Women And Gender

Question 1

What are the topics for Genders in Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany

Answer 1

Gender roles
Pronatalism
Women
Historiography on women
Homosexuality

Question 2

What was the ideal fascist / nazi man

Answer 2

Like a soldier, active, athletic, doer not thinker
Comraderie of male bonding like in trenches
Civilian life to be like army

Question 3

What was the ideal nazi / fascist women

Answer 3

Role of mothers to produce children who would become soldier
Children, kitchen, church
Employment seen as undesirable

Question 4

What was pronatalism like in Italy

Answer 4

Propaganda, prizes and perks for prolific mothers
Clamp down on birth control (illegal to give info
Abortion was crime against the state
Bachelors tax
Outcome was birth rate did not rise

Question 5

What was pronatalism like in Germany

Answer 5

Marriage loans and perks (loans reduced each time child was produced)
Only for aryans (only wanted specific birth rates to rise)
1933 law for prevention of hereditary diseased offspring (sterilisation)
Outcome was birth rate did not rise

Question 6

What were fascist women like

Answer 6

Few women involved with the rise of fascism in 1920s
Women officially encouraged to join party in 30s
3 million women in party by 1940

Question 7

What were nazi women like

Answer 7

The women’s wing of the party, NSF, founded in 1931

Couldn’t join if Jewish, gypsy etc

Question 8

What were women’s organisations like in fascist Italy and nazi Germany

Answer 8

Educated women for motherhood
Promoted racial awareness in Germany
Spread propaganda

Question 9

What was historiography like on women in fascist Italy

Answer 9

Early historians saw women as victims of patriarchal regime

More recent saw regime as contradictory with some modernising aspects

Question 10

What was historiography like on women in nazi Germany

Answer 10

Early historians saw women as victims, with all women affected by eugenics
More recent says that not all women were victims, many culpable in nazi Germany (concentration camp guards, nurses that sterilised)

Question 11

What was homosexuality like in Italy

Answer 11

Not formerly illegal
Had to be prosecuted under confino system with no right to a court trial
Those convicted were exiled to political confinement colonies
“Fascism is male” idea, homosexuality seen as effeminate behaviour
Didn’t want homosexuals feminising the race

Question 12

What was homosexuality like in Germany

Answer 12

Homosexuality was illegal
Aim to purify German race, homosexuals not biologically desirable
Threat of torture, imprisonment, concentration camps and castration (hitlers importance in “sterilising the unfit”)

Question 13

What is the intro for a ww1 question

Answer 13

Mass suffering of civilians with starvation, rape and blockades
Women’s experiences often seen with a rosy view
Fist total war, with whole country behind common goal

Question 14

What were the factors for increased women’s freedoms during ww1 (6)

Answer 14

New roles in employment (700,000 in German munitions, tram workers/conductors and police in Britain)
Activism in protests (Glasgow rent riots leading to rent restriction act, food riots in Germany and Italy)
New household roles (could make decisions for children and budgets)
New volunteer roles (Red Cross nursing where millions volunteered, but mostly upper and middle class as it was unpaid )
Female soldiers (but tiny in number only 10s in each country, but some female combatants in Serbia and Russia)
Vote (some European women got vote at end of war)

Question 15

What were the factors for no increase to women’s freedoms during ww1 (4)

Answer 15

Double helix metaphor (roles change but distance remains same, change is temporary, women’s role remains subordinate and doesn’t join as equals)
Women in workplace (most were working before, workplace gender hierarchies preserved with no training, work seen as less important than men on the front, backlash against female workers at end of war)
Attitude towards women (anxiety about new freedoms and fears of infidelity, seen as spreads spheres, women portrayed as weak and mothers needing defended)
War memorials (most depicted heroic men, women shown as grieving mothers or avenging angels)

Question 16

What was masculinity like during ww1

Answer 16

Men’s expectations of war (over quickly, spirit of adventure, test of masculinity)
Experience of war (shell shock, trench warfare and disabilities)
Role of gender in war (only those who fought seen as masculine, war as platform of manhood, propaganda, changed society as men knew it at home)

Question 17

What does historiography say about interwar years

Answer 17

20s very different to 30s
Great Depression played role in masculinity (breadwinner, hostility about women working)
Decline of feminism and rise of fascism
Interwar period was backlash to war freedoms

Question 18

What was the changed women like in the interwar period

Answer 18

New woman of the 20s (sexually free, emancipated, unconventional, mostly middle or upper class, but not a typical experience of women more of a symbol)
New fashions (less tight waists and busells, more fluid, basically wearing what would have been seen as underwear)

Question 19

What were the changes in the inter war time

Answer 19

Leisure and sport 
Motherhood and marriage 
Divorce
Lesbians and gays
Employment
Politics

Question 20

What was leisure and sport like in interwar years

Answer 20

Cinema going (enabled young women to see other lifestyles)
Growth in female sporting activities
Dancing and seeing still main activity

Question 21

What was motherhood and marriage like in inter war

Answer 21

Cult of motherhood (desire to return to tradition)
Law still heavily in favour of men
1938 (french women gained right to control finances, testify and apply for passport without husband permission but couldn’t make decisions for children)
1925 (British women gained equal guardianship over children)

Question 22

What was divorce like in inter war years

Answer 22

Illegal in Italy and Ireland
Legal in others but no no fault
Only way out mostly is through adulting, mostly on women’s part
Some male adultery encouraged (public mistress)
Very low numbers in Europe

Question 23

What were lesbians and gays like in inter war

Answer 23

Male homosexuality illegal in Britain
Passionate female friendships (not seen as sexual beings)
Paris and Berlin’s flourishing lesbian and gay subcultures

Question 24

What was employment like in interwar

Answer 24

Restoration of pre war practices act 1919
Sex disqualification removal act 1919 but only certain professions
Marriage bar
New factory work with assembly lines (lower pay)
Rise of clerical work but struggled to enter professions

Question 25

What was politics like inter war

Answer 25

France = still unable to vote, but 3 in ministerial government positions 
Germany = women voting for first time 
Britain = less voting, few mp’s, decline of feminism

Question 26

What were the concerns in France about birth rate

Answer 26

Huge number of wartime casualties
Bigger populations have more power, didn’t want to lose status
Lost 10% of active male population
Social trends (women having smaller families)
Mass hysteria of losing empire status that would mean losing the next war

Question 27

What were concerns in Britain over birth rate

Answer 27

Women given access to advice on birth control for first time
Significance of healthy, happy families

Question 28

What was eugenics like in Britain inter war

Answer 28

Term coined by British man
Supporters wanted government policies to improve biology of human race through selective parenthood
Thought disabilities led to crime, alcoholism, prostitution and unemployment
Peak membership of British eugenics society during inter war
Recommended sterilisation of mentally unfit

Question 29

What are the topics in ww2?

Answer 29

Intro 
Employment
Food
Sexual violence 
Female partisans

Question 30

What is the intro for ww2?

Answer 30

Completely different for civilians
Lots soldiers taken prisoner
Less illusion of the glory of war
Fighting for ideological reasons and to defend their country from invasion
Recent historiography emphasises civilian suffering

Question 31

What was employment like in ww2

Answer 31

Britain = call up for female war service from 1941, employment rose but debate about how permanent, got into male jobs but paid less and most were working before

Rest of Europe= female call up controversial in Germany, some expansion of female employment in Italy, totally mobilisation in Soviet Union

Question 32

What was food like in ww2

Answer 32

Britain = fully functioning ration system that affected everyone

Europe = ration systems didn’t work leading to starvation. Many deaths especially towards end of war, food riots

Question 33

What was rape and prostitution like in ww2

Answer 33

Rape from allied soldiers, red army and nazi’s
Victims were civilians, concentration camps and collaborators
More about violence than sex
Prostitution used as survival means and to pay for food
Chose to form relations with soldiers to prevent further rape

Question 34

What were the reasons for rape in ww2

Answer 34

Dismissed by early historians, caused by pent up frustration
To humiliate enemy men, show they can’t protect their women
Cult of hyper masculinity fuelled by propaganda
Non Aryan hatred
Germans saw minority women as prostitutes

Question 35

What were the roles of female partisans

Answer 35

Very few armed
Staffettes for communication, transporting arms and documents
Caring for sick and wounded, hiding others
Acts of civil disobedience like food protests and strikes

Question 36

How were partisans gendered

Answer 36

Women rarely had any leadership roles or weapons
Italy = gddd only known for their support to male partisans
France = lucie aubrac but most not given specific roles
Greece = more involvement but conflict about if women allowed on missions

Question 37

How are female partisans remembered

Answer 37

Many insulted, not the ideal of what women’s traditional role was
Little national recognition, only 10% of french resistance medals were to women

Question 38

What role did the maternal register play

Answer 38

Gathered evidence on women’s roles and allowed them to see their own contributions
Motherhood was most socially accepted persona
Motherhood image essential in political inland to become more equal
Some argue that it just encouraged women to return to the home

Question 39

What was the aftermath of ww2

Answer 39

Lengthy reconstruction process
Shortages of food and fuel, rationing in Britain until 1954
Emotional impact (20% fatherless children, mental breakdowns)
Refugees
New ideology of domesticity, official policy in many countries
Economic boom on the way

Question 40

What are the topics in post war years

Answer 40

Aftermath of war
Changing times
Domestic changes
Other changes post war

Question 41

Was the post war really the era of housewives

Answer 41

Domesticity era where many moved to suburbs
Some saw this as pushing back on freedoms, bad time for women
Many working housewives also had jobs
Different housing patterns in Europe didn’t all move to suburbs
Advertising depicted women as housewives but reality was complex

Question 42

What was motherhood like post war

Answer 42

Baby boom in Britain after both wars
Attachment theory on motherhood (maternal deprivation in early life could cause psychological problems)
If mothers weren’t at home with child society could become mentally ill

Question 43

What was consumerism like post war

Answer 43

Economy taking off
New products made housework easier
Celebrated indulgence and pleasure
Seen as a threat to morality and the church

Question 44

What was fashion like post war

Answer 44

Immediately after war = new look, Very feminine as a reaction against what what women wore during war
60’s= female body shown more, informal, androgynous with gender differences lessening, more women wearing trousers

Question 45

What changes were there to domestic tech post war

Answer 45

Fridges and washing machines (daily shopping no longer needed)
Not new inventions but now widely available to masses
Improved tech like indoor plumbing

Question 46

What was the impact of domestic tech post war

Answer 46

Historians challenge idea that tech liberated women
Increased expectations of women
Could isolate women in home, laundry used to be communal
Advertised as giving more time for children, not work

Question 47

What were the other changes post war

Answer 47

Employment
Sex and sexuality
Youth and education
Politics

Question 48

How did employment change post war

Answer 48

Many women working due to consumption
Roles like clerical, social work and nursing
New glamorised roles like air hostesses
Conflicting demands of women’s time (baby boom)
Welfare states in some countries but only paid to male of family
Many women didn’t get pensions, expected to live off husbands

Question 49

What was sex and sexuality like post war

Answer 49

Little change in sexual attitudes, still double standards
Little access to contraceptives for the unmarried, still illegal to advertise in some countries
More pressure on unmarried women who were expected to be virgins
Male sexuality (but only hetro) seen as unproblematic

Question 50

What was youth and education like post war

Answer 50

Huge rise in education especially for girls with more going to uni
Emergence of generation gap
New youth culture with own consumer goods

Question 51

What was politics like post war

Answer 51

New electorate meant policies had to be tailored to women voters
Often addressed as mothers, policies tailored to motherhood
New constitutions in France, Germany and Italy included gender equality clauses that meant total equality in theory
Few elected female politicians