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Falklands Royal Navy Wives: Fulfilling a Militarised Stereotype Or Articulating Individuality?

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Falklands Royal Navy Wives: Fulfilling a Militarised Stereotype Or Articulating Individuality? Falklands Royal Navy Wives: fulfilling a militarised stereotype or articulating individuality? Victoria Mary Woodman The thesis is submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the degree Doctor of Philosophy of the University of Portsmouth. December 2018 Abstract ‘Falklands Royal Navy Wives: fulfilling a militarised stereotype or articulating individuality?’ Key words: Falklands War/1980s/naval wives/oral history/remembrance/commemoration/gendered conflict/media/naval welfare/PTSD This thesis demonstrates that Falklands naval wives were not the homogeneous and stereotypical group portrayed in the media, but individuals experiencing specific effects of conflict on combatants, wives and families. It contributes originally to oral history by exploring retrospective memories of Falkland’s naval wives and their value to wider history. Falklands naval wives as individuals had not been researched before. The conflict was fought in the media using gendered and paternalistic language and images, a binary of man fighting versus woman serving the home front. The aim is to widen the scope of the gender, social, naval and cultural history of the Falklands Conflict by recording naval wives’ views before they were lost, thereby offering new insight into the history of the Falklands Conflict. Original research described in this thesis addresses several important research questions: 1. If a group of naval wives underwent the same events, would their views/thoughts/ experiences be comparable? 2. Was the image depicted in existing literature the only view? 3. Did the naval community differ from the rest of society; how were its gender roles defined? 4. Did the wives’ thoughts and feelings differ from those reported in the press? 5. Did media views reinforce previous militarised patriotism and gender roles? Pilot interviews revealed wives’ techniques of coping with deployments, views on media intrusion, and PTSD effects on families. This original research extended that work by disclosing, through successive stages, how military life affected wives’ lives. Oral history methodology was adopted because wives were accessible and could remember. Enloe’s institutionalisation of military wives’ theory was interrogated. One-to-one, not group interviews, were selected because groups could have reinforced military culture and hierarchy. Questionnaires would have provided poorer data. Deployed naval personnel totalled 18,000. Fifty wives recruited from the south of England constituted a small population; accessing a representative sample after thirty years introduced problems of balance and retrospective memory. Measurable variables included ages, jobs, children and naval experience. Absent from pilot interviews were education, political allegiance and newspaper choice, thus omitted from questions. Oral History Society training and academic oral historian guidance predicated re-interviews with more open questions and props, to enrich initial data and explore further the Falklands naval wives’ individual experiences of family life during and after a conflict. It offers unique but generalisable insight into gender issues in the British armed forces. Declaration Whilst registered as a candidate for the above degree, I have not been registered for any other research award. The results and conclusions embodied in this thesis are the work of the named candidate and have not been submitted for any other academic award. Signed: Date: 8th December 2018 Word count: (excluding ancillary data) 101,094 Acknowledgements First heartfelt thanks must go to my supervisor Dr Ann Coats, whose selfless time, care, support and encouragement along with an overwhelming attention to detail were sometimes all that kept me going. Thanks also go to: Tim Goodhead who also offered much needed advice and support and who alongside the Associate Head of School, Andrew Packer, secured three years’ funding for my research. Thanks are also extended to Dr Sue Bruley for her support in the early days of the thesis who taught me the oral history methods and background, and Dr Laura Tisdall who refined my techniques. At the University of Portsmouth I would like to thank the previous students on the MA Maritime Studies course, who encouraged me to take this path; many who had spent hours discussing the Falklands War with me and my fellow PhD candidates who have endured many hours of discussion, advice, debate and pleas of help but the most appreciation goes to the never ending support and encouragement from those candidates when the writing was not going well. A study such as this could not be carried out without the backing and support of those who were involved- the respondents and their families, many who had never shared their thoughts and experiences before. Additional thanks must go to personnel at the agencies that were contacted for advice: particularly The Falklands Veterans Foundation, the South Atlantic Medal Association and Naval Family Federation. I also wish to thank my children, Joe, Holli and Max who have put up with my tears of frustration and tiredness and my elation when the writing went well and for a while the long road seemed worthwhile. They might not have understood what I was doing, or why but they never doubted me. Final thanks go to my husband, Keith Worsley, who in the last four years has wholeheartedly supported and encouraged me, especially when times were tough, without him I am sure this thesis would not have reached fruition. Dedication Near and Far I can see your presence is here But your spirit’s in a different place That keeps you from being near Suspended in time and space Where it is always that fateful day The same scene inside your head Will not stop it continues to play Till your spirit is the weight of lead Life is happening outside of your shell Folks all around laughing and talking Only you know that you are in hell For you are a dead spirit still walking And searching for the life that was Before that trauma which seemed to halt Your world for the Falklands’ cause The door to your heart is locked tight Makes no difference what key you use It never seems to fit just right So you try to be a husband and dad Whilst desperately searching for your world In the land of normal before it all went bad Louise Russell, Falklands War Poetry: Poets from Britain, Argentina and the Falklands ed. David Roberts (Burgess Hill: Saxon, 2012), 70. Dissemination March 2007 New Researchers in Maritime History, Falmouth: ‘Media representations of Naval Wives and Families and Families during the Falklands War’. December 2009 Laughton Naval History Seminar Series, Department of War Studies, King’s College, London: ‘The Falklands War and the Media’. July 2010 International Oral History Association Conference, University of Economics, Prague, Czech Republic: ‘The Experiences of Naval Wives and Families during the Falklands War (1982)’. September 2014 Women’s History Network ‘Home Fronts: Gender, War and Conflict’ Conference, University of Worcester: ‘Waiting is the woman’s role: The Falkland’s War (1982) the Homefront’. Table of contents Title page Abstract Signed Declaration Acknowledgements Dedication Dissemination List of Tables List of Figures SECTION A CONTEXT Chapter 1 Introduction 1-14 Background Chapter 2 The Media and the Falklands 15-27 Home Front and Task Force Families Wives, mothers and sweethearts Patriotism, pageantry and politics The media, the home-front and gender stereotypes SECTION B LITERATURE & METHODOLOGY Chapter 3 Literature Review: Women, particularly military women 28-64 Academic Women’s history Women and the 1980s Gender, women and military history Women and the military Chapter 4 Literature review: Women’s oral history and the Falklands Conflict Oral history 65-102 Falklands Conflict Chapter 5 Research Design and Methodology for Data Collection 103-142 Deciding on the focus/research topic Deciding on a title Approaches to the research design Quantitative vs Qualitative paradigms Typical features of quantitative/qualitative and mixed methods approach to research Qualitative paradigm Philosophical and methodological issues Ontology and epistemology Narrative analysis and oral history methodology Comparison of interview methods Feminist research and oral history methodology Finding respondents Limitations Triangulation of data Question design Project management Obstacles Ethics Subjectivity Inter-subjectivity Advocacy and empowerment Critiques of empowerment Conclusions SECTION C DATA COLLECTION Chapter 6 How naval wives and families data were collected 143-153 Respondents Stage 1 interviews Interview themes Stage 2 interviews Interview questions Chapter 7 Commemoration of the Falklands Conflict 154-177 Heroes, leadership and popularity Terms and theories Falklands Memorials Agencies and aims of Falklands commemorations Falklands Victory Parade Falklands Memorial Chapel National Memorial Arboretum Respondents and commemoration Chapter 8 Stage 1 interview data 178-223 Interview themes Support networks and coping strategies Communication Commemoration Long and short-term effects of being involved in the war What was the effect on the husband/partner of participating in the conflict? Was it worth it? Interview extracts Chapter 9 Stage 2 interview data 224-254 Home Moving around Naval wives’ groups Deployments Music Aftermath and support Married to the navy Wives careers Experience of naval life Analysis Chapter 10 Interview data analysis 256-266 Process of data collection Stage 1 and Stage 2 Analysis and interpretation Conclusions
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