris, dess utformning, praktisering och inverkan på enskilda människors liv 1919–1945’, Historisk Tidskrift (Swedish), 2001, 4: 631–48; Blom, ‘Krig og kjønnssykdom’, op. cit., note 75 above, pp. 15–23.

85 Lundberg, op. cit., note 26 above, pp. 34–9. I have not personally analysed the Swedish debates, but Lundberg does not mention this argument once in her presentation of this material. The Danish debate is analysed in Blom, ‘From coercive policies’, op. cit., note 57 above. Sources are Parliamentary debates of 20 March 1906 (Folketingstidende 1905–6), cols. 5959–5960, 5963, 5977–80, 5985, 5987–5988, 5996–5997.

86 Koren, op. cit., note 61 above, pp. 54–5; Seip, op. cit., note 72 above, pp. 100–3; Schiøtz, Folkets helse, op. cit., note 1 above, pp. 187–99. An indication of the relative poverty of this country is a survey of social security coverage placing Norway second to last among European countries in the early 1930s. See Stein Kuhnle, ‘Norway’, in Peter Flora (ed.), Growth to limits: the Western European welfare states since world war II, European University Institute, Series C Political and Social Sciences 6, Berlin, De Gruyter, 1986, Berlin, vol. 1, pp. 120–1.

87 Jørberg, op. cit., note 6 above, pp. 375–485, on pp. 385, 457–79.

88 Parliamentary document, St.meddelelse, nr. 32, 1928, p. 11. Annual Report from the Oslo Board of Health for the Year 1940 (Beretning fra Oslo helseråd for året 1940), document no. 15, pp. 16–18.

89 A separate study would be needed to go further into the question of centralized versus decentralized political processes in Scandinavia. Torkel Jansson points to the different impact of histories of societies and of local histories in Norway (and in Finland), as compared with Sweden, where the state has been the centre of historical studies. Unlike Norway, Sweden has no special institution with responsibility for local history. Torkel Jansson, ‘Eine historische Auseinandersetzung. Als die schwedische Bürgernation den Grossmachtstaat ablösen sollte’, Acta Historica Tallinnensia, 2001, No. 5, pp. 16–44.

90 Lundberg, op. cit., note 26 above, pp. 40–1.

91 Kolstrup, op. cit., note 3 above, Tore Grønlie, ‘Velferdskommunen’, in Nagel (ed.), op. cit., note 3 above, pp. 43–52.

92 Yngve Flo, ‘Staten og sjølvstyret. Ideologiar og strategiar knytt til det lokale og regionale styringsverket etter 1900’, unpublished doctoral thesis, Department of History, University of Bergen, 2004, chs 4 and 9; Ida Blom, ‘Prelude to welfare states: introduction’, in Helmuth Gruber and Pamela Graves (eds), Women and socialism, socialism and women: Europe between the two world wars, New York and Oxford, Berghahn Books, 1998, pp. 415–20.

93 Freedom of religion was introduced in Denmark in 1849, in Sweden in 1951 and in Norway in 1969. Aila Lauha and Ingun Montgomery, ‘Virkelighedsbilleder efter krigen’, in Jens Holger Schjørring (ed.), Nordiske folkekirker i opbrud: national identitet og international nyorientering efter 1945, Aarhus, Aarhus universitetsforlag, 2001, pp. 47–52. Decriminalization of abortion was legislated in Denmark in 1937, in Sweden in 1938, in Norway in 1960. Decriminalization of homosexuality occurred in Denmark in 1930, in Sweden in 1944 and in Norway in 1972. David Bradley, ‘Family laws and welfare states’, in Melby, et al. (eds), note 2 above, pp. 37–66, on pp. 39–48.

94 Frands Ove Overgaard, ‘Vækkelse—kirke—samfund i efterkrigstidens Danmark’, in Schiørring (ed.), op. cit. note 93 above, pp. 296–300.

95 Jostein Nerbøvik, Norsk historie 1870–1905, Oslo, Det norske Samlaget, 1986, pp. 138, 186–202; Ståle Dyrvik and Ole Feldbæk, Mellom brødre: 1780–1830, vol. 7 of Aschehougs Norgeshistorie, ed. Knut Helle, 12 vols, Oslo, Aschehoug, 1994–1998, pp. 66–73; Anne-Lise Seip, Nasjonen bygges 1830–1870, vol. 8 of Aschehougs Norgeshistorie, Oslo, Aschehoug, 1997, pp.143–9; Gro Hagemann, Det moderne gjennombrudd: 1870–1905, vol. 9 of Aschehougs Norgeshistorie, Oslo, Aschehoug, 1997, pp. 56–9; Knut Kjeldstadli, Et splittet samfunn 1905–35, vol. 10 of Aschehougs Norgeshistorie, Oslo, Aschehoug, 1994, pp. 34–5, 146–9; Even Lange, Samling om felles mål, 1935–1990, vol. 11 of Aschehougs Norgeshistorie, Oslo, Aschehoug, 1998, p. 12; see also Ingun Montgomery, ‘Norge: att finna vägen tillbaka’, in Schjørring (ed.), op. cit., note 93 above, pp. 74–7, on the heated conflict in the 1950s on the meaning of hell.

96 Koren, op. cit., note 61 above, pp. 57–8.

97 The Danish Association of Women (Dansk Kvindesamfunn) was organized in 1871. The Female Progressive Association (Kvindelig Fremskridtsforening), established in 1885, recruited liberal and social democratic women, and in 1889 the Women's Suffrage Association (Kvindevalgretsforeningen) started working for general female suffrage. Drude Dahlerup, Rødstrømperne: den danske rødstrømpebevægelses udvikling, nytænkning og gennemslag, 1970–1985, Copenhagen, Gyldendal, 1998, pp. 124–7.

98 Ida Blom, ‘From coercive policies’, op. cit., note 57 above.

99 Beata Losman, ‘Kvinnoorganisering och kvinnorörelser i Sverige’, in Gunhild Kyle (ed.), Handbok i svensk kvinnohistoria, Stockholm, Carlsson, 1987, pp. 197–225. Frederika-Bremer-Förbundet, a moderately conservative association was established in 1884.

100 Gro Hagemann, ‘De stummes leir? 1800–1900’, in Ida Blom and Sølvi Sogner, (eds), Med kjønnsperspektiv på norsk historie. Fra Vikingtid til 2000-årsskiftet, Oslo, Cappelen Akademisk, 2005, pp. 217–22; Ida Blom, ‘Modernity and the Norwegian women's movement from the 1880s to 1914’, in Sylvia Paletschek and Bianka Pietrow-Ennker (eds), Women's emancipation movements in the nineteenth century: a European perspective, Stanford University Press, 2004, pp. 125–51.

101 The Norwegian Women's Association was established in 1884. In 1885 a liberal group of women split off and started the Norwegian Women's Suffrage Association (Norsk Kvinnestemmerettsforening), and in 1898 a still more radical organization, the National Association for Women's Suffrage (Landskvindestemmeretsforeningen), demanded general female suffrage.

102 General national suffrage for men was attained in Norway in 1898, for women in 1913, in Sweden in 1909 and 1921 respectively. The principle of parliamentarism was introduced in Norway in 1884, in Sweden not until 1909. While a conservative Swedish nationalism built on traditions of a great northern European power blossomed around 1900, Norwegian nationalism looked for roots in an idealized peasant society and stressed the democratic nature of the Norwegian nation. Jansson, op. cit. note 89 above, pp. 16–44; Ida Blom, ‘Nation – class – gender: Scandinavia at the turn of the century’, Scand. J. Hist., 1992, 21: 1–16.