“Solving” Global Problems: Motherhood and Women’s Education in the Work of the Women’s International Democratic Federation in Developing Countries

This article contributes to the discussion on global women’s rights during the Cold War period by examining how improving the situation of mothers, and education and literacy for women, was presented in the documents and publications of the transnational Women’s International Democratic Federation (WIDF). It shows that while the WIDF’s ideas concerning motherhood and education positively influenced the global discussion on women’s status and welfare in early Cold War period, technological innovations, together with the development of feminist thinking around reproduction and new pedagogical theories and methods that emerged in the late 1960s–1970s, diminished their global importance. The article is based on the analysis of the WIDF periodical publication, the journal Women of the Whole World , and on archival sources.