Gender and war
First World War
WWI was expected to be a brief war but lasted for 4 years
The ‘Great War’? - superlatives of horror
nos. of dead and permanently disabled
the extreme physical and mental endurance required of the combatants
the scale of the involvement of the civilian population
accompanying cultural events:
an experience which imprinted itself profoundly in elite and popular culture
unique and specific cultural life that the war encouraged was recorded in poems, novels, plays, paintings, and songs
accompanying political events:
disappearance of central and eastern Europe empires, viz.
Russia, Germany, Austro-Hungary, Ottoman
the first communist state, the USSR
Gender identities
many of the political, social and cultural changes that had emerged in the 1890s were made definite by WWI but it is doubtful that WWI was an agent of change itself.
Historians differ on the impact of war:
Marwick – positive change
Summerfield, Braybon, Kent – women returned to pre-war status after 1918
pre-war developments
Sexuality and sexual difference widely discussed
New discourses of sexology and psychoanalysis
Emphasis on sexuality often closely associated with worries of declining birth rates
Eugenicist concerns about declining birth rates of middle classes compared with ‘degenerate’ urban poor
masculinity
1885 Criminal Law Amendment – criminalising of homosexuality in private or public
widespread public debates about nature of homosexuality
femininity
the ‘New Woman’ – term coined in 1894 for women who demanded a public role and who
rejected recognised feminine ideals
lampooned in popular press – caricatures of powerful and athletic women bullying meek or effeminate men
‘New Woman’ challenged dominant Victorian image of middle-class womanhood
increasingly radical critique of marriage developing in pre-war era
alternatives to marriage – celibacy, sexual relations outside marriage, same-sex relationships
motherhood always a complicated issue for feminists – demanded higher status for mothers, control of women’s bodies through contraception and abortion – calls for ‘voluntary motherhood’
effects of WWI
masculinity
effects of war on discourses of masculinity were ambiguous
public image of WWI – Kitchener on recruitment posters – solid, calm, untroubled
bravery expected of men
positive expectations of early volunteers – adventure, brief war, easy victory
harsh treatment of men who did not volunteer or were conscientious objectors
those who fought discovered that heroic ideals were a fantasy
many suffered terrible physical and mental injuries
existence of mentally-injured men challenged heroic idea of war and Victorian ideals of masculinity
incidence of ‘shell shock’ widespread – approx 80,000 cases by the end of WWI
‘crisis of masculinity’ brought about by male war neurosis – popularly called ‘shell shock’ - but many sufferers had not been under fire
gender order threatened because neuroses no longer could be seen as exclusively female
femininity
WWI = an opportunity to restore the natural gender order?
Some women participated directly in the war – military nurses, women’s military auxiliary corps – engaged in defence of the nation
but also hostility to women
encouraging men to enlist
nursing wounded, damaged men
hostility fanned by widespread publicity of women doing ‘men’s work – drivers, heavy industrial work, farm workers, women wearing militaristic uniforms
Servicemen’s Wife’s Allowance (1914) state responsible for financial provision for wives of husbands absent on war service but
SWA reinforced concept of married women’s economic dependence
conditional on wives demonstrating their respectability
allowances frequently insufficient for women’s needs
short-time measure for duration of war
Were women’s lives transformed by WWI?
Marwick - major proponent of positive view that women’s lives changed by WWI, subject to subsequent modifications
questioned by Summerfield, again with some modifications
Grounds for war as agent of change include: women’s war work
post-war female enfranchisement
women’s war work: positive approach
• increased workforce participation by women in WWI but problems with figures (see TLTP courseware)
• official figures for WWI: 3.3 million women employed in 1914 (23.6% of total work force)
4.9m women employed in 1918 (37.7 %) but may have been higher in1918
• some women moving from existing work into specific war-time jobs
munitions
July 1914 212,000 women employed
July 1915 256,000
July 1916 520,000
July 1917 819,000
women’s military and civil auxiliaries - WAAC, WRNS, WRAF, women police volunteers
women in transport work increased from 18,000 in 1914 to 117,000 in 1918
women in clerical or commercial work, civil service increased from half a million in 1914 to nearly 1 million by 1918
Marwick: a permanent change - the 20c phenomenon of the rise of the business girl
• substantial decline in nos. of women engaged in domestic service
1.7m in 1914 to 1.6m in 1918 - decline noted by contemporaries - change temporary or
permanent?
• more married women in war-time workforce than in peace time - 40% of women workers in 1918 were married
• women workers earning higher wages than pre-war
average about £1 (20/-) per week rather than 9/-
spending this on clothing, smoking, entertainment, meals in restaurants, cafes, pubs
• equal pay became a major feminist issue for the first time – complicated issue, not resolved
• war work had not damaged women physically, except in cases where working with explosives or toxic materials
women’s war work: less positive approach
• many of the war-time employments were a re-iteration of women’s traditional roles as carers, nurturers, manually dextrous e.g. munitions, nursing, textiles
• some types of ‘new’ work such as farm work not popular with women or farmers who preferred to employ children because they were cheaper
• domestic service still a major employment area, continued post-war, albeit in different form
• women still paid less than men, even when doing apparently equal work such as munitions
issues of ‘equal pay for equal work’ articulated but not resolved
• no strong attempts by women to hold on to war-time jobs at end of war - expected to vacate them for returning soldiers
• TU Conference in March 1918 argued that women’s industrial work must be consistent with family life - married women s/be excluded from paid work; state welfare benefits for war-widowed mothers and wives of disabled men
• class differences apparent in women’s war work
upper middle class, educated women and girls: civil service, banking, volunteer nursing, the
women’s services, women doctors
lower middle class or more affluent working class: trained nurses and school teachers
working class women: clothing, food production, transport, munitions, all other industrial work
• women’s recruitment into munitions increased exponenientially only in government-controlled establishments; in privately-controlled munitions factories, only rose by about one-third
conclusions on women’s war work
• transfers of women into different types of work more important than recruitment of women who had not done paid work before
• wartime movement of women workers between sectors of the economy = fore-runner of occupational changes in inter-war period
decline in nos. in domestic service was significant
inter-war women’s work in light industrial, assembly work, food processing
• should also ask why women were involved in war work in WWI when they were not compelled to do so
Was the suffrage a reward for women’s war work?
focus of much historical debate - was suffrage product of :
cessation of violent suffragette activity during war?
maneouvring by Herbert Asquth (Prime Minister until 1916)?
Asquith had to ensure returning soldiers were enfranchised, therefore had very little choice but to grant suffrage to some women?
lobbying and political work by male and female suffragists?
consensus amongst historians that female suffrage
not a reward for war work
not the result of suffragette violence
but the product of pressure on politicians to enfranchise returning soldiers who would otherwise have been disenfranchised by British antiquated voting qualifications
pre-war suffrage movement had prepared the ground for female enfranchisement
wartime activities of WSPU (abandoned violence and strident wartime patriotism)
suffragists kept up moral-force lobbying on Asquith and, after 1916, on Lloyd George
the suffrage was only granted to women because male politicians believed it would not threaten the existing political and social gender order
but most people in 1920s believed that war had altered relations between the sexes (Joanna Burke)
Conclusions
Post-war renegotiation of place of men and women in public and work contexts
Change often worked out using existing ideas of gender and gender relations that looked back to pre-war ideals
No straightforward economic or political progress for women after WWI
Masculinity remained the predominant conception of citizenship
Pre-war feminist campaigns for equal rights replaced by welfare feminism and celebration of motherhood
Post-war widespread hostility to women’s aspirations
marriage bars
absence of equal pay and conditions for working women
negative perceptions of unmarried working women irrespective of post-war gender imbalance
between the sexes