Women of war

Women of war is an examination of gender modernity using the world’s longest established women’s military organisation, the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry. These New Women’s adoption of martial uniform and military-style training, their inhabiting of public space, their deployment of innovative new technologies such as the motor car, the illustrated press, advertisements and cinematic film and their proactive involvement in the First World War illustrate why the Corps and its socially elite members are a particularly revealing case study of gender modernity. Bringing into dialogue both public and personal representations, it makes a major contribution to the social and cultural history of Britain in the early twentieth century and will appeal to undergraduates, postgraduates and scholars working in the fields of military history, animal studies, trans studies, dress history, sociology of the professions, nursing history and transport history.

Women of war examines the FANY as a case study of gender modernity using newspapers, memoirs, diaries, letters interviews, photographs and poetry. While these New Women challenged the limits of convention in terms of behaviour, dress and role, they were simulataneously deepy conservative, upholding imperialist, unionist and anti-feminist values.

Women of war is an examination of gender modernity using the world’s longest established women’s military organisation, the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry. These New Women’s adoption of martial uniform and military-style training, their inhabiting of public space, their deployment of innovative new technologies such as the motor car, the illustrated press, advertisements and cinematic film and their proactive involvement in the First World War illustrate why the Corps and its socially elite members are a particularly revealing case study of gender modernity.Bringing into dialogue both public and personal representations, it makes a major contribution to the social and cultural history of Britain in the early twentieth century and will appeal to undergraduates, postgraduates and scholars working in the fields of military history, animal studies, trans studies, dress history, sociology of the professions, nursing history and transport history.

Introduction: Daughters of war – Gender modernity and the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry1 ‘Fresh laurels for the brow of womanhood’: The formation of a female nursing yeomanry2 ‘Hussies’, ‘freaks’ and ‘lady soldiers’: Constructing the uniformed woman3 ‘Determined women full of initiative and vision’: The professionalisation of a voluntary women’s corps4 ‘Here we were, girls of the twentieth century’: Active service in the First World War5 ‘Gloried in her grotesque and spurious manhood’: Driving in the First World WarConcluding thoughtsBibliographyIndex