By : Poorvanshi Tyagi

Abstract

War history for many, has been one of chronologically arranged vertically occurring events. This narrative leads to an erasure of war perspectives of marginalised subaltern racial and gender groups. Women, for instance, shouldered war turmoil alongside men, partaking in war effort in several ways. However, female experiences in war are often sidelined, taking away their voices from the history books. This article aims to look at World War II from a gendered perspective, shedding light on the struggles women faced during war and why it matters today.

Introduction

“For us there were no medals or mentions in the history books, we did what we had to do during the war, and when it was over, we picked up the pieces and started our lives over”. Kristin Hannah’s The Nightingale records experiences of wives and daughters of the war, who suffered it like invisible ghosts. The book made me contemplate the scarcity of gender history when it comes to war-centric discourses. History writing, a by-product of dominating narratives, fails to accommodate forgotten voices, often offering nothing but a chronological series of events, not considering the complex realities that took shape and were shaped by the circumstances that preceded them. Evidently, war history has continually made women side-characters of a larger centre-stage dominated by men. Historically, women and their bodies have been commodified in war. They have had to face great degrees of violence and injustice, in occupied territories as well as the household. World War II perpetrated massive sexual harassment against women, amounting to numbers that are not reliable or precise, even today. 

The coming of World War II interacted with gender roles in a way similar to its preceding Great War. Recruitment of men to regiments created vacancies in factories and industries that were largely male-dominated. By the time World War II reigned upon Europe, these industries led campaigns of mass-recruitment of women. Various associations which mass-employed women brought roles in production processes of military equipment and weaponry that would be transported to battlefields. Industries were, however, not the only space for working women. Women came to be the demographic for a multitude of male-preserved occupations, like conductors of public transportation services, engineers, workers in textile industries, welders, mechanists, war nurses and so on. It would, however, be an overstatement to look at women during war as solely an empowering project. To bring about an awareness of the neglected experiences of both working women and housewives during World War II, considering the magnitude of violence and discrimination perpetrated against them, as well as the skewered narratives that shaped gender roles at the time, becomes an essential tool to give women of war the recognition they deserve. 

Unbalanced Equations: The Housewife and The Worker

War glory, sacrifice, and incentives for recruitment, came to be emphasised all across Europe through visual cultures like paintings, photography, and posters. Propaganda posters issued under governments pushed men to fight for the country, while women to join industries that would further aid war effort. Large posters featuring women in men’s working attire along with sharply defined masculine features were in continuous circulation. Popular posters from the U.S. such as Rosie The Riveter, a character that represented women working in dockyards, empowered women to take up male-centric jobs and motivated them to persevere in the face of war. 

Several associations were formed solely for the purpose of employing women. For instance, American associations like Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) and the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPS) in the U.S., the Army Nurses Corps, and the Women’s Land Army in Britain sought to employ women in various professions like aircraft repair and farming. Trade unions, however, feared the longevity of women workers, seeking reassurance for it to be a temporary arrangement. It is important to note that such positions were never accessible to women prior to the coming of war. The so-called women empowerment campaigns that impinged on women’s minds during war, can be looked at as products of self-interest and neglect. Women were valued as long as their labor supported the war effort. Women employment projects came to be out of sheer necessity, and not out of a need to change oppressive social realities.

The history of gender roles during World War II becomes much more complex and contested when looking at the unbalanced burdensome work-life equations that women shouldered. Although calls for women employment in male-centric fields provided massive opportunities, the image of the ideal housewife and mother hardly encountered changes. Women were, thus, still expected to participate in household chores, manage their sons and daughters, alongside their engagements in dangerous and unprotected work. They shouldered a double burden, precariously maintaining two images, that of the homemaker and the worker. The expectation to bear the brunt of both the household and the workplace has been scrutinising women ever since, continuing to be heavily normalised in today’s world. 

Commodification Of Women: POWs, Sex Slavery & Violence

Feminist historians have worked a great deal on making known forgotten and often unaccounted for experiences of violence, torture and abuse that women went through during World War II. The usual narrative commonly pushed against women is one that undermines their tragic stories by comparing them to deaths of thousands of male soldiers. Such ideas have been dangerously accepted as gospels of truth. They lead to an erasure of history of violence against women in war, accepting them as silent homely figures in the larger picture. These narratives often forget that women and their bodies are viewed as ‘valuable commodities’ symbolic of a society’s honour and pride. Hence, a violation of this pride and honour has been historically represented by large-scale trafficking of women as ‘spoils of war’.

Rape in war was seen as ‘collateral damage’. There was therefore no proper framework provided to survivors of sexual abuse to process their experiences. Lack of psychosexual support coupled with the inability to speak up for themselves left lasting imprints on the lives of hundreds and thousands of women, affecting survivors even today. A DW documentary sheds light on sexualised violence faced by German women at the hands of soldiers. By 1945, 860,000 women and girls in Germany were sexually abused by Allied soldiers. Sexual violence was perhaps the most brutal throughout Holocaust. Jewish women in concentration camps were forced to undress and faced horrendous levels of molestation. Women would also be taken in as prisoners of war, where they were subjected to sub-humane living conditions that severely impacted their mental and physical well-being. For instance, seventy nine American women were captured by the Japanese in the Philippines and subjected to inhumane conditions. What is even more distressing is the well-established system of ‘comfort stations’ formulated by the Japanese Imperial Army, that would be operational throughout the war years. The Japanese would make innocent women sex slaves, operating under the objectifiable term attributed to them – ‘Comfort Women’. This would become the largest government-sponsored human trafficking in history. ‘Comfort women’ were trafficked mainly from Southeast Asian countries as well as Europe. Women in colonies held by Japan were also forced into sexual slavery. 

The Absent Voice: Women in Colonies

As we begin to look at historical war records in an attempt to construct gender history, it becomes increasingly difficult to locate experiences of women living in European colonies. South Asian women rarely find a voice in World War history. This reminds one of the complexities of female subjugation and oppression, pointing to differences in experiences based on race, class, and caste. The neglect of women of colour in war history serves as a continual reminder of the dominating European supremacy and its tendency to construct, create, as well as erase history, not just that of its own, but of other ‘lesser developed uncivilised cultures’. Despite the dearth of knowledge on these experiences, researchers have tried to give voice to the unheard, using sources like local archives. In War and Society, Urvi Khaitan, for instance, discusses the war effort of Indian women in the coaling industry. Several Anglo-Indian and Burmese women joined Women Auxiliary Corps (India), aiding soldiers in non-combatant roles. These women too, were subjected to all sorts of abuse, information on which is not as readily available as that of European women. 

Conclusion

World War II positioned women at the centre stage of violence, abuse, and tilted gender norms. Much has changed when it comes to women’s role in war today, but has it really? UN reports on the contributions of Ukrainian women in war with many joining the armed forces, while others taking up male-dominated professions like the security sector, transit, and mining. However, in no way has the presence of insurmountable female sexual and physical abuse left war zones. As of March 2021, the United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHRC) confirmed that there were almost 1.5 million internally displaced people in Ukraine, of which 58.56 percent were women. Migration puts these women at risk of getting trafficked, increasing risks of sexual violence. The ongoing Israel-Palestine war has severely impacted women in Gaza. They are subjected to limited supply of food and water, lack access to proper healthcare, and are constantly involved in life and death circumstances that encompass their surroundings. Women are still posited as commodities in war, having to suffer the wrath of geopolitical tensions and conflicts. Current realities provide no better a legal framework that protects women and children affected by war turmoil. Will the world live to witness a time of sensitivity, empathy and compassion towards gendered war violence?

About the Author

Poorvanshi Tyagi is a freshman at O.P. Jindal Global University, currently pursuing her bachelor’s in Global Affairs. She is a published poet and the founder of an online literary magazine The Book N Quill Journal. Her interests lie in reading historical and philosophical literature. She wishes to explore academic writing and keeps herself open to research opportunities. 

Image Source : https://zikredilli.com/delhi-depository/f/womens-auxiliary-corps-in-new-delhi-and-the-second-world-war?blogcategory=History