Masculinity In The First World War

In recent years, historians and literary scholars, specifically Michael Roper, Sandra Gilbert, Joanna Bourke, and Jessica Meyer, have begun to assiduously examine the First World War from a gender perspective. Accordingly, these historians and scholars now suggest that the Great War irreparably damaged and revolutionized pre-established gender roles in postwar Britain, particularly in the realm of masculinity. For example, in her book titled Men of War: Masculinity and the First World War in Britain, historian Jessica Meyer asserts that the war profoundly transformed “social and cultural understandings of what it [meant] to be a man in the era of the First World War.” Additionally, Michael Roper, a history professor at the University of Essex, surmises that the emotional experiences of World War One “disrupted gender expectations” and contributed “to the emergence of new [masculine] identities” among Britain’s veteran …show more content…
The dazzling success of these British female workers, who had successfully succeeded to men’s places in the workplace during the war, “suggested that the most crucial rule the war had overturned was that of patrilineal succession, the founding law of patriarchal society itself.” For example, G. H. Birch, a disabled veteran, was humiliated that his wife needed to work because it painfully highlighted his masculine failure to adequately provide for his family. Similarly, W. H. Botterhill’s wife financially supported the family while he was undergoing psychological treatment. However, witnessing his wife’s complete competency in earning her own living disturbed and worried Botterhill, who felt utterly useless. Consequently, this newfound independence among the British female population threatened traditional patriarchal roles and significantly exacerbated feelings of masculine helplessness among the disabled veteran