Gender Roles in WWI

Britain’s Use of Women in War and Propaganda

By Abbey Parker

The role of women in the Great War left post-War Britain in a prime state for new social and gendered norms that would kickstart Western Europe toward a progressive shift for women in the 20th century. In 1914, when the war broke out in Europe, the women in Great Britain answered a call to action that had a ripple effect on them, both in times of war and peace, for years to come. War propaganda proved to be incredibly effective for the British in WWI, reaching both their citizens and yet-to-join countries like the United States. The British used wartime posters, movies, poems, and other forms of media to manifest reactions to the emotional wartime imagery. Ultimately, the Great War and British propaganda served to both propel British women forward in society while also continuing to solidify traditional British values of women.

Although women in Great Britain did not fight on the battlefields, their efforts were not futile. Women quickly mobilized into the workforce, replacing conscripted men in jobs outside of the sphere of domestic jobs deemed appropriate for women at the time or in most societies. Although British women “served as nurses and as clerks in banks, post offices, and government offices” in greater numbers during the Great War, women also came to occupy, “for the first time ever, as auxiliary soldiers and sailors, as police officers, and as omnibus and railway conductors.”^[1] During the last stretch of the war, a third of women in England were granted the right to vote in February 1918 after years of tension and violence during the Suffragette movement in England. The Representation of the People Act of 1918 conditionally enfranchised women if they were over 30 and met property requirements. Contrastingly, all men, regardless of property status, over the age of 21 were granted the right to vote.^[2] The voting population then had women’s voices for the first time; it still did not have the ability to represent the women of Britain until the right to vote was expanded a decade later.

While WWI expanded British women’s status, British propaganda both aided in their expansion and also helped solidify traditional gender roles. Britain's war time propaganda posters are organized into three different categories each fueled by their own motives: homefront patriotism, recruitment, and denouncement of Britain’s enemies. Homefront propaganda aimed to gain the support and approval for the war from Britain’s own citizens, creating their most pivotal non-conscripted regiment in the war. Posters depicting soldiers in the battlefield, the need for more wartime materials, and a proud, hard-working labor force appealed to Britons. The posters created a strong sense of solidarity and national pride, highlighting how the true strength of Britain could overcome the enemy and win the war. This notion of solidarity included both men and women, where men were depicted as fighting valiantly and women were depicted as the backbone of support that would ensure the men’s success. Such ideas are presented in the “Women Urgently Wanted for the WAAC” poster.^[3] The poster depicts a woman in a conservative uniform with a list of positions needing to be filled in the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps. These positions include traditionally female roles, like cooks and clerks, but also involved drivers and mechanics, positions usually filled by men. This poster plays on the growing feminist ideology in Britain, offering new roles to women that were previously barred based on gender. The significance of posters like this during the war cannot be understated as seen in the “50 percent increase in the number of women in the paid work force.”^[4]

Recruitment propaganda included appeals to male gender roles, personal pride, and national pride. The poster with the writing, “Will You Go or Must I” is an example of appealing to male gender roles with a bleak and calamitous tone.^[5] The illustration depicts a woman holding a rifle saying to a man that she must fight if he does not “For the Glory of Ireland.”^[6] It shows a burning Belgium across the English Channel, and suggests that the man is not “man enough” to go and risk his life for the benefit of Britain. Traditionally taking on the role of the protector, men, from this poster, are expected to extend that role to war, and the decision to enlist is the correct one. Should a man not fight, he is then leaving the responsibility of fighting to women, and is thus no longer a protector and by extension a man. This same sentiment is seen in Owen’s poem “Disabled” when he describes a man’s reasons for joining the war as “that’s why; and maybe, too, to please his Meg, / Aye, that was it, to please the giddy jilts.”^[7] Here, Owen is saying that women were a motivation for men to fight in the war. His poem offers a gendered commentary for male soldiers that works against women’s social progress, describing how men must fulfill their social duty to act as protectors and to please women.

Denouncement propaganda takes form in the poster “The Hun and the Home.” ^[8] There is a night and day comparison of the warm and safe England to the devastating image of war-torn Belgium. On the left, a picture of England is illustrated in bright colors and a harmonious setting. Below the picture, a description provides details about a positive quality of life for women. On the right, a battle-scarred Belgium is depicted in a dark, gloomy atmosphere. Below the picture, the description describes the state and quality of life for Belgian women that is opposite to that in England.^[9] This aims to evoke an emotional response of empathy for Belgians, but to also create a sense of fear for the possibility of a coming invasion of British homes. The representation of violence from Germany referred to as the Huns, a comparison to the brutish nomadic tribe of Asia which Kaiser Wilhelm II had worn proudly, aids in Britain's attempt to invoke negative sentiments of fear and hatred toward the Germans. It also denounces the militarism and morals of the Germans.^[10] The poster appeals to the patriarchal society in Britain and the notion that men are responsible for the safety of women. From the poster, Germany is not only an aggressor and adversary, but an adversary that threatens the lives of British women specifically.

Women were also used for anti-war propaganda in poems. Societal pressures and the false promises of glory engulfed young men who were thrown into the horrors of total war. Many men never received the accolades they had sacrificed so much for. Those who survived and were disabled were ostracized by the country they had fought for. In Wilfred Owen’s poem, he describes this abandonment and betrayal of the soldiers returning home with “tonight he noticed how the women’s eyes / passed from him to the strong men that were whole. / How cold and late it is! Why don’t they come / and put him into bed? Why don’t they come?”^[11] Here, Owen highlights the disconnect between the idea of promised honor and the grim realities of the Great War. The young British men, convinced by their own nation that fighting is an ultimate good, have found only flippant praise, isolation, and brokenness. The very thing they fought to defend, Britain and their women, now no longer recognize their courage and sacrifice. This excerpt highlights a British male perspective but also a gendered expectation from women after the war. The man, having sacrificed himself for the honor and safety of women, fails to recognize the sacrifice that women also gave for the Great War. The man feels he is owed recognition by women specifically, highlighting persisting traditional gender roles of women’s jobs to serve men while the men’s job is to serve the country.

Rupert Brookes’ poem, “The Soldier” also serves as an example of gendered propaganda in Britain.^[12] The poem describes the honor of dying in battle and how it brings a sense of immortality for fallen soldiers with “in that rich earth a richer dust concealed / A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware, / Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam; / A body of England’s, breathing English air.”^[13] These lines highlight the role of men in war, where they are responsible for fighting for and defending their home country. In doing so, men are honored for their sacrifice, and their loss of life is a gain for the status and legacy of England. Conversely, Brooke’s language in the poem indicates a persisting ideology of traditional female roles. The personification of England as female and the country’s ability to produce, care for, and train soldiers suggests that England is playing a maternal role, and thus, must be protected by male soldiers. This poem, again, underscores the notion that women are useful only in a maternal role, and that they require the strength of men for protection. Brooke’s clear message of nationalism and hopefulness towards the war, marked with gendered language, make his poem a useful tool for Britain’s war effort to inspire young men to join the cause and for current soldiers to keep fighting.

Women were a key tool in war propaganda that used imagery centered around them to increase nationalist pride while also reinforcing traditional gender norms and stereotypes. Women in Great Britain had many expectations to live up to during war time. They were used as symbols of the imperial strength of Britain and were expected to motivate, nurture, and care for the nation. The women in Britain exceeded that expectation when they pushed the line of gender norms by providing for the nation during its time of need in non-traditional roles. This is marked by the success of the transition of women into male jobs in industry, the bravery of the nurses in the battlefields, and women becoming non-combat soldiers. Women were put into positions that traditional gender ideology determined them unfit for such as being the breadwinner, family provider, or any kind of self-sufficient status. Despite this societal progress, men returning to their jobs postwar forced women back into domestic roles. There is a large contrast in the ability to use things like propaganda to instill binary constraints on women while also depending on them as the backbone of the nation’s workforce. British propaganda worked both to progress women’s status in British society while also reinforcing long-established gender roles. However, enough change occurred that British women’s status was permanently moved forward, and they would continue to be an integral part of Britain’s strength into modern Britain’s politics, economics, and society.

^[1] Arnstein, “Britain and World War I,” 269.

^[2] “Women Get the Vote - UK Parliament.”  https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/electionsvoting/womenvote/overview/thevote/.

^[3] “Women Urgently Wanted for the WAAC.” https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/31373.

^[4] Arnstein, “Britain in World War I,” 268.

^[5] “For the Glory of Ireland.” https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/31651.

^[6] Ibid.

^[7] Owen, “Disabled,” https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/57285/disabled.

^[8] “The Hun and the Home.” https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/38225.

^[9] Ibid.

^[10] Brandes, “The Hun Speech (1900),” 51–54.

^[11] Owen, “Disabled.” https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/57285/disabled.

^[12] Brooke, “The Soldier,” https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/13076/the-soldier.

^[13] Ibid.