Gendering Twentieth-Century Humanitarianism: An Introduction
Esther Möller, Johannes Paulmann, Katharina Stornig
Pages 1-32
Masculinities and Femininities in Humanitarian Practice and Discourse
Front Matter
Pages 33-33
Humanitarian Masculinity: Desire, Character and Heroics, 1876–2018
Bertrand Taithe
Pages 35-59
Protestant Missionaries, Armenian Refugees and Local Relief: Gendered Humanitarianism in Aleppo, 1920–1939
Inger Marie Okkenhaug
Pages 61-84
Maternalism and Feminism in Medical Aid: The American Women’s Hospitals in the United States and in Greece, 1917–1941
Francesca Piana
Pages 85-114
Gender and the Politics of Humanitarianism
Front Matter
Pages 115-115
The Orphan Nation: Gendered Humanitarianism for Armenian Survivor Children in Istanbul, 1919–1922
Nazan Maksudyan
Pages 117-142
The Politics of Gender and Community: Non-Governmental Relief in Late Colonial and Early Postcolonial India
Maria Framke
Pages 143-166
Humanitarian Service in the Name of Social Development: The Historic Origins of Women’s Welfare Associations in Saudi Arabia
Nora Derbal
Pages 167-192
The Power of Gendered Representations
Front Matter
Pages 193-193
Perilous Beginnings: Infant Mortality, Public Health and the State in Egypt
Beth Baron
Pages 195-219
Parenthood as Aid: “Fathers”, “Mothers” and International Child Welfare from the Late 1940s to the 1970s
Katharina Stornig, Katharina Wolf
Pages 221-254
In/Visible Girls: “Girl Soldiers”, Gender and Humanitarianism in African Conflicts, c. 1955–2005
Stacey Hynd
Pages 255-279
Gender Histories of Humanitarianism: Concepts and Perspectives
Esther Möller, Johannes Paulmann, Katharina Stornig
Pages 281-300

“This volume is interesting both because of its global focus, and its chronology up to the present, it covers a good century of changes. It will help define the field of gender studies of humanitarianism, and its relevance for understanding the history of nation-building, and a political history that goes beyond nations.”
- Glenda Sluga, Professor of International History and ARC Kathleen Laureate Fellow at the University of Sydney, Australia
This volume discusses the relationship between gender and humanitarian discourses and practices in the twentieth century. It analyses the ways in which constructions, norms and ideologies of gender both shaped and were shaped in global humanitarian contexts. The individual chapters present issues such as post-genocide relief and rehabilitation, humanitarian careers and subjectivities, medical assistance, community aid, child welfare and child soldiering. They give prominence to the beneficiaries of aid and their use of humanitarian resources, organizations and structures by investigating the effects of humanitarian activities on gender relations in the respective societies. Approaching humanitarianism as a global phenomenon, the volume considers actors and theoretical positions from the global North and South (from Europe to the Middle East, Sub-Saharan Africa, South and South East Asia as well as North America). It combines state and non-state humanitarian initiatives and scrutinizes their gendered dimension on local, regional, national and global scales. Focusing on the time between the late nineteenth century and the post-Cold War era, the volume concentrates on a period that not only witnessed a major expansion of humanitarian action worldwide but also saw fundamental changes in gender relations and the gradual emergence of gender-sensitive policies in humanitarian organizations in many Western and non-Western settings.