ABSTRACT
Throughout the interwar period, the position of dairymaids was undermined by the efforts of the Swedish Association of Dairymen to raise their professional status. While the association was, in principle, open to all skilled dairy workers, in practice it was controlled by male managers, and few women participated in its activities. In the 1920s and early 1930s, dairymen, employers, and educators launched a lively public debate in the national trade magazine on the question: "Male or Female Managers and Personnel in Dairies?" This chapter analyzes these attacks on dairymaids' competence and reputation and the defenses of women's abilities articulated by dairymaids and other dairymen, employers, and educators. As dairymen increasingly defined themselves as professionals, they adopted discriminatory policies, and their campaign amounted to an implicit, and then overt, strategy for the exclusion of women.
