The First Aid Nursing Yeomanry and the Special Operations Executive: An oral history analysis of gendered subjectivities
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Strathclyde
Department Name: History
Abstract
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Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
| Juliette Pattinson (Principal Investigator) |
Publications
Pattinson J
(2011)
'The thing that made me hesitate ': re-examining gendered intersubjectivities in interviews with British secret war veterans
in Women's History Review
Pattinson Juliette
(2020)
Women of War: Gender, Modernity and the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry
| Description | 1) The propaganda image of a 'People's War' masked acute class, gender, racial and national differences and failed to lead to social cohesion either during the war or after. Class and gender differences were maintained, conventional gender roles were strengthened and pre-war social barriers remained intact. 2) Rather than leading to social levelling as traditional historians have argued, my research supports the findings of revisionists since the SOE-FANYs' experiences during the Second World War reinforced the women's class identity. 3) Despite being integrated into a paramilitary organisation, undertaking work of extreme secrecy which pushed against the boundaries of acceptable feminine war work and transgressing into male spaces by working in overseas stations that were close to the fighting, gender differences were maintained and the SOE-FANYs did not challenge conventional gender norms as they were employed in work which utilised skills tagged as feminine. 4) While revisionist historians have disputed the emancipatory effect of the Second World War upon women which traditionalists have propounded, the personal testimonies that I collected reveal that the SOE-FANYs themselves felt changed by the experience, yet they had difficulty in articulating concrete transformations. 5) Interviewees denied the significance of gender and class, composed accounts that upheld the FANY identity and reputation and suppressed stories that might threaten it. Moreover, the FANY legend centred on the motto 'I Cope' provided a framework upon which interviewees could hang their own personal recollections of the war and fitting their memories into this generalised account provided a sense of composure. 6) The SOE-FANYs have been overshadowed by the focus upon the operational female agents and have been omitted from memory projects of the Second World War, such as museum exhibitions, online memory archives and television documentaries. |
| Exploitation Route | The findings will be of interest to academics and students as upper class women haven't been the focus of research to date. It will also be of use to the FANY organisation which celebrated its centenary in 2007. |
| Sectors | Education,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections,Other |
| Description | Findings yet to be disseminated. Book will be returned to in May 2015. 2/3rds already drafted. |