Feminine Humanitarianism: Muriel Paget’s Mission to Slovakia and the Baltic States (1920–1922)

Lady Paget’s Mission to Slovakia and the Baltic States developed according to a conservative maternalistic scheme of intervention. Paget’s decision to focus on women’s and children’s welfare emerged as the result of strategic calculations after emergency relief had been delivered. While the values by which Paget was stimulated and which she used as the hallmarks of her discourse about humanitarian work—impartiality and professionalism—reflected widespread conceptions of modernizing humanitarianism and relations to power, her focus on mother and child welfare was constantly inspired by maternalism, which in turn did not remain an element defining the mission’s identity but represented a tool Paget used for consolidating her personal power within her own organizations.