Introduction

In a period of high idealism, and titanic illimitable death women often found themselves longing to play an active role alongside their male compatriots.

About the Work

In this fascinating work, Sharon Ouditt examines the traumatic nature of women's experiences during the Great War, and the complex ideological structures they constructed in order to legitimate their position in the public world of work and politics.

Methodology and Findings

Using a wealth of historical material - contemporary propaganda, journals, magazines, memoirs and fiction - Sharon Ouditt challenges the notion that women achieved sudden and unproblematic independence, and demonstrates the ways in which women mediated their attraction to a fixed female identity with their desire for radical social change.