W APPRECIATIONS THE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION

POAMHA-MATb 3OB NEW APPRECIATIONS 38

Women, War and Revolution in Europe 1914-45

Jane McDermid

THE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION NEW APPRECIATIONS Published by the Historical Association

NAPOLEON: FIRST CONSUL AND EMPEROR TLltOR GOVERNMENT OF THE FRENCH A.G.R. Sniitb [NA20J I. Collins |NA1| THE SKCOM> WORLD WAR (-,(1 AUTISM R. Shackletun [NA22] J.K.. Dinwiddy [NA2] TUB VERSAILLES PEACE SETTLEMENT THE NORTHERN IRKLAM> QUESTION A.I^ntin (NA23] I Introduction / 5 P.Buckland [NA3] THE ENLIGHTENMENT CURRENCY AND THE ECONOMY IN TUDOR AN1I EARLY H. Duiithorne |NA24] n Women and the First World War / 7 STUAKT ENGLAND VARIETIES <)[• REFORAIATK»N S.Adams [NA4] B. Scrivener [NA26] WOMEN'S ArnruDES TOWARDS THE WAR STALINISM ItHILIHNG A <.'i!)M REALM A. Nove ENA5] WOMEN'S WORK ON THE HOME FRONT D.MacCulloch[NA27] FACTION IN TUDOR ENGLAND AMERICAN DIPLOMATIC TRADITION WOMEN AT THE FRONT E. Ives [NA61 J. Smith [NA29I PETER THE tiREAT THE IMPACT OF THE WAR ON WOMEN AN ENGLISH ABSOLUTISM? M.S. Anderson [NA7| THE LATER STUART MONARCHY WOMEN AT THE END OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR THE JESUITS ANI> THE <:\MHH l<: REFORMATION J. Miller [NA30J J.J. Scarisbrick JNA9] GOVERNMENT ANI> SfHIHCIT LN I ATE MEIHKVAI, SPAIN 1914s THE COMING OF THE FIRS I WORLD WAR G.Redworth fNA31] III Women, Revolution and Counter-Revolution/16 ER. Bridge [NA10] RRITISH DEFENCE POLICY AND APPEASEMENT JACOB1TISM BETWEEN THE WARS RUSSIAN WOMEN AND REVOLUTION E. Gregg [NA11] E. Ranson [NA32] WOMEN AND COUNTER-REVOLUTION IN GERMANY THE ARMADA CAMPAIGN OF 1588 THE FIRST WORLD WAR S.Adams [NA13] H. Strachan [NA331 WOMEN AND ITALIAN FASCISM THE 1'ERSONAL RULE OF CHARLES I VOTES FOR WOMEN IN KRITAIN 1867-1928 1629-40 M. Pugh [NA34] WOMEN, REVOLUTION AND COUNTER-REVOLUTION IN SPAIN CJ.E.Aylmer[NA141 FASCISM! THE INTERNATIONAL PHENOMENON WOMEN AND DICTATORSHIP THE EVOLUTION OF THE BRITISH ELECTORAL R.A.H. Robinson fNA3S] SYSTEM 1832-1987 THE MONARCHIES OF FKKDINAN1I AND ISABELLA M. Pugh[NA15] J. Edwards [NA36] IV Women and the Sceond World War / 27 BK1TISH WOMEN IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY THE FIRST CKI'SAINB UThompson [NA16] S. Hdgington [NA37] WOMEN IN BRITAIN DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR

WOMEN AND OCCUPATION

WOMEN, WAR AND IDEOLOGY

WOMEN AND GENOCIDE

WOMEN IN 1945 EDITOR Malcolm Crook DESICN AND PRODUCTION V Notes & Further Reading/ 35 Marco Spiiielli

©Jane McDermid 1997

Published by the Historical Association and printed in Great Britain by Blackmore Limited, Longmead, NEW APPRECIATIONS Shaftesbury, Dorset SP7 8PX.

The Hiscorical Association ISBN 085278 404 X in the surface, the period 1914 to 1945 many of the gains made by women in both seems to have encompassed massive World Wars prove to be short-lived, but changes in the position of women in Eu- ideologies, of both left and right, either rope, in response to the demands of war prevented or limited changes in the status and revolution. Yet historians have ques- of women. In addition, a study of this tioned the extent of the transformation, period reveals significant diversity in wom- since the acquisition of the vote, as well en's experience of war and revolution, not as improvements in female education and only between states, but within individual employment, did not in practice bring societies. Certainly, the inter-war depres- women social or political equality with sion, particularly in the 1930s, pushed men. Indeed, at the end of both the First women's rights off the political agenda, and Second World Wars, and of the Span- as the fight against mass male unemploy- ish Civil War, there was a backlash against ment took precedence throughout much of the 'New Woman'. Moreover, the first half Europe. In contrast, in Stalin's Russia, the of the twentieth century witnessed wide- push for modernisation greatly expanded spread demographic anxiety throughout women's education and job opportunities. Europe, which was reflected in the con- However, it did not lead to a revolution in struction of welfare systems and the adop- relations between the sexes. Indeed, what tion of pro-natalist population policies. all European states had in common in the Hence whatever the political system, the inter-war period was a stress on pro- state became increasingly interventionist natalism, with the wife in the role of in social policy, reinforcing the nuclear nurturer, identified not only with the fam- family, with the mother at its heart, and ily but with the welfare state. Thus, in father at its head. 1945, the elements of continuity in the Though some changes were made, war position of women in Europe since 1914 and revolution did not bring any radical were much more striking than those of turning-points for women. Not only did change. the First World War

'hatever the political regime — combatant states for the most part rallied whether a constitutional monarchy to the flag, proclaiming their support for as in Britain, a republic as in France, or the War and suspending their campaigns. an authoritarian state as in Germany and In Britain, the militant Women's Social and Russia — the attitudes towards the use of Political Union (WSPU) was especially vig- women in the First World War were re- orous in support of the war effort. Indeed, markably similar. There was no state plan- Lloyd George, the Minister of Munitions, ning of the involvement of women in the asked Mrs Pankhurst to rally women for war effort. Lower-class women were in- the munitions factories. She and her daugh- creasingly recruited into munitions facto- ter Christabel saw war as providing great ries and took over what were previously opportunities for women. Not all WSPU seen as male jobs, such as in transport; members were happy with the decision to but their position was seen as temporary, suspend the suffrage campaign, but the for the duration of the War only. Middle- Pankhursts prevailed. They were fiercely class women tried, with varying degrees nationalist, attacking pacifists and social- of success, to enter the professions. Al- ists (including Sylvia Pankhurst) as traitors. though there were exceptions, few women In October 1915, the WSPU's paper, The fought as combatants; if women served at Suffragette, was renamed Britannia. the front, it was generally as nurses, or in In France and Russia too, suffragists be- some other support role. The War was seen lieved that loyal support for the War would to offer women unprecedented freedom, bring them the vote. The French suffra- while their men died in the trenches. In gists became increasingly conservative, practice, war brought increased responsi- leading to a significant change in their bilities to women, especially lower-class arguments for the vote, from a basis in women, both urban and rural, who were natural justice (an idea which had its ori- thrust into the role of head of household, gins in the French Revolution of 1789) to expected to provide for the family and pro- what women had contributed to the war duce for the war effort. While feminists effort and could do for national reconstruc- generally continued to support the war tion. They were deeply alarmed by the effort in the hope of winning the vote, work- Revolution of October 1917 in Russia ing-class women grew increasingly desper- which, as we shall see, eclipsed the Rus- ate with the burdens of war. sian feminist movement. Indeed, the Russian feminists, through their support for a war which inflicted such heavy losses Women's Attitudes towards the on Russian troops, alienated both work- First World War ing-class and peasant women. In Germany, there was a similar situa- When war broke out in 1914, the national tion: suffragists believed expressions of loy- female suffrage movements throughout the alty would prove their civic responsibility.

7 Indeed, given the German fear of encircle- There were few pacifists among the femi- government which they opposed. Ironically a bigger role. Feminists, who until then ment, the suffragists believed that women's nists. Still, Johanna Albert! has revealed a too, while pacifism in Germany was gen- had been critical of Cumann na mBan for domestic skills would be a weapon in variety of pacifist organisations and erally associated with socialist women its subservience to men in the nationalist German resistance to their enemies: house- initiatives, both within Britain (such as the such as Clara Zetkin, in Britain Mrs movement, were drawn into the organisa- wives would make best use of limited Women's Peace Crusade, begun in Pankhurst seemed convinced that the anti- tion, partly in response to the Easter Ris- supplies of both food and clothing. In ad- Glasgow in 1916) and beyond (such as the war socialists were German agents, and ing's Proclamation, which promised sexual dition, middle-class women could extend International Committee of Women for Per- she felt vindicated when the Bolsheviks took equality in the future republic. However, their philanthropic work by joining state manent Peace, founded at the Hague in power and prepared to sign a separate Cumann na mBan rejected the 1922 Treaty welfare agencies, as well as continuing 1915). ' Some women supported male peace with Germany. Indeed, she manipu- with Britain which endorsed the partition their voluntary efforts (such as running pacifists, while others opposed the War lated fear of socialism to try to stem the of Ireland. The opponents of this Treaty soup kitchens, distributing second-hand from religious conviction. Although not in- rising criticism of the War, both in the lost the ensuing Civil War, after which clothing and organising childcare), while significant, pacifists were in the minority armed forces and among factory workers. there was a reaction against 'political' lower-class women worked in the factories. and were viewed with distrust by govern- The WSPU, therefore, turned its attention women. Thus feminism, which since 1916 In all these states, most middle-class ments. While male conscientious objectors to fighting the influence of socialism among had drawn closer to nationalism, suffered women supported the War to the end, con- were often brutally treated, women paci- patriotic women workers. a serious setback at the foundation of the fidently expecting the vote as a reward. fists were subjected to various forms of Yet pacifism and socialism were not the Republic. harassment, including censor- only threats to the war effort. There was ship, surveillance and efforts to also nationalism. In Ireland nationalists prevent travel and contacts with regarded the conflict as England's war. Women's Work on the Home pacifists abroad. Irish men still enlisted in the British armed Front There were also political di- forces but, in contrast to Britain, the so- visions among pacifist women, cial and economic impact of the War in Even in the most industrialised of the com- notably between feminists, for Ireland was very slight. Instead of being batant states, domestic service was by far whom war represented the sub- drawn into war work, Irish women became the biggest employer of urban women on jection of women and the tri- more involved in politics. Women who the eve of the War. Indeed, the War led umph of masculine militarism, were opposed to Home Rule joined the initially to female unemployment as the and socialists, for whom war Ulster Women's Unionist Council (estab- demand for servants and for luxury prod- was the product of imperialism. lished in 1912), which supported the war ucts, such as silk, lace and millinery, de- Within the latter, there were effort. Nationalist women joined Cumann clined. Wartime industries soon expanded, divisions between those who re- na mBan (1914), which split over the War, however, and women began to replace men mained opposed in principle, with some holding that it should support in offices and in the transport system. In and the majority who compro- Britain in return for Home Rule, and the France, the war seemed to provoke a mised, supporting their country's more militant faction opposed to any Irish change in public attitudes to working war effort as defence against an involvement in the War. In both unionist women — an acceptance of their economic aggressor. As the War dragged and nationalist organisations, women were independence, and even of their working on, other issues, such as coping expected to play a subordinate, support- alongside men, though it was seen as a with the growing problems of ive role to the male activists. The 1916 temporary situation. everyday life on the home front, Easter Rising of nationalists in Dublin In Britain, women began to replace men took priority. Indeed, in Ger- against British rule changed the situation. in industry, especially in munitions, only many, as conditions deterio- The Rising was portrayed very much as a from the summer of 1915 and more so af- rated, socialist women were male affair, but women nevertheless par- ter the introduction of male conscription Emi/y Pankhurst, above with her daughter Christabe/, saw the First World drawn into welfare work among ticipated. When the Rising was crushed, it in January 1916. Few of these women War as providing great opportunities for women, and even suspended the suffrage campaign to actively support the war effort. the lower classes, ironically was the men who bore the brunt of the workers came from the middle or upper Mary Evans Picture Library winning applause from the repression, thus giving Cumann na mBan classes. They were mainly working-class women who had already had a job. In Germany, women were not drawn a million in 1917. For Generally there was hostility to the recruit- into the industrial work force in large example, before the war, ment of women workers into what male enough numbers to make up for the men men had constituted two- workers saw as their jobs. Both male work- conscripted into the imperial army. Indeed, thirds of the St Petersburg ers and employers were influenced by the there was a greater increase in the use of labour force. Towards the ideology of domesticity which disapproved home-based rather than factory women end of 1917, less than of women stepping outside the home. Male workers.2 By 1916, the labour-power situ- half the total number of workers also feared that employers would ation caused Field Marshal Hindenburg workers employed in the use female labour to lower wages and to ask the government to enact mandatory renamed capital city weaken the unions, traditionally bastions labour service, to cover women as well as were men. Even in the of skilled men. Some trade unions in Brit- men. This demand was not accepted by male dominated indus- ain demanded equal pay, partly in response, either the government or the trade unions, tries, such as the metal and partly as a challenge to the govern- nor even by the majority of women's or- and chemical industries, ment's promise that the status of skilled ganisations. Women's reproductive func- the proportion of women men would not suffer. The latter were de- tions were seen as fundamental to the and children towards the termined that, once the war was over, pre- survival of the German nation. Thus the end of 1916 was at least war practices would be resumed. forced labour law, the National Auxiliary a third. The war dragged on longer than ex- Service Act of December 1916, did not Women continued to pected, so that by 1915-16 the combatant include women. work in the traditionally states were experiencing labour shortages, The German War Office, however, was female areas of domes- in agriculture as well as in industry. In forced by the acute labour shortage and tic service, textiles and Britain, the former led to the establishment insistent demands for more fighting men clothing; and besides the of the Women's Land Service Corps in to set up Women's Work Centres for the factories, women were February 1916, which was succeeded by recruitment and distribution of female employed in sweatshops, the Women's Land Army the following workers to war industries. In the spring of offices and in retail. year. In contrast to factory jobs which drew 1917, appeals in the German press asked Again, their employment in working-class women, the Land Army women to accept jobs in the army at the was on the largest scale attracted many middle-class women. In in- rear (for example, in supply and amunition in Russia: by January dustry, women were welcomed into rou- depots, and military offices) to release men 1917 around 130,000 tine, repetitious work, keeping alive the for the front. These women in the Rear- women worked in Petrograd factories, From the summer of /9/5, British women, mainly working- old ideas about women's 'natural' patience Area Women's Auxiliary Programme were class, began to replace men in industry, particularly while there were approximately 80,000 munitions. Above, a girl operates an automatic cartridge and dexterity and assuming that they working-class and still regarded as employed as domestic servants, 50,000 as machine at Park Royal, London. Imperial Wnr Museum lacked ambition. While employers civilians. By May 1918, women volunteers office workers, and another 50,000 as shop benefited from the lower wages paid to were being trained to replace army signal workers. Women still performed the bulk very much as an exclusively male respon- women workers and tried to dilute skills, corps officers in communications; but the of agricultural labour too, especially in sibility. However, in certain areas women they also accepted that women were tem- armistice came before any were employed. countries like Russia where millions of could be used to free men for the front, porary replacements for male labour. It was in Russia, with its massive mobi- male peasants, as well as draft animals, while as nurses many others attended to Women were accepted as longer-term re- lisation of men, that women were drawn were conscripted for the war effort. the medical needs of the casualties. Nurs- placements for men only in some light in- into the labour force on a huge, though ing was an area in which middle-class dustries and in offices and shops where still unplanned, scale. The proportion of women were to the forefront. On the one training was minimal. Wages there were women in industry as a whole soared in Women at the Front hand, nursing was a caring profession and even lower than male wages, because it Russia from 26.6 per cent in 1914 to 43.4 therefore 'womanly'; on the other, there was expected that women would leave af- per cent in 1917; the numbers of factory In general, women were expected to 'man' were clashes between the 'amateurs' (the ter marriage. women rose from 723,000 in 1914 to over the home front. Military combat was seen volunteers) and the professionals (the 10 11 trained nurses). At the same time, there of Bochkareva's Women's Battalion, de- but were part of a German plot to cripple The Impact of the War on was a social divide between the lower-class spite the non-combatant status of British British industry. In November 1917, when Women patient and the middle-class nurse, with women. She had also welcomed the Feb- the Bolsheviks took power in Russia, the the former often feeling patronised hy the ruary Revolution in Russia, suspecting WSPU renamed itself the Women's Party, As early as 1915, women, especially in latter. However grateful for the care, sol- that the Tsar had been unduly influenced with an extremely nationalist pro- the lower classes, were suffering from the diers were often resentful of being patched by pro-German court intrigue. Lloyd gramme, calling for measures against for- impact of war. Their difficulties included up by their social superiors for further serv- George, by then Prime Minister, arranged eign nationals because of the continuing fear for the men at the front as the death ice at the front. for Mrs Pankhurst to go to Russia on a threat from Germany, and denying Irish toll mounted, the burden of being single A few women served as doctors, such as special mission where she was to encour- Home Rule. Ironically, the first woman heads of households, and the shortages the surgeon Elsie Inglis whose Scottish age the Women's Battalion in their ex- elected to Westminister was Constance and higher prices. There were protests by Women's Suffragette Federation (estab- ample to male waverers among the Markievicz who had fought against the women throughout the combatant coun- lished 1906) sent two women ambulance troops.3 In Petrograd, she met with femi- British in the 1916 Easter Rising in Dub- tries against war-profiteering. In Britain units to France and Serbia in 1915. Inglis nist leaders and addressed several meet- lin. She had the support of Irish suffra- the expansion of wartime industries ex- set up three military hospitals in Serbia in ings in private houses. The Provisional gists, but as a nationalist she refused to acerbated an already existing housing 1916, and in the following year she was Government refused permission for pub- take her seat in the British House of shortage and drove up rents. The landlord- in Russia with a voluntary corps, which lic meetings, fearing that Mrs Pankhurst's Commons. tenant conflict grew increasingly bitter in was withdrawn after the Revolution, Such extreme pro-war stance would be too pro- women were exceptional, organising their vocative to Bolshevik supporters. How- own efforts. For the most part, the ever, she addressed a large meeting of employment of women at the front by the supporters of the war effort to raise funds various governments was not planned. for the Women's Battalion. She declared There was no planned involvement of that it was a terrible thing that women women in the War in Russia, though per- who brought children into the world haps as many as 5,000 fought, with some should feel compelled to fight because the posing as men. After the February Revo- men were deserting. She insisted that lution of 1917, which overthrew the Tsar, women would never be slaves to Ger- one woman soldier, the peasant Maria many, and that it was better to die fight- Bochkareva, established the Women's ing. Mrs Pankhurst was trying to Battalion (sometimes known as the encourage Russia to remain in the War, 'Battalion of Death') to defend the Provi- and she stayed for three months, leaving sional Government. It was the first in- only in September when the Provisional stance in modern history in which women Government seemed vulnerable to Bolshe- combatants were used as models of mili- vik agitation. On her return to London, tary heroism to shame deserting male sol- she expressed deep anxieties about the Rus- diers. The Battalion, which initially had sian situation and advised Lloyd George about 2,000 volunteers, settled at around to intervene to prevent a socialist seizure 300. It fought on the Western Front in June of power. 1917, suffering heavy casualties, and in By then there was growing unrest in October unsuccessfully defended the Pro- Britain. Christabel Pankhurst called the visional Government against the Bolshe- Labour Party leader, Ramsay viks, facing women in the Red Guard MacDonald, 'the flunkey and toady and Russian women played a crucial role in the fehruary Revolution of 1917. Women combatants were a/so, for the first time which stormed the Winter Palace. tool of the Kaiser'. In her view, strikes, of in modern history, used as models of military heroism to shame deserting male soldiers. Above, the Women's Battalion (known as Mrs Pankhurst, an active supporter of which there were an increasing number, the 'Battalion of Death') taking their oath of allegiance in Red Square before leaving for the Front. Mary Evans Picture Library the war, had applauded the establishment were not only playing into enemy hands, 12 13 industrial cities. fronts, it became peace and demobilisation, women were that women's suffrage did not result in any cut off from the The situation pushed back into traditionally female far-reaching short-term change in the bal- deteriorated Ukrainian trades, notably laundry work and domes- ance of political forces, nor even in the 'bread basket'. when it was seen tic service. During the war, women had relative influence of political parties. 5 that landlords Already in been seen as the guardians of the home Certainly, while only a few exceptional 1915, there was were harassing, front, even the saviours of the nation. Af- women made an impact on national poli- rationing of even evicting, ter it, women workers were soon seen as tics, a significant minority did so at local soldiers' depend- bread which, by selfish, depriving male breadwinners of level. In France, however, women were the end of 1916, ants. By the their livelihood. Certainly many women denied the vote until 1944. Historians of- was extended to spring of 1915, had looked on their wartime jobs as tem- ten point to France as the birthplace of cover many ba- tenants in Glas- porary. Yet they did not simply return to feminism and of the struggle for female sic commodities, gow were organ- the home or to domestic service. Some at suffrage, yet it was one of the last western ising resistance including pota- least found work, mostly unskilled, in the countries to accede to that demand. One toes, dairy prod- through the light industry and service sectors. The late explanation is the influence of the Catho- ucts, sugar and Women's Hous- nineteenth-century debate about whether lic Church: women won the vote more coal. There was ing Association. or not it was desirable for married women quickly in Protestant states (though women The issue was Countess Marklevici (Constance Geargina Booth) in mi/itary uniform also a severe to work in industry was revived, as was in Ireland were given the vote on the same Maty Evans Picture Library not simply rent ______clothing short- discussion about the 'health of the race'. basis as men in 1922). Other explanations age. Thus the increases; there After four years of trench warfare, the point to the lasting influence of the Napo- was also dissatisfaction at the rising cost feminists were right to stress the importance returning men often had difficulty in read- leonic Code, which enshrined female infe- of foodstuffs. Tenants began to refuse to of female domestic skills for the home front, justing to civilian life and a society in riority in law, and the social conservatism pay the increase in rent and 'rent strikes' but as the War dragged on these simply which their women seemed to have grown of French society, in which peasant and escalated in the summer of 1915. Evictions could not cope with the gravity of the situ- in independence and into traditionally small town influence was strong. In addi- were also resisted and workers in the ship- ation. The potato harvest failed, which led male roles. The War, however, was com- tion, the low birth rate in France caused building and munitions industries sup- to a dependence on turnips, adulterated memorated as a masculine affair, prima- government anxiety, which in turn stressed ported the campaign. So too did pacifists bread and rigid rationing. The flourishing rily of fallen soldiers. There was no the role of mother. Again, pro-natalist con- and anti-war socialists. By the autumn, the black market, which served the needs of thought now of a 'war between the sexes' cerns were common to all European pow- issue was seen as a potential threat to troop the better-off, like the spread of malnutri- among people who had had enough of con- ers in the inter-war period. In France, not morale, especially as unrest had spread to tion among the poor, deepened popular bit- flict and sought the stability of traditional only was feminism a minority movement, other industrial centres in Britain, finally terness. Anger erupted, reflected in food riots family values and gender roles. Yet while but it seemed more interested in non-po- convincing a reluctant government to pass in the second half of 1917, not only in Ger- there was a return to the stress on the litical issues such as education than in suf- a bill restricting rents and mortgage inter- many but also in France and Italy. These complementarity of the sexes, there was frage and was intent on working within est on working-class housing in munitions riots seemed all the more serious given the also a perception that the War had stimu- the system for gradual change. The suf- districts, which was a limited gain. This revolutionary situation in Russia which had lated a looser morality. The onset of de- fragists were so confident of winning the struggle, which had united the working been sparked off by women demonstrators pression, moreover, led to a backlash vote after the First World War ended that, classes, was seen as essentially a women's calling for bread. against the 'New Woman' of the 1920s. in contrast to the suffragists in Britain and fight. 4 To both men and women, the peace Ireland, they did not campaign strongly If the British people suffered serious short- seemed unstable, yet another war unim- for it, allowing the politicians to delay, ages in 1917 as a result of the submarine Women at the end of the First aginable. and finally to deny women suffrage. blockade, conditions in Germany were World Wiir The two parliamentary states, France and In most countries, feminism moved to much worse. From the start of war in 1914, Britain, survived the War with their insti- the right in the early twentieth century, re- By the end of 1918, alt the combatants were Germany had been blockaded by sea, caus- tutions intact. Women in Britain won the flecting the middle-class fear of socialism, war-weary, suffering from unrest among ing raw material as well as food shortages; vote in 1918, though on a restricted fran- even though left-wing parties were by then both civilians and troops. In general, with and because Germany was fighting on two chise until 1928. Brian Harrison argues committed to the emancipation of women 14 Ik, and sexual equality. Such fears of the left War, where the fascists' initial flirtation were reinforced by the Russian Revolution with female suffrage quickly proved mean- Women, of 1917, while demands for women's rights ingless. In any case, what all the Euro- were swamped by the economic depres- pean states had in common in the inter-war Revolution sion of the 1930s. Moreover, though in period was a stress on pro-natalism. Such Russia and Germany women won the vote, a policy raised the status of motherhood, it soon seemed a hollow gain with the but it also reinforced patriarchal views of former becoming a one-party state in 1918, woman's role, of relations between the the latter in 1933. The same was true of sexes, and of the family, whatever the Russian Women and Revolution the sick and wounded to the convention- Italy, a late 'entrant' into the First World dominant ideology. ally male prerogative of fighting at the Even before the end of the First World War front; it seems that some 80,000 women, women in Russia had won the vote, albeit including medical personnel, fought in the from a reluctant Provisional Government, Civil War. Russia's mobilisation of women in July 1917. While the vote had been the both in the First World War and the Civil primary concern of aristocratic and gen- War was exceptional, compared to the try feminists, the Revolution of February other protagonists; but like them, the main had been instigated by women workers in function of Russian women in war was Petrograd. The feminists tried hard to at- supportive. tract working women to the campaign for The Revolution championed sexual equal rights, refusing to accept that revo- equality which was reflected in the 1918 lution for the latter was simply about Family Code, the most progressive the bread, land and peace. Generally, women world had seen. The ideals of 1918, how- are missing from what are essentially po- ever, lacked a sufficient economic base to litical accounts of the revolutionary proc- underpin them and were imposed by an ess between February and October. Yet urban Communist Party on a conservative, women of all social classes participated predominantly peasant country. Indeed, in the intervening period of turmoil, even many Communists argued that the re- if rarely in a leadership role. forms, which included rights to divorce and Revolution in October took Russia out abortion, were not only premature but po- of the First World War, while feminists tentially harmful to women's position. The were written out of Soviet history. " Most Communists had no blueprint for family western historians see Alexandra legislation after the Revolution. The pri- Kollontai, the first female government mary aim was to abolish the traditional minister in Europe and later the first fe- patriarchal institution, yet there was no male ambassador, as an increasingly agreement on how this should be achieved, lonely voice in communist Russia calling nor on what should replace it. Moreover, for women's rights and a new morality. the Civil War absorbed all energies. In the The Revolution at least brought formal struggle for survival, an extremely func- equality between the sexes in law, and tional attitude towards sexual relations de- women continued to take an active part in veloped, in which women and children the revolutionary process and in the Civil were the main victims. While some saw a War in a variety of roles, ranging from 'sexual revolution' occurring in Russia in the traditionally female tasks of caring for the 1920s, most Communists disapproved 17 16 of indiscipline in sexual relations. The left- rather than reducing the birth rate or giv- Communist Victor Serge later recorded: ing the individual woman control over re- production. Doubtless, sexuality, so long In fact, public concern was roused by a repressed, first by revolutionary result of the disintegration of traditional asceticism and then by poverty and family relations: the millions of famine, was beginning to recover its besprizorniki, or abandoned children. De- drive in a society which had been spite the shocking but unfounded rumours abruptly cut off from any kind of that communism meant the collectivisa- spiritual nourishment. Promiscuity tion of both women and children, the is- fed upon the misery of the sue of the role of the family had been raised environment. Books ... propagated by the sheer scale not only of child aban- an oversimplified theory of free love: donment, but also of divorce. The situa- an infantile variety of materialism tion of unstable family relations against which reduced 'sexual need1 to its the background of a hostile world, grow- strictly animal connotation. The ing economic problems from the mid-1920s most sophisticated section of youth, and Stalin's eventual victory in the fac- the university students, was tional struggle within the Communist discussing |the] theory of the Party, seemed to pave the way for a reac- disappearance of morals in the tionary backlash, or revolutionary retreat: future communist society/ what Trotsky termed 'thermidor' in the The sympathetic German visitor, Rosa family. Abortion was subsequently out- Levine-Mayer, believed that in practice lawed in 1936 and divorce made increas- promiscuity was rare; people were too ingly difficult to obtain. Yet it was not a this amounted to a revolution which be- Above, Russian women In 1921 before going on duty as street car conductors. absorbed in the new tasks, and too preoc- total reaction. Stalin needed women work- gan with the naval mutiny in Kiel in Oc- Hulton Getty cupied with cold and hunger, to have much ers as well as men to fuel his 'revolution tober 1918. In contrast to its Russian time for what was called 'personal life'. from above', the economic modernisation counterpart of February 1917, in which In her view, men appeared to be the main of the economy in the 1930s, which he women played a crucial role, the German ened both by the fate of the Spartacists and beneficiaries of the loosened divorce and considered necessary in face of the fascist revolution began as a military affair. The their demands. Some historians believe that marriage regulations.H threat from the West, above all from Ger- old order was not destroyed in Germany if there was a revolution in Germany after Indeed, given woman's lack of control many. in 1918, but was simply disarmed by the the First World War, then it was a revolu- over her fertility, her position was espe- shock of defeat. tion from above which established a par- cially precarious. The Communist regime Moreover, the extreme left was in a dis- liamentary democracy. The ensuing was the first to legalise abortion; but it Women and Counter-Revolution tinct minority, while the Social Democratic attempts at more radical change mainly regarded the 1920 measure, though so- in Germany Party was prepared to compromise with served to encourage counter-revolution and cially and medically necessary, as a tem- the old order and indeed relied on the army ensured that there was no loyalty to the porary evil. The assumption was that Despite the severe privations and growing to keep order. In January 1919, the Ger- Weimar Republic either on the extreme left when conditions improved and the cultural social unrest, the German people had not man communists attempted to seize power or right. This lack of enthusiasm was re- level rose, the widespread use of abortion been psychologically prepared for defeat by a coup — the so-called Spartacist Ris- flected in the attitude of German women. would diminish. In practice, the Commu- in November 1918. With the armistice ing — which was quickly repressed and Women in Weimar Germany gained the nists disapproved of abortion, considering came a profound political crisis which led its leaders, Rosa Luxembourg and Karl vote, yet many of them used their new maternity a social duty as well as a natu- to the abdication of the Kaiser and other Liebknecht, brutally murdered by officers. political freedom to support conservative ral function of women. The issue was one German princes, and the establishment of The forces of counter-revolution were and nationalist parties, including the of greater and better maternity protection, the Weimar Republic. To some historians, strengthened, while moderates were fright- Nazis. 18 19 It was the 1929 Depression which turned picked up by political parties, and not only the situation in the Nazis' favour. In such the Nazis but also the conservatives, in- an unstable social and political situation, cluding the Catholic Centre Party. 1() Thus with millions of men suddenly thrown out Nazi views on women's domestic role and of work and with increasingly violent po- reproductive duty were hardly unique. litical activities (street fights between Nazis One of the first acts of the Nazi regime, and the Left}, conservative ideas about in the summer of 1933, was to introduce women's domestic role seemed very attrac- the Marriage Loan. This was a substan- tive. Yet while the unemployed do not seem tial loan (of 600 marks), at low interest, to have voted Nazi in any great numbers, to set up a household, upon marriage, pro- Nazi ideas were popular with large num- vided the woman left work. It proved popu- bers of women. The reasons might be a lar: by 1939, it underpinned 40 per cent of desire for security, a nostalgia for tradi- all marriages. For each child born, the loan tional roles or a longing for order. Nazi was reduced by 150 marks. The birth rate propaganda was extremely powerful. The was also encouraged by Family Allow- 1932 crisis brought women into voting in ances, medals for motherhood, laws large numbers (a considerable proportion against abortion and the discouraging of of those women eligible for the vote had contraception. Family Planning was re- not actually used it before}; and it seems placed by Family Welfare. that generally a third of women voted for Initially the birthrate increased, yet it the Nazis. remained below the rate for 1922. The It is ironic that Nazi women had more Nazis slowed down, but did not reverse, opportunity for political activities under the trend of falling birth rates. Most people A meeting of the German Girls Association (Deatsches Freunwerk) in Potsdam Castle, with the Nazi politician Alfred Rosenberg and, to his left, Frauletn Hitde Monske. This organisation, aimed at working-class women, claimed some the Weimar regime, which they despised, married, and married earlier, but in prac- eight million members. Hulton Getty than under Hitler. The general assumption tice couples had fewer children than in the is that Nazi views on women were totally past. In addition, Nazi family policies were ministering to the men who committed of German women under the Nazis than repressive; but the situation was more com- targeted at 'pure' German women. They genocide. " Koonz, even claiming that, compared to plex. Certainly, the Nazis wanted to put were determined to destroy what they be- Hitler believed that women's emanci- men, they were 'peculiarly resistant to the clock hack socially, to a pre-industrial lieved to be racial 'pollution'. The Nurem- pation had been an invention of Jewish in- National Socialism'. Tim Mason's posi- society in terms of women and the family, berg Laws of 1935 forbade marriage and tellectuals, whom he equated with tion lies somewhere between Koonz and but Tim Mason has shown that their poli- sexual intercourse between Germans and communists. The Nazis established two Stephenson. He believes that in a variety cies were contradictory, having both re- Jews. There was a secret policy of sterilis- organisations for women: the NS of ways German men were the direct and pressive and progressive features.y ing 'undesirables' (those with so-called Frauenschaft and the Deutsches perhaps the main beneficiaries of the Roughly 1.7 million German men had hereditary illnesses), while a euthanasia Freuenwerk. The former was the elite regime's policies towards women. Yet he died in the War and in the inter-war pe- programme was directed against the eld- organisation, and claimed around two contradicts Stephenson by arguing that in riod there were approximately two million erly and the infirm. In Mothers of the Fa- million members. The second, which was the later 1930s, the Third Reich enjoyed a more women than men in Germany. There therland (1987), Claudia Koonz claims that aimed at the working class, claimed eight large measure of active and passive support was also a fall in the birth rate. This was it fell to women, as much as to men, to million. There is considerable disagree- among German women, even a larger partly a long-term development and a sign put all the Nazi racial edicts into prac- ment among historians over the complic- measure than it gained from men. Which- of a maturing economy. But in the context tice: as social workers, teachers and ity of German women with the Nazi ever interpretation one accepts, it is clear of defeat in war and under the influence of nurses, they were expected to identify 'ra- regime. Jill Stephenson points out that the that Nazi women did not see themselves eugenics and Social Darwinism, there were cially unfit Aryans' to the Nazi sterilisa- Nazi women's organisations were shorn as docile and submissive. l2 fears for Germany's future, even talk of tion agencies. Furthermore, Koonz sees of any political role once Hitler came to What is also evident is that Nazi poli- the 'suicide of the nation'. This idea was Nazi women as the social side of tyranny, power. She is less harsh in her judgement cies with regard to Aryan women did not 20 21 always have the desired effect. The Naxis Mussolini was less concerned with 'quality' money on it. L' Besides being underfunded, ten from the viewpoint of the conflict as a failed both to halt the long-term trend of a than with quantity. Indeed, some promi- another contrast to Germany was that the precursor to the Second World War, with falling birth rate and to keep women in nent fascist women were Jewish, such as development of Mussolini's social policy Spain as the 'cockpit of Europe'. Yet the home. Indeed, the number of working Olga Modigliani who fled Italy only in towards the family was not centralised. women played a crucial role in the bitter women in Germany actually grew in the 1938 when Mussolini introduced Racial On the other hand, Mussolini, like Hit- struggle between revolution and counter- 1930s, although there were still 400,000 Laws. Moreover, early fascism did not ler, was very concerned with population revolution. As in the Russian Civil War, fewer female workers in 1938 (5.2 million) appear explicitly anti-feminist, even sup- growth. There were various incentives, women in Spain became more visible in than in 1928. By the late 1930s, industry porting female suffrage, which may have both negative and positive, to encourage public affairs; but even less so than in and agriculture in Germany were suffer- reflected Mussolini's earlier association the birth rate: a ban on abortion, unavail- Russia was there a radical challenge to ing a labour shortage. In response, the with the socialist movement and with the ability of contraceptives, tax benefits traditional gender roles. Third Reich reluctantly legislated the Reich leading socialist Angelica Balabanova. (though these were never as generous or Yet a central propaganda image of the Labour Service in 1938, designed specifi- With the inception of the fascist dictator- as widespread as in the Third Reich), pro- early part of the Spanish Civil War was cally to employ young women in agricul- ship, the suffrage issue soon became tective legislation which barred women the Miliciana, the revolutionary heroine tural or domestic service by means of a academic. from certain areas of work and a prefer- who was prepared to take up arms along- 'duty year'. It was the only compulsory In 1925, the National Agency for ence in public employment shown to men side the men to defend the Republic. Again measure adopted before the Second World Maternity and Childhood (the Italian with children. Mussolini was concerned there are parallels with the Russian Civil War, and even during the War, the Nazi initials being ONMI) was established. Its with the health of the nation, but whereas War: in both, women fought and died for ideology of female domesticity came be- main purpose was to coordinate a range women were encouraged to participate in the revolution. Mary Nash, however, has fore the needs of the industrial economy. of initiatives which put the family at the sports in the 1920s, by the 1930s the Italian recorded that the image of the Miliciana centre of society and nation. Besides chari- fascist regime was portraying sportswomen had disappeared from Republican propa- table work, the agency was expected to as unfemmine, even immodest. ganda by the end of 1936, to be replaced Women and Italian Fascism exercise some form of moral supervision. Thus while Communist Russia differed by the home-front heroine, the Republican In that same year, the fascist women's from Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy in Mother.14 Much less has been published in English organisation (Fasci femminili} was its stress on women taking a public role in This idealisation of motherhood might on the subject of women and Italian fas- reorientated, taken away from political ac- building the economy, the three authori- be seen as little different from the fascist cism than on women in Nazi Germany. tivities to focus on the social/familial, in- tarian regimes nevertheless equated ideal. In Spain, however, the Republican The general assumption is that in both cluding supporting and implementing women with domesticity. In the second half Mother undermined the traditional notion forms, fascism was explicitly anti-feminist ONMI's activities. Victoria de Grazia ar- of the 1930s, such differences as well as of the 'angel in the home' because the do- and that it exalted the role of woman as gues that some middle-class women the similarities between Left and Right over mestic sphere had become politicised. mother and as reproducer of the nation. thought that this might be an opportunity the position of women were reflected in Spanish women, like Russian women, Thus fascism had an interventionist role to raise the level of mothering skills and the conflict in Spain between the Republi- showed themselves prepared to take direct for the state in family affairs, refusing to introduce modern, scientific practices to can government, which enlisted women in action to protect not only their individual accept the traditional distinction between improve the health and welfare of mothers its struggle against counter-revolution, and families but also their community and their the political and the social, or even the and children. At the same time, lower-class the opposing nationalist forces which saw revolution. The Republican Mother was personal and the political. women, both urban and rural, resented the such 'free women' as the embodiment of expected to instill in her children republi- There were, however, differences be- interference of their social superiors. De the godless republic. can virtues and to encourage them to fight tween the two fascist states. In Italy, Grazia claims that the Catholic Church also against fascism. Moreover, while fascism economy and society were more back- resisted state interference, preferring to stressed biological motherhood, in Spain ward, the Catholic Church was much encourage local initiatives and private Women, Revolution and Counter- women simply had to show maternal feel- stronger and the racial element much charity. She believes that ONMI was frus- He volution in Spain ings towards the Republic to achieve the weaker than in Germany. Mussolini did trated not just by the Church's claim to status of mother. not use abortion or sterilisation to 'purify' authority in social affairs, but also by Until at least the late 1970s, histories of The one woman to figure prominently the race. Thus in contrast to Hitler, Mussolini's unwillingness to spend much the Spanish Civil War (1936-39) were writ- in the history, and mythology, of the

22 23 Spanish Civil War was La Pasionara, all women's organisations were banned, at local level. It gave Soviet Dolores Ibarruri, a communist who with the exception of the fascist women's women, too, a pride in their quickly became a symbolic figure; depend- movement which lost all political functions. ability to cope with the dou- ing on the bias of the observer, she was It was left to oversee the organisation of ble burden, reflected in the either idealised or demonised. Yet the first women for social service and to propagan- saying 'women can do female government minister (of Health) dise women on a mass scale. everything, men can do the was an anarchist, Federica Montseney. It rest'. Such an attitude was was the anarchist women's organisation anathema to Hitler, Musso- Mujeres Libres (Free Women, 1936) which Women and Dictatorship lini and Franco. Their coun- did most to question, though only partially, ter-revolutions had sought to traditional gender roles. Anarchist women There were similarities in the position of defeat the revolutionary stressed community and empowerment, women in Russia under communism, and 'New Woman'. Yet such and like communist women (to whom they in Germany and Italy under fascism: all women were in a minority. were ideologically opposed) they concen- three states were pro-natalist; women, like For the most part it was trated on mobilising women to contribute men, were expected to serve the needs of men who went off to fight. to the war effort, rather than on the fight the state; and women were remarkable by Revolutions as well as war for women's rights. Indeed, both anarchist their absence from positions of power. were, by the late 1930s, and communist women saw feminism as Women's experience of democratic Repub- very much masculine middle-class and divisive for the revolu- lican Spain was much briefer than the other affairs. tionary movement. case studies, but show similarities to the In contrast to the First With the exception of Ibarruri, and to a Russian situation, whereas the dictatorship World War, and as a reflec- lesser extent Montseney, women were 'lost' of Franco, with its pro-natalist policies tion of the preceding Span- from the history of the Civil War. One rea- from 1939 and legislation reimposing ish Civil War, the Second son is that the Republic was defeated and women's subservience to their husbands World War was portayed as the winning side under General Franco and fathers, echoed the programmes of an ideological conflict. It established a patriarchal state, writing Hitler and Mussolini. purported to be between the women out of the history of the Civil War The main difference between the dicta- forces of fascism and except as victims. Franco, who ruled until torships is that, even taking into account democracy, though the his death in 1975, quickly repealed all the limitations upon sexual equality in Stalinist dictatorship, which legislation which supported sexual equal- Soviet Russia, the ideology concerning began as an ally of Hitler, ity. Those women who had been politically women's role in society was much more fought the Great Patriotic War against the elusion of women in the labour force en- active in support of the Republican cause positive. In democratic Republican Spain, Nazis in alliance with the West from sured that they would play a crucial role were harshly treated, portrayed as any gains made by women proved short- 1941. While all the combatants thought in the war effort. prostitutes and destroyers of the Christian lived, replaced under Franco with hatred in terms of female domesticity, since Oc- Whereas women's role in the combat- family. The only place for women in Fran- for and persecution of women who had tober 1917 the Soviet Union had pro- ant states during the First World War was co's Spain was in the home. supported the Republic, Sexual equality, claimed sexual equality. However limited for the most part similar, in the Second Yet as in Germany and Italy, women had however imperfect in practice, was writ- in practice, the Stalinist stress on the in- World War ideology was significant in also been active on the side of counter- ten into the Soviet constitution. Certainly defining female activities. Thus in Brit- revolution. In 1934 fascist women were or- it resulted in Soviet women carrying a ain and the Soviet Union, women were ganised in the Seccion Femenina of the heavy burden, the 'double burden' of work Above, the communist Dolores Ibarruri, known as 'La Pasionara', wos the one woman to figure prominently in organised by the state to contribute to the Falange under the leadership of Pilar Primo and family. But it also gave them a public the history, and mythology, of the Spanish Civil War. war effort. In Nazi Germany, ideology de Rivera. As in Hitler's Germany and as well as a private role, with limited Following Franco's victory, women were written out of the history of the Civil War, except as victims. limited the role women could, and indeed Mussolini's Italy, once Franco was in power scope for political activity, most commonly Imperial War Museum were allowed to play. In terms of combat,

24 25 there was no consistency in the use of who were generally reluctant and had not women. Their involvement depended on planned for female participation. Usually a variety of factors: on historical and cul- women were seen in a support role and tural traditions; on the prevailing politi- not on the front line. If they took part in cal ideology or religious system; and on fighting, whether spontaneously or the actual circumstances of the war itself. through official recruitment, the situation When women were involved, it was al- was seen as one of desperation, in the face most always a decision made by men, of invasion or occupation. Women in Britain during the workers during the Second World War, Seeond World War designating certain crucial occupations as reserved, preventing men who worked in As in 1914, an immediate effect of war in those skilled areas from either enlisting or ] 939 was a rise in women's unemployment. being conscripted. One result was that there War hit the traditional female industries were fewer opportunities for women to do which concentrated on consumer goods, skilled work, despite wider job opportuni- such as pottery, footwear, clothing, textiles ties for them than in the First World War. and domestic service. Yet women workers As the War continued, more and more were soon to prove crucial to the war ef- demands were made on the work-force, es- fort. Indeed, some historians believe that pecially in essential war industries. Women the British government mobilised the popu- workers were faced with long hours, with lation for war work more effectively than constant shift work, with wages which any other Western state, though at first the were lower than those for men, and with government agencies were not prepared to the strains of feeding a family on rations. handle the numbers of women who re- Whereas in the First World War British sponded to the national emergency. In women had protested about their situation 1941, all women between the ages of 19 by resisting rent increases, in the Second and 40 had to register at employment ex- World War they complained about their changes so that the Ministry of Labour wages. The main grievance was about low, could direct those suitable into essential rather than unequal pay. Towards the end work. The National Service Number 2 Act of the War, women workers were involved of December 1941 decreed that all single in sporadic strike action. Nor were wages women between 20 and 35 years of age the only issue, for while there was state were liable for military service. help for women workers with children, it Once again, as in the First World War, was limited and often did not parallel the the large-scale employment of women was long hours of shift work expected in key assumed to be temporary, for the duration industries such as engineering. of the War only. Nor did women gain For some women, there was the evacu- equal pay with men. Women were faced ation of their children to contend with, and with a wider variety of jobs than in the for others the task of caring for the evacu- earlier conflict, reflecting both the differ- ees. Another group of women went into ent style of combat and the technological the armed forces, through the Women's developments since 1918. The government, Auxiliary Army Corps; but as in the First however, mobilised male as well as female World War, they did not take part in

26 27 military combat. Instead, pioning the patriarchal family, Vichy Yugoslav communists in particular in- they served as support proved unable to restrict women's partici- volved women, who participated in com- workers, in catering, cleri- pation in public life. Indeed, with a mil- bat alongside men; but all the groups — cal duties, stores and nurs- lion French men as prisoners of war in nationalist, fascist, as well as communist ing. There was also the Germany, and hundreds of thousands of — had women fighting. Yet most women Women's Land Army, in men (and around 45,000 women) sent to provided support at the rear, as was the which women, often with Germany on Compulsory Labour Service case in all the combatant countries. no experience of rural life, from 1942, women in Vichy were left to worked as farm labourers, support their families. Certainly most an essential job given the women remained in traditional female Women, War and Ideology efforts of the Nazis to cut roles, preoccupied with the problems of off supplies. everyday life, but just as civil war had po- Both Stalinist Russia and Nazi Germany The mobilisation of fe- liticised daily life in Spain, so occupation were dictatorships, yet the role of Russian male labour on such a did in France. While women protested and German women in the war differed scale, for food and services against the conditions of occupation, and considerably, both in the war industries and as well as armament pro- especially against food hoarding, few took at the front. At first, Stalin's response had duction and the military, part in armed resistance. Instead they filled been to replace men in factories, farms and seemed to bring a real dangerous support roles in providing safe mines with women. By 1943, over three- change to the relations be- houses, communication and information quarters of the agricultural labour force tween the sexes during the to the male-dominated Resistance move- was female, while in industry women con- Second World War. There ment. stituted up to 52 per cent of the labour was a loosening of moral Those women who participated in the force. Those women not directly involved and sexual restraints, partly Resistance remembered the experience as in war industries were mobilised into due to the impact of long egalitarian, even if the reality was one of building fortifications and digging separation upon partners. female inferiority.16 Indeed in the Second trenches. Given the huge loss of men, there By the end of the war, the World War women, including a few Brit- was no alternative. Eventually, childless divorce rate in Britain had Constructing on aircraft wing at a war factory in Slough. Women were faced with ish women, played a significant role in all women not engaged in war work were eli- a wider variety of jobs than in the First World War, reflecting both the different soared (five times more Style of combat and the technological developments since (9/8. Imperial War Museum the resistance movements, encompassing gible for military conscription. Almost than before the war), while terrorist acts and political agitation, from every detachment from as early as 1941 illegitimate births had tre- France to the Soviet Union. Italy, which had some women. Most performed medi- bled. War time was recognised as a pe- tries, women faced the same dilemma as began the War on the side of the Nazis, cal, communications and domestic work; riod of intense sexual relations, while there men — resistance or collaboration — but ended with a strong anti-fascist resistance but all were armed, and many fought, both was the influence of another culture, with in neither were they accorded leadership movement, in which women also played in direct combat and in sabotage missions. the presence of thousands of North Ameri- roles. Claire Duchen writes that in terms a part. As in France, after the war wom- Soviet women were directly engaged in can troops in Britain. Yet by the end of the of women the Liberation period in France en's contribution to the Italian Resistance fighting, using arms of every sort. They War, there was a general desire for stabil- was more concerned with collaboration went for the most part unrecognised. In fought on the ground and in the air. They ity in sexual partnerships, for security in (especially 'sexual collaboration1 with Yugoslavia, in contrast to both France and were organised in both mixed- and single- domestic life. German troops), while the history of wom- Italy there was a tradition of women fight- sex units, though more commonly in the en's part in the Resistance was understated lng against foreign oppressors, from the former. Most of them were young, but ages and undervalued. l5 The country had been Turks to the Nazis. In the Second World ranged from 15 to 50 years. Overall, Women and Occupation divided into German-occupied France and War, Yugoslavia was invaded by German, women made up around eight per cent of the collaborationist Vichy regime. Like Italian and Bulgarian troops; there were the combatants. They fought in both the Britain, of course, had neither been invaded Nazism, Vichy stressed motherhood as a also clashes between the nationalities, es- regular and irregular (or partisan) units. nor suffered occupation. In occupied coun- duty to the nation. However, while cham- pecially the Serbs and Croats. The The sources generally remark on the

28 29 greater equality of the sexes among the communications and weather stations, as partisans, but it is a picture which might aircraft spotters and operators of barrage well be romanticised. Part of Soviet war- balloons. As the War dragged on some time propaganda was the depiction of the women were trained as mechanics. On a woman warrior defending her country smaller scale, the German Navy employed against the enemy, reminiscent of the Span- around 20,000 female auxiliaries in ish Miliciana. At the end of the War how- mainly clerical and communications du- ever, all Soviet women combatants were ties. Even the Waffen SS had its women demobilised. auxiliaries, numbering about 5,000. The opposite was the case in Nazi Ger- When the Germans captured over many. Besides holding an ideology which 100,000 Russian female soldiers early in insisted that a woman's place was in the the War, they were shocked that these home, the Nazis believed that a major rea- women held full combatant status. German son for defeat in the First World War had women auxiliaries, however essential for been domestic discontent. In contrast to its the war effort, were never allowed to use opponents, Germany did not try to fill its weapons. Even though the women were in labour shortages by the increasing use of uniform and subject to military discipline, women in the work-force. As in the earlier they were considered civilians. Nazi ide- conflict, there was a profound hostility in ology prevented the direct conscription of Germany to the use of women for military women as combatants. Only with the cer- purposes. The Nazis at first used women tainty of defeat did the Nazis consider es- in only small numbers, and later tried to tablishing a female combat battalion, and hide their increasing participation by even mixed-sex partisan groups, but such means of 'indirect conscription' such as the plans came to nothing. 'duty year', not only in agriculture but in Yet in spite of the Nazi ideological ob- nursing and other support services, espe- jection to women in paid employment, as tkewwe* we wed. cially anti-aircraft units. high a proportion of women worked in Thus in 1940 the Women's Signal Aux- Germany as in Britain during the War. iliary, set up in the First World War, was What the Nazis did not do was force re-established. It included, for example, te- women to change jobs, even when the de- lephonists. By 1942 it was around 8,000 mands of a war-time economy called for strong, but it did not increase thereafter planning the labour force. The Nazis did and never mixed with soldiers who per- not want to become unpopular by com- formed similar duties. The Luftwaffe was pelling women to work. Nor did necessity the most intensive employer of women force women to work, in contrast to the among the armed forces. In the Air Force other combatant states, because wives of Women's Auxiliaries (which by 1945 em- men in the German armed forces received ployed 100,000 women), they worked in generous allowances. Certainly, in Janu- ary 1943, all German men between 60 and

*-eft poster for the Air Raid Precaution campaign of (938. 65 and all women between 17 and 45 years Women ambulance drivers, women wardens, Some historians believe that the British government of age were told to register for work. Yet mobilised the population for war work more effectively only a fifth of the women who did so were than any other Western state, though at first the women for iirsf aid and casually stations. government agencies were not prepared to handle the employed. Even when it was clear, by the ""mbers of women who responded to the national end of 1943, that the millions of forced ENROL AT ONCE! emergency. Hulton Getty

30 31 labourers could not satisfy the demands of ghettoes, Jewish the economy, Hitler still resisted the com- men had been pulsory mobilisation of German women more likely to be workers. To make up for the shortfalls in killed; but from the labour force, Germany relied increas- 1942, with the in- ingly on the forced labour of foreigners, creasing rate of including women. deportations to the death camps, more women than men Women and Genocide could now be con- sidered 'surplus' What is often missing from studies of the when labour selec- Holocaust is a consideration of gender. Yet tions were made. Claudia Koonz, in her study of women in There is disagree- the Third Reich, asks what role women ment concerning a played in the genocide. She points on the focus on the one hand to the few thousand female prison specificity of wom- matrons and camp guards who partici- en's experience of pated in, even if they did not plan, the the Holocaust, be- 'final solution'. On the other hand, Nazi cause the Final So- wives provided the murderers with emo- lution was to rid tional stability, what Koonz terms 'an the world of all ersatz sanity'. l7 Jews, men and There was a certain equality in the bru- women. However, tal treatment meted out by the Nazis, who Jewish women nevertheless separated the women from were killed not the men in the camps. Those women who simply because survived, such as Kitty Hart, showed that they were Jews, but because they could re- Some women (like this 55 guard at Ravensbruck resurgence of domestic ideology, in which it was necessary to build relations with produce the Jewish race. While both concentration camp) actively supported the Nazi regime. the family with the mother at, or even con- While racially 'pure' German women were confined to the other inmates — survival was a social, women and men were victims of sterilisa- home, non-Arynn women were treated as slave-labourers. fined to, its centre represented a haven of rather than an individual, achievement. tion experiments, memoirs show that in Wiener Library stability. In her study of British women and The same was true of those who were in- the camps Jewish motherhood was to be the Second World War, Penny Summerfield volved in ghetto resistance, such as Vladka eradicated: no Jewish child or woman who employment, most women, whether in war stressed the continuity in 1945 with pre- Meed, who played crucial roles, smuggling could produce children was to be allowed industries or the armed forces, were de- war attitudes and practices, both in paid arms and dynamite as well as correspond- to live. A pregnant Jewish woman was mobilised after the Second World War, just employment and in the home. Indeed, she ence, and fighting the oppressor. Yet it also gassed immediately. Thus though 'the hell as they had been after the First World War. saw a cultural offensive against women, seems that in this resistance, women were was the same, the horrors were different'.19 They were expected to return to the home or rather married women, working. 20 Per- expected to do, and assumed, traditional and the ideal of domesticity. After such a haps the main advance, and one which men domestic tasks.IS Many women as well as long struggle, there was nostalgia for tra- found hard to cope with, was that women men resisted the 'Final Solution' in a vari- Women in 1945 ditional gender roles; and as relations be- had gained in self-confidence. The experi- ety of ways. For the vast majority the result tween the former Allies soured and the Cold ence of all the combatants was similar, was death. With the exception of the Soviet Union, War intensified, the 'liberated woman' was with the exception of the Soviet Union, Women probably made up more than where the death toll among men had been associated with communism. Integral to where the magnitude of population losses, half the dead in the Holocaust. In the so high as to preclude women leaving paid the anti-communism of the 1950s was the particularly of men, was such as to

32 33 preclude the return of women to the home. social developments and under question Yet while Russian women made up just from women themselves. The wars and over half the workforce after 1945, the de- revolutions between 1914 and 1945 pro- mographic shock of the War had been so vided women with new opportunities, and great that there was a nostalgia for tradi- while many gains were either partial or tional gender roles which ensured the con- temporary, there could be no total retreat tinuing association of women with to a situation of separate spheres for the Johanna Alberti, Beyond Suffrage: Feminists 1' Claudia Koonz, Mothers of the Fatherland: domesticity. sexes. One reason was that women were in War and Peace, 1914-28 (Basingstoke, Women, the Family andNazi Politics (Lon- Indeed, during this half century, the af- needed to help rebuild devastated econo- 1989), pp. 71-87. don, 1987), see chapter 11. termath of wars and revolutions had in- mics; another was that women's confidence Ute Daniel, 'Women's Work in Industry and 12 For Koonz, see ibid\r Mason, see note 9; variably seen such nostalgia throughout and expectations had risen. Still, what was family: Germany 1914-1918', in The Up- for Jill Stephenson, see The Nazi Organisa- the whole of Europe. This desire to return clear by 1945 was that in terms of notions heaval of War: Family, Work, and Welfare tion ofWomen (London, 1981}. to a past security might be partly explained of 'a woman's place' it was the similarity in Europe 1914-1918 (Cambridge, 1988), 15 Victoria de Grazia, How Fascism Ruled by the huge burdens and immense suffer- rather than the difference between directly Richard Wall and Jay Winter (eds.), pp. 267- Women (Berkeley, California, 1992). ing which political and military strife had opposing ideologies which was remark- 296. brought to both women and men. Yet even able. Between 1914 and 1945 war and 1-1 Mary Nash, '"Milicianas" and Home front For the impressions of Mrs Pankhurst and before war in 1914, the established order revolution had shaken but not shattered Heroines: Images of Women in Revolution- other foreign visitors to the Women's Battal- between the sexes was already being chal- traditional relations between women and ary Spain (1936-1939)', History of Euro- ion in 1917, see Julie Wheelwright, Amazons lenged, under pressure from economic and men. pean Ideas, (1989), ifol.1l. See also Frances and Military Maids: Women Who Dressed Lannon, 'Women and Images of Women in As Men In Pursuit Of Life, Liberty And Hap- the Spanish Civil War', Transactions of the piness (London, 1989). Royal Historical Society, (1991).

Joseph Melling,Re«t.Strikes: People's Strug- 1 * Claire Duchen, Women's Rights and Wom- gle for Housing in West Scotland 1890- en's Lives in France 1944-1968 (London, 1916 (Edinburgh, 1983), chapters 7-10. 1994}, pp. 11-16.

Brian Harrison, Prudent Revolutionaries: 16 See Paula Schwartz, 'Partisanes and General Portraits of British Feminists between the Politics in Vichy France', French Historical Wars (Oxford, 1987), p. 303. Studies, (Spring 1989), vol.16.

Non-Bolshevik pre-rcvolutionary feminists 17 Koonz, Mothers in the Fatherland, p. 416. have been rescued by Linda Harriet 1 w Kitty Hart, Return to Auschwitz: the Remark- Edmondson, feminism in Russia 1900- able Story of a Girl who Survived the Holo- 1917 (London, 1984). caust (New York, 1985); Vladka Meed, On Victor Serge, Memoirs of a Revolutionary Both Sides of the Wall (New York, 1979). 1901-194J, translated by Peter Sedgwick |1J Myrna Goldcnberg, 'Different Honors, Same (Oxford, 1963), p. 205. Hell: Women Rememhering the Holocaust' Rosa Levine-Mayer, Inside German Com- in Thinking the Unthinkable: Meanings of munism (London, 1977), p.100. the Holocaust, Roger S. Gottlieb (ed.}, (New Tim Mason, 'Women in Germany 1925- York, 1991). See also Judith TydorBaumel, 1940: Family, Welfare and Work\ 'Gender and Family Studies of the Holocaust; Workshop, (1976), no. 1 and no. 2. A Historiographical Overview''w Women: a cultural review (1996), vol.7, no.2. 11 See Utc Frevert, Women in German History.- From Bourgeois Emancipation to Sexual Lib- 2(1 Penny Summer field, Women Workers in the eration (Oxford, 1990}. Second World War (Londun, 1984), p. 1.

34 35 ing Gender in Post- War France 1917-1927 women and the Russian Revolution, and Further Reaclin (Chicago, 1994) by Mary Roberts. there are relevant chapters in Women in For Ireland, see Margaret Ward, Un- Russia (Stanford, 1977), edited by D. manageable Revolutionaries (London, Atkinson, A. Dallin and G.W. Lapidus. A 1989); Rosemary Cullcn Owens, Smash- useful article is Moira Donaldson's 'Bol- Overview Reynolds, France Between the Wars: Gen- ing Times: A History of the Irish Women's shevik Activity among the Working der and Politics (Routledge, London, Suffrage Movement 1889-1922 (Dublin, Women of Petrograd in 1917', International A very informative and thoughtful collec- 1996); for Germany, Ute Frevert, Women 1984); Diana Norman, Terrible Beauty: Review of Social History, 1982, vol.xxvii. tion of essays is M. Higonnet et al (eds.), in German History: From Bourgeois Eman- A Life of Constance Markievicz (London, See also Wendy Goldman, Women, the Behind the Lines: Gender and the Two cipation to Sexual Liberation (Oxford, 1987); Leah Levenson and Jerry State and Revolution: Soviet Family Policy World Wars (New Haven, 1987). Also very 1990), and for Russia Daughters of Revo- Nattcrstad, Hanna Sheehy Skeffington and Social Life 1917-1936 (Cambridge, relevant are Carol R. Bcrkin and Clara lution: A History of Women in the USSR (Syracuse, 1986); and Coming into the 1993). M. Lovett (eds.), Women, War and Revo- by Barbara Clements (Arlington Heights, Light: The Work, Politics and Religion of For women in Nazi Germany, there is a lution (New York, 1980); Sian Reynolds Illinois, 1994). Women in Ulster 1840-1940 (Belfast, 1994) wealth of material. Besides the works of (ed.), Women, State and Revolution: Es- by Diane Urquhart and Janice Holmes. Jill Stephenson, Tim Mason and Claudia says on Power and Gender in Europe since Koonz cited in the Notes, there is Leila 1789 (Brighton, 1986); Richard Evans, The First World War The Women's Liberation Movement in Rupp's Mobilizing Women for War Comrades and Sisters: Feminism, Social- Russia: Feminism, Nihilism and Bolshe- (Princeton, New Jersey, 1978); Alison ism and Pacifism in Europe 1870-1945 For Britain, Gail Braybon in Women vism 1860-1930 by Richard Stites Owing's Frauen: German Women Recall (Brighton, 1987); G. Bock and P. Thane Workers in the First World War (London, (Princeton, New Jersey, 1978) is packed the Third Reich (London, 1993); When (eds.), Maternity and Gender Policies: 1981) incorporates research since Arthur with useful detail and interesting insights. Biology Became Destiny: Women in Women and the Rise of the European Wel- Marwick's still valuable Women and War Besides Linda Edmondson's work on femi- Weimar and Nazi Germany, Renatc fare States 1880s-19SOs (London, 1991); 1914-1918 (London, 1977). G. Thomas nism (see Notes), there is the chapter by Bridenthal, Alina Grossman and Marion Marie Sophia Quinn, Population Politics gives a concise view of Life on All Fronts: Alfred G. Meyer, 'The Impact of World Kaplan (eds.), (New York, 1984); and Jill in Twentieth-Century Europe (London, Women in the First World War (Cam- War 1 on Russian Women's Lives' in Rus- Stephenson, Women in Nazi Society (Lon- 1996); and K Thebaud fed.), A History of bridge, 1989), while Susan K. Kent pro- sia's Women: Accommodation, Resistance, don, 1975). Women in the West. vol.V. Toward a Cul- vides insight into the long term impact of Transformation, B. E. Clements, B.A. Much of the literature on women and tural Identity in the Twentieth Century war, in Making the Peace: The Recon- Engel, and C.D. Worobec (eds.), (Berkeley, the Holocaust is in either fiction or memoir. (Cambridge, Mass., 1994). struction of Gender in Inter-War Britain California, 1991). There are a number of Besides Kitty Hart and Vladka Meek cited For Britain, Gail Braybon and Penny (Princeton, New Jersey, 1994). biographies of the leading Bolshevik in the Notes, see Janina Bauman, Winter Summerficld have usefully combined their For France, Steven G. Hause — biogra- Alexandra Kollontai: see for example Bol- in the Morning: A Young Girl's Life in the expertise on the two world wars in Out of pher of Hubertine Auclert: The French shevik Feminist: The Life of Aleksandra Warsaw Ghetto and Beyond (London, the Cage:Women's Experiences in Two Suffragette (New Haven, 1987) who died Kollontai by Barbara Evans Clements (In- 1987) and Giuliana Tedeschi, There is a World Wars (London, 1987). Also very in 1914 — has also written on 'Women diana, 1979); see also R.C. Elwood, Inessa Place on Earth: A Woman in Birkenau relevant here is Martin Pugh's Women and Who Rallied to the Tricoleur: the Effects Armand: Revolutionary and Feminist (New York, 1993). For a range of experi- the Women's Movement in Britain 1914- of World War 1 on the French Suffrage (Cambridge, 1992). ences see Vera Laska (eel.), Womew in the 1959 (Basingstoke, 1991); and Jill Movement', Proceedings of the Western Resistance and in the Holocaust: The Liddington's The Long Road to Greenham: Society for French History, (1979), vol. 6. Voices of Eyewitnesses (London, 1983). Feminism and Anti-militarism in Britain Another interesting article in the same jour- Revolution and Counter- Carol Rittner and John K. Roth (eds.}^ Dif- since 1820 (London, 1989). For Ireland, nal (1978, vol. 5) is 'Women against the Revolution ferent Voices: Women and the Holocaust see Maria Luddy and Cliona Murphy War: a feminine basis for international- (New York, 1993) is divided into three sec- (eds.), Women Surviving: Studies in Irish ism and pacifism?' by Charles Sowerwine. Both the above biographies, as well as the tions: the first contains extracts from mem- Women's History in the 19th and 20th Cen- For the longer term impact of the war, see previously cited works by Stites and oirs of mostly Jewish women who were in turies (Dublin, 1990); for France, Sian Civilisation Without Sexes: Reconstruct- Hdmondson have obvious relevance for Auschwitz; the second consists of historians

37 discussing the relationship between gen- The Second World War der and genocide; and the third contains reflection by Holocaust survivors and the For Britain, Arthur Marwick again pro- children of survivors. vides a standard text, The Home Front: Since the 1980s more interest has been Britain and the Second World War (Lon- shown in the subject of women and Italian don, 1976), whose findings are added to fascism: see Lesley CaldweH's important by Penny Summer field's Women Workers chapter 'Reproducers of the Nation: in the Second World War (London, 1984). Women and the Family in Fascist Policy' C. Lang's Keep Smiling Through: Women in David Forgacs (ed.), Rethinking Italian in the Second World War (Cambridge, Fascism: Capitalism, Populism and Cul- 1989), and Bombers and Mash: The Do- ture (London, 1986). Victoria dc Grazia's mestic Front 1939-45 (London, 1980) by Row Fascism Ruled Women: Italy 1922- Raynes Minns provide interesting detail. 1945 (Berkeley, California, 1992) is a de- A study of women whose contribution to tailed analysis. Perry Wilson's The the war effort is often either overlooked or Clockwork Factory: Women and Work in underestimated is They Fought in the Fascist Italy {Oxford, 1993) is a special Fields. The Women's Land Army: The study of Magneti-Marelli, possibly the most Story of a Forgotten Victory by Nicola modern firm in Italy at the time, which Tyrer {London, 1996). had been founded in Milan as a result of On France, see Margaret Collins Wcitz, the demand for arms in the First World Sisters in the Resistance: How Women War. fought to Free France, 1940-1945 (West For the Spanish Civil War, pioneering Sussex, 1996}; M.L. Rossiter's Women in work has been done by Mary Nash: see the French Resistance (New York, 1985}; her Defying Male Civilisation: Women in Miranda Pollard, 'Women and the Na- the Spanish Civil War (Denver, 1995). See tional Revolution' in R. Kedward and R. also Martha A. Ackelsbcrg, Free Women Austin (eds.), Vichy France and the Re- of Spain: Anarchism and the Struggle for sistance: Culture and Ideology (London, the Emancipation of Women 1985); and Sarah Fishman, We Will Wait: (Bloomington, Indiana, 1991); and Shirley Wives of French Prisoners of War 1940- Mangini, Memoirs of Resistance: Wom- 1945 (New Haven, 1991). For Yugosla- en's Voices from the Spanish Civil War via, there is Women and Revolution in (New Haven, 1995). A novel feature of Yugoslavia 1941-45 (Denver, 1990) by B. the anthologies by Valentine Cunningham, Jancar-Webster. The works on women and The Spanish Front: Writers on the Civil Italian fascism, and on women in the Third War (Oxford, 1986) and Jim Fyrth (ed.) Reich mentioned above and in the Notes with Sally Alexander, Women's Voices are also relevant, as is Frevert's Women from the Spanish Civil War (London, 1991) in German History. For Russia, see was the emphasis on the role of non-Span- Atkinson et al's Women in Russia and ish women in the war. For a woman who Daughters of the Revolution by Clements, sided with Franco see Priscilla Scott-Ellis, both previously cited. See also Gail The Chances of Death: A Diary of the Lapidus, Women in Soviet Society Spanish Civil War (Norwich, 1995). (Berkeley, California, 1978).

38 39 NEW APPRECIATIONS

On the surface, the period l*>14 to 1945 seems to have encompassed masshe changes in the position of women in Europe, in response to the demands of war and revolution. In this thorough yet concise overview of the period, Jane ieDermid questions this perception and reveals the diversity of women's experience not only between states hut within idividual societies. She argues that many of the gains made by women in both World Wars proved to be short lived, and that deologies, of both left and right, had shaken but not shattered traditional relations between the sexes.

INI; ISTORICAL ASSOCIATION