The World Wars ravaged Europe in the 20th century and uprooted cultural and social norms. During the war’s, men and women challenged traditional gender norms in their desire to further national pride and the fighting effort. Nancy M. Wingfield and Marai Bucur wrote Gender and War in the 20th century as a case study to better understand the roles ordinary citizens played in the World Wars and the inter-war period. Gender and War in the 20th uses a collection of essays as a case study to better understand how war is experienced in terms of gender and wartime contributions. The book links World War 1 and World War 2 together through three themes that incapsulate the different experiences between men and women on the home front and battle
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During World War 2, Romanian women started to increase their participation in war industries and as nursing units on the front line. The women in Romania played a part in helping the war effort but appear to be exclude from the nations ministry of defenses war commemoration propaganda works. The ministry ignored the experiences of women during the war because their stories did not fit a traditional concept of “heroism, patriotism and the proletariat struggle.” In contrast, Polish women received recognition for their sacrifices in World War 2 and managed to see themselves as heroic martyrs. The Polish woman Dorta Majewsak did not cry when soviet soldiers removed her family from their home, instead of crying she proclaimed “yet another flame on the altar of the Fatherland.” Polish women managed to gain recognition for their sacrifices but they were unable to explain the full-array of atrocities they had suffered under Soviet occupations, because the nation remained in a masculine concept where female rape and bodily intrusion would not have been discussed. Polish women that were raped while in Soviet camps had a uniquely female experience and received little recognition in the nations war history. Soviet soldiers mistreated Polish women but they viewed the Russian female population as soldiers. During the siege of Leningrad all citizens in the city worked as courageous soldiers. The war effort blurred gender lines when women in Leningrad lost their feminine figure due to starvation, and when they increasingly took over male roles in factories. Women had the ability to be courageous heroes since Soviet society did not utilize traditional concepts of gender divisions. In World War 2 the lines between masculine heroism blurred and different nations reacted in unique ways to the changing roles women maintained during times of
During World War 2, Romanian women started to increase their participation in war industries and as nursing units on the front line. The women in Romania played a part in helping the war effort but appear to be exclude from the nations ministry of defenses war commemoration propaganda works. The ministry ignored the experiences of women during the war because their stories did not fit a traditional concept of “heroism, patriotism and the proletariat struggle.” In contrast, Polish women received recognition for their sacrifices in World War 2 and managed to see themselves as heroic martyrs. The Polish woman Dorta Majewsak did not cry when soviet soldiers removed her family from their home, instead of crying she proclaimed “yet another flame on the altar of the Fatherland.” Polish women managed to gain recognition for their sacrifices but they were unable to explain the full-array of atrocities they had suffered under Soviet occupations, because the nation remained in a masculine concept where female rape and bodily intrusion would not have been discussed. Polish women that were raped while in Soviet camps had a uniquely female experience and received little recognition in the nations war history. Soviet soldiers mistreated Polish women but they viewed the Russian female population as soldiers. During the siege of Leningrad all citizens in the city worked as courageous soldiers. The war effort blurred gender lines when women in Leningrad lost their feminine figure due to starvation, and when they increasingly took over male roles in factories. Women had the ability to be courageous heroes since Soviet society did not utilize traditional concepts of gender divisions. In World War 2 the lines between masculine heroism blurred and different nations reacted in unique ways to the changing roles women maintained during times of