‘Patriotic Femininity’: Women's Morals and Men's Morale During the Second World War

Abstract

Because of the way history has been constructed, the heroic myths of the Second World War are predominantly male, and yet there is a need for other kinds of critical knowledge to be produced to provide an understanding of women's lives and another, feminine, kind of heroism. This article brings a critical feminist perspective to bear on the analysis of women's experiences in wartime and the major changes which occurred in the socio-sexual, domestic and employment roles of women during the Second World War. The power of symbolism in the myths and propaganda produced during this time, and after, demonstrates their misogynist underpinnings. There was an 'idealisation of contrasted masculine and feminine qualities which underlie both positive and negative myths'. 2 Women's response to the demands made of them during the Second World War, and the construction of a positive femininity, acted as a challenge to dominant masculinities. Women negotiated their lives through this fractured and gendered time and space. The disruption of normality could have presented the preconditions for a crisis in the maintenance of gender relations as contrary demands were being articulated and directed at women. In public discourses 'patriotic femininity', as feminine identity, and its binary opposite 'patriotic masculinity' created a heightened sense of heterosexuality. In response to this heightened sense of heterosexuality there was the construction of discourses to contain women and female sexuality. Public and private fears were expressed regarding the effect of the disruptions of war on social relations.In the early months of the war few official measures were taken by the state to organise women and relocate them into war production. There was a deliberate policy to introduce female 'dilution' slowly to avoid a repetition of the labour unrest created by the mobilisation of women during the First World War. 3 The demands of that war had illuminated the need for women's contribution to the war effort, but this contribution had been accompanied by resistance and hostility from individuals and groups interested in protecting their own privileges. During the earlier conflict, women were encouraged to take over male jobs by the recruitment slogan 'Do Your

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