Another few hundred farmhouses were ruined during the actual invasion. Only a few hours before the German invasion in May 1940, a Dutch army unit burned down some one hundred farmhouses so that their own defence would not be hindered and the enemy could not hide behind or in the buildings. First, I give some general information on the destruction and reconstruction of the farmhouses.ĭuring the Second World War approximately 9,000 farmhouses in the Netherlands were totally destroyed. I show who exactly produced what knowledge and who classified this knowledge as meaningful. 2 The analysis exposes underlying power relations that were intertwined with knowledge.
In this chapter I describe the demands that farm women made with regard to the reconstruction of farmhouses, analyse and contextualise the origins of these demands, and explain what influence the women actually had on the construction process. Ultimately, their actions contributed to the modernisation and rationalisation of farmhouses. Whichever is true, women’s activities in relation to the reconstruction of farmhouses were characterised by large-scale organisation and well-considered arguments. Whether the Ministry advised the women to work on a larger scale and adopt a more considered approach or whether their visit to the Ministry was part of a bigger plan that was already in place, is unclear. 1 A handful of individual women were behind this protest action, which was labelled spontaneous and amateurish. This is how, in 1946, an employee of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Supply described a protest action by farm women who were keen to play a role in the reconstruction of farmhouses which were destroyed during the Second World War. They had come to make clear the extent to which they – as housewives on Dutch farms – were interested in, and had a stake in, the plans relating to the reconstruction of the farmhouses that had been destroyed. In the autumn of 1945 a number of farm women arrived – unannounced – at the Department of Agriculture in The Hague. The paper explores the context and background of these observations. Their activities should serve as good examples for male farmers involved in the reconstruction. Nevertheless, the position of the farm women turned out to be a strong one. Although, women worked in all parts of the farm in daily life, their role in the reconstruction was determined by a gender-specific appropriation of space and strictly limited to the parts of the farmhouse where the family lived. The reconstruction in general was intended to lead to the modernisation of the farms, the stables and storage buildings as well as the living quarters, and – as a consequence – to the modernisation of farming and the improvement of welfare in rural areas. They produced and distributed knowledge on the modernisation of the farm dwelling and were keen, in that sense, to bolster the self-sufficiency of farm women. Rural women’s associations and farm household management education were prominent authorities. The analysis exposes the power relations behind the development of the demands of the women. This role was defined by demands regarding the rationalisation of the home, better hygiene and improvement of morale in the new farmhouses.
The paper focuses on the role farm women played in the reconstruction of thousands of farmhouses which were destroyed in the Netherlands during the Second World War.
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