糖心Vlog

A free public lecture, marking 100 years since the end of the First World War, will explore the impact of the war on the lives of women.

Leading modern European and gender historian, Professor Susan Grayzel, will ask whether women had a 鈥榞reat鈥� war on 10 October at our Colchester Campus.

Hosted by our Department of History, the event will look at how women鈥檚 lives changed as a result of total war, what opportunities opened for them to play active roles, and the impact on their personal lives.

, from Utah State University, said: 鈥淚鈥檒l emphasise the diversity and complexity of women鈥檚 experiences during the war, and show why they are integral to understanding the war itself.

鈥淚鈥檒l be asking what we can learn when we reframe the war story to put women into it not merely based on exceptional roles but in terms of their everyday lives, which the war deeply affected.鈥�

Professor Lucy Noakes, from our Department of History, is working on a research project on gender, citizenship, and civil defence in twentieth-century Britain with Professor Grayzel. She explained how varied women鈥檚 war experiences were: 鈥淚n Britain, women moved into a range of jobs previously understood as male such as munitions work, engineering and farming.

鈥淭hey also worked on or close to the front line as nurses and doctors and joined the Women鈥檚 Auxiliary Services to 鈥榮upport鈥� combatants.鈥�

Around the world too women鈥檚 lives were turned upside down: 鈥淚n France and Belgium women were refugees, and those living close to the front had to try and protect their families from poison gas and shelling,鈥� Professor Noakes added.

鈥淢others in Nepal took to the mountains to hide their sons from the recruiting parties that were signing them up for the war. Women everywhere had to live with the death of loved ones, and spent years nursing men who returned from the war with physical and psychological injuries.鈥�

Did women have a 鈥楪reat War鈥�? takes place in LTB2 on 10 October, 5pm-6.30pm. Admission is free.

Autumn 2018 also marks the centenary of the German revolution, in which women played key roles. at the Lakeside Theatre on 15 October explores the role of women in the creation of the German democracy.