ABSTRACT
This chapter uses individual data to study trends in marriage in the province of Flemish-Brabant and the capital Brussels in Belgium before, during and after WWI. While older historiography has underlined the liberating effects of WWI (and WWII) for women, more recent literature has challenged this by referring to the fact that many of the newly created opportunities for women during the war were short-lived. Our results for Belgium comply with the latter strand in the literature. The war did temporarily alter partner choice processes and marriage patterns, as reflected in trends in ages at first marriage, age differences between spouses, and patterns of social homogamy. The trend of lowering ages at marriage among women, which has been linked to the rise of the male-breadwinner model and the separation of gender domains, was interrupted at the start of the war. But after the war, a return to and continuation of pre-war trends took place, underlining the increasing importance of the separation of gender spheres, and the strengthening of the model of the male breadwinner. During the Interbellum, married women were primarily valued as wives and mothers, notwithstanding the fact that they had once played a crucial role in the country’s industrial revolution.
