A review of the impact of women's military or wartime service in the aftermath of the First World War
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Manchester
Department Name: Arts Languages and Cultures
Abstract
This PhD project will study the long-term impact that working for the British war effort during World War One had on the women involved. Whilst many studies have been completed in relation to women's wok during the war, a detailed and comprehensive examination of how this work affected their lives afterwards has yet to be produced. It will look at how women's wartime experiences changed them, how they reflected on their changed roles, and how the experience influenced their work and lives in the inter-war period and beyond. As such, this work will feed into the lively debate about the aftermath of World War One that is currently on-going both within and beyond academia. In particular, the collaboration between the IWM and the University of Manchester which this project entails offers a unique opportunity for my research to make a significant and distinctive contribution to this debate.
The research project aims to identify and explore a neglected aspect of the legacy of the First World War, namely the post-war impact of the
participation of British women in the war effort. Work by Susan Grayzel, Gail Braybon and Susan Kingsley-Kent has contributed significantly to this historiography of this area. However, my work will mobilize hitherto largely untapped resources held at IWM, notably the extensive collection of journals of former servicewomen, started by the Old Comrades Associations of the women's auxiliary services in 1920 and 1921 to track the ways in which women's wartime experience was constructed and reconstructed after World War One.
Through a close examination of these sources, this PhD will aim to engage with the following key questions. To what extent did the Old Comrades Association journals keep alive the camaraderie of women's wartime service and preserve and enlarge friendship networks established in the war period? Similarly, how were the skills and disciplines developed by servicewomen in wartime remembered post-war, when such attributes were, ostensibly, no longer socially valued in women?
The research project aims to identify and explore a neglected aspect of the legacy of the First World War, namely the post-war impact of the
participation of British women in the war effort. Work by Susan Grayzel, Gail Braybon and Susan Kingsley-Kent has contributed significantly to this historiography of this area. However, my work will mobilize hitherto largely untapped resources held at IWM, notably the extensive collection of journals of former servicewomen, started by the Old Comrades Associations of the women's auxiliary services in 1920 and 1921 to track the ways in which women's wartime experience was constructed and reconstructed after World War One.
Through a close examination of these sources, this PhD will aim to engage with the following key questions. To what extent did the Old Comrades Association journals keep alive the camaraderie of women's wartime service and preserve and enlarge friendship networks established in the war period? Similarly, how were the skills and disciplines developed by servicewomen in wartime remembered post-war, when such attributes were, ostensibly, no longer socially valued in women?
People |
ORCID iD |
Charlotte Wildman (Primary Supervisor) | |
Jane Clarke (Student) |
Publications
Clarke J
(2020)
The WRNS in wartime: the Women's Royal Naval Service 1917-1945 by Hannah Roberts, London, I. B. Tauris, 2018, 277 pp., £72.00 (hardback), ISBN: 978-1788310017
in Journal for Maritime Research
Clarke J
(2019)
Women as veterans in Britain and France after the first world war
in Women's History Review
Clarke J
(2019)
Feminism and the legacy of the First World War in the journals of the Old Comrades Associations, 1919-1935
in Women's History Review
Description | Collaborative Doctoral Partnership |
Organisation | Imperial War Museum |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | I work with the Imperial War Museum as part of my Collaborative Doctoral Award. I am part of the PhD research group. |
Collaborator Contribution | I have a supervisor based at the Museum and I am currently investigating undertaking a placement with the curatorial team. |
Impact | My PhD research is based on archive collections at the museum. |
Start Year | 2016 |
Description | Interview for Radio Wales |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
Results and Impact | I gave an interview to BBC Radio Wales talking about my research as part of the radio's commemorative programme for the centenary of the end of the First World War. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | School visit |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | I gave a talk to Sixth Form students at my local school about my research, focusing broadly on the role of women in the First World War, as a complementary activity to help with their A Level History course. We had a lively discussion afterwards during which the students expressed their surprise at the fact that women served in the military during the First World War. We also had a general discussion about applying to University and studying History at degree level. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |