Gender and the First World War (original) (raw)
Related papers
Review: “Gender and the Great War” (Grayzel and Proctor)
LSE Review of Books, 2017
“The result is a remarkably insightful and balanced introductory volume, well-suited for survey courses and First World War researchers and a valuable contribution to the literature in its own right.” Full text available here: https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsereviewofbooks/2017/09/25/book-review-gender-and-the-great-war-edited-by-susan-r-grayzel-and-tammy-m-proctor/
Gender and WWII: framing new approaches
2014
Traditionally WWII studies focused on the military activities and political history. Today researches are coming up with new areas of study, new topics, new objects and subjects. In my paper I will talk about three relatively new research fields where WWII and gender studies overlap. They are: the Holocaust and women studies; everyday life of women-refugees in Siberia during WWII; and everyday life on the Western front after liberation by Allies, particularly by the USA army. In my paper I would like to examine how the ethical aspects, challenges of the traditional male-dominated society, and switches of gender roles were reflected in the works by Katherine Jolluck, Mary Roberts, Dorota Glowacka, Amy Shapiro, and Myrna Goldenberg.
Women and the Second World War
International Journal of Military History and Historiography, 2019
The Second World War in Europe continues to captivate the attention of scholars and the general public even as the generation that lived through and fought in the war passes. The military and political histories of the war reveal the contribution of the men who fought as well as the men who led. Less attention has been directed to the experiences of women during the conflict who also served alongside the men in the military as nurses or auxiliaries, or as wives of spies. The articles in this special issue illustrate some of the hidden roles and choices women made during the conflict despite additional hurdles created by racism, and gender expectations.
War and Gender: How the First World War Affected Gender Relations in Britain
In attempting to elaborate how the outbreak, prosecution and resolution of the First World War affected gender, the researcher is first struck by the incongruity of the receding feminism and political progression of postwar suffragists. They do not appear, at least on first glance, to be compatible, nor even explainable. The vigor that sustained those militant feminists like the Pankhursts, and the due diligence of others who opted for more peaceable routes, by the early 1920s, had largely faded from the public imagination. With the vote acquired, at least in principle, many suffragettes had seemingly and contentedly receded back into private life, unwilling to pursue " old " feminisms' egalitarian ideals to their realization. It is of course more complicated than this, and I intend to illustrate how and why feminism was not as forceful a presence in the decades succeeding the war as it was before then. However, it is altogether incorrect to conceive of feminism during this rambunctious period of history as singularly attached to its marquee achievement of achieving partial, and later universal suffrage for women. In their efforts to pursue the vote, many women greatly affected the relationship between the genders at the time; their involvement in the war, both at home and on the continent, their new ideology of gender as a construct, which preceded by many decades later theoretical developments within the discourse of gender, and their growing presence in the workforce helped shed the restraints Victorian Britain had placed upon them. I do not wish to overstate the change in gender relations that occurred at the time. Indeed, it is important to temper any analysis of this period as it relates to feminism and the broader subject of changing gender roles, since as the 20th century wore on women gradually were once again pushed out of public life. Nonetheless, the developments within gender relations that occurred after the First World War, and in part because of it, are significant in any historical understanding of the time.
Anna Bravo, Women and World War II : daily strategies, unarmed resistance, problems of interpretation, in Mary Nash, Susanna Tavera (orgs.), Las mujeres y las guerras: el papel de las mujeres en las guerras de la Edad Antígua a la Contemporánea. Barcelona: Icaria editorial, 2003. (Anna Bravo, Università di Torino) In this paper I will introduce a few observations concerning two interrelated themes. The first theme concerns the relationship between the strategies enacted by women in order to continue day-today life-strategies which characterise the entire period of the war-and the actions of civil (unarmed) resistance performed by women. This complex relationship is marked by continuity and discontinuity. Civil resistance represents a turning point with respect to the work of " life maintenance " ; but, in many of its forms, it is based upon similar values and is founded upon the same organisational networks. Even though the distinction between the two areas is clear-cut on a political level, it is less so as far as their cultural and symbolic aspects are concerned. This is why it is necessary to continue to search for efficient concepts and narratives. The second point concerns the way in which, in the past few years, a major part of Italian historiography of Anti-Fascism and resistance has turned its attention to these themes. There have been important re-interpretations and revisions but, on the basis of the contiguity between strategies to preserve life and civil resistance, there has been a tendency to consider the latter as " women's business ". The risk of taking this attitude is to underestimate its aspect as a criticism of hierarchical polarisation-active / passive, armed / unarmed, combative/ cowardly-that has become part of our heritage and originates in old and even ancient traditions (Elshtain 1991). This is hardly a surprise. Just as women's politics has a hard time striving to change political styles, women's history has not yet managed to have a decisive impact on historiographic common sense. Therefore, it seems important to me to continue the " negotiation " started some time ago between women historians (who are also women's historians) and the rest of the academic community, between the concepts of resistance, civil resistance, and " maternage " as one of the specific forms of women's actions.
Nation-War-Gender Aspects of masculinity during the two World Wars
Nation and war are considered to be two of the most privileged fields for the study of masculinity. This paper attempts a gendered record on the history of the two World Wars. First, we focus on the linkage between nationalism and masculinity, exploring the notion of "hegemonic" masculinity, an unstable construction that sets the standards for male demeanour, ideology and actions. Furthermore, we describe different types of war masculinity emphasizing on the distinction between the volunteer and the conscript soldier. We also outline the significance of the press in the construction of "hegemonic" model of masculinity.