Challenging Norms: Family Planning as a Reflection of Social Change in Twentieth-Century Eastern Europe

Access to reproductive healthcare, including abortions and family planning services, remains a deeply polarizing issue within contemporary Eastern Europe. Originally a question reserved for couples, this topic has since been elevated to the public realm through the emergence of modern nation states. Challenging Norms offers a geographically wide-ranging re-examination of family planning in twentieth-century Eastern Europe, interrogating the relationship between social attitudes to family planning and the forces of social, economic, and political modernization. In doing so, this volume highlights how these changes provide invaluable insights into ever-evolving societal norms and values.

Denisa Nesťáková is a research associate at the Herder Institute. Specializing in twentieth-century East Central Europe, the Holocaust, and gender studies, she is currently concluding her post-doctoral project Privileged to be in Hell. Jewish Women in the Sereď Camp which has been supported by the Saul Kagan Fellowship in Advanced Shoah Studies. Her recent publications include her 2023 monograph, Be Fruitful and Multiply. Slovakia’s Family Planning under Three Regimes (1918-1965) (Herder Institute).