{"id":386,"date":"2015-12-14T11:56:00","date_gmt":"2015-12-14T11:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/2015\/12\/14\/wartime-women\/"},"modified":"2020-10-28T17:13:47","modified_gmt":"2020-10-28T17:13:47","slug":"wartime-women","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/2015\/12\/14\/wartime-women\/","title":{"rendered":"Wartime Women"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"book--Wartime<\/a><\/div>\n

Wartime Women<\/i>, edited by Dorothy Sheridan, is a Mass-Observation anthology. \u00a0It examines how the war affected the lives of women. \u00a0So much changed for women during the war years. Many of their husbands were gone, they were working outside the home, even the attitude towards women entering pubs changed. \u00a0This book examines the changes, many times using the women’s own words to give a clear picture of the world they lived in and what they thought of it.<\/p>\n

I have read quite a few Mass-Observation based books and this one is a little different. \u00a0Many of the others use diary extracts to paint a picture of the world, frequently following a few individuals. \u00a0This book quoted from diaries, but it also used reports written on concerns of the day and observations sent in to “directives” issued. \u00a0These directives were basically questionnaires used to collect information on various subjects. \u00a0These reports and directives discussed everything from driving in London to the demand for day nurseries to opinions on women in public houses. \u00a0The diaries are fascinating to read but sometimes they assume you have knowledge common to the day. \u00a0The reports fill in some of these gaps.<\/p>\n

While the information in the reports is very interesting, what I really enjoyed was the way the women’s voices and personalities came through. \u00a0So many of them used humor to cope with situations beyond what they had ever imagined. \u00a0For example, Muriel Green kept a diary and submitted it to Mass-Observation for the entire war. \u00a0I would really love to read more of her entries, but anyway, at one point she and her mother and sister are in their beds and;<\/p>\n

“I listened and heard machine-gun fire, lay in bed and listened and heard burst after burst of guns. \u00a0This was about eight o’clock. \u00a0Mother called out, ‘Do you think they are landing on the beach?’ \u00a0She then said, ‘If they come I shall get under the bed and lie low.’ \u00a0Jenny said, ‘I think I shall be more of a success with them if I stay in bed!’ \u00a0We all laughed and after a time it stopped and I went to sleep again.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It isn’t the world’s best joke but it gives such a clear image of the women and their relationships and how they coped. \u00a0I marked another example of the same type of reaction.<\/p>\n

“Mrs B. \u00a0was telling me that when the Belgians gave in she felt terrible-she felt like sitting down and weeping her heart out. \u00a0Then she started to plan what she had better do if we were invaded-for she was certain we would be invaded right away and she planned that she and Mrs M. \u00a0would take the old car, pile all the kids into it and get away-and when she came to think of the old car starting off all piled up with bedding and kids it struck her as so funny that she sat down and had a good laugh-and that was that.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“And that was that.” \u00a0Fear, sorrow, weeping, planning, laughter, “and that was that” and they all got on with it. \u00a0I think that is what is so amazing. \u00a0Lives were changing, attitudes were changing, the world was crashing all around them, but “that was that.”<\/p>\n

This book collected information from a huge range of women of various ages all living in wildly different circumstances. \u00a0The whole thing comes together to give a fascinating picture of women’s lives and attitudes during WWII.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wartime Women, edited by Dorothy Sheridan, is a Mass-Observation anthology. \u00a0It examines how the war affected the lives of women. \u00a0So much changed for women during the war years. Many of their husbands were gone, they were working outside the home, even the attitude towards women entering pubs changed. \u00a0This book examines the changes, many times using the women’s own words to give a clear picture of the world they lived in and what they thought of it. I have read quite a few Mass-Observation based books and this one is a little different. \u00a0Many of the others use diary extracts to paint a picture of the world, frequently following a few individuals. \u00a0This book quoted from diaries, but it also used reports written on concerns of the day and observations sent in to “directives” issued. \u00a0These directives were basically questionnaires used to collect information on various subjects. \u00a0These reports and directives discussed everything from driving in London to the demand for day nurseries to opinions on women in public houses. \u00a0The diaries are fascinating to read but sometimes they assume you have knowledge common to the day. \u00a0The reports fill in some of these gaps. While the information in the reports is very interesting, what I really enjoyed was the way the women’s voices and personalities came through. \u00a0So many of them used humor to cope with situations beyond what they had ever imagined. \u00a0For example, Muriel Green kept a diary and submitted it to Mass-Observation for the entire war. \u00a0I would really love to read more of her entries, but anyway, at one point she and her mother and sister are in their beds and; “I listened and heard machine-gun fire, lay in bed and listened and heard burst after burst of guns. \u00a0This was about eight o’clock. \u00a0Mother called out, ‘Do you think they are landing on the beach?’ \u00a0She then said, ‘If they come I shall get under the bed and lie low.’ \u00a0Jenny said, ‘I think I shall be more of a success with them if I stay in bed!’ \u00a0We all laughed and after a time it stopped and I went to sleep again.” It isn’t the world’s best joke but it gives such a clear image of the women and their relationships and how they coped. \u00a0I marked another example of the same type of reaction. “Mrs B. \u00a0was telling me that when the Belgians gave in she felt terrible-she felt like sitting down and weeping her heart out. \u00a0Then she started to plan what she had better do if we were invaded-for she was certain we would be invaded right away and she planned that she and Mrs M. \u00a0would take the old car, pile all the kids into it and get away-and when she came to think of the old car starting off all piled up with bedding and kids it struck her as so funny that she sat down and had a good laugh-and that was that.” “And that was that.” \u00a0Fear, sorrow, weeping, planning, laughter, “and that was that” and they all got on with it. \u00a0I think that is what is so amazing. \u00a0Lives were changing, attitudes were changing, the world was crashing all around them, but “that was that.” This book collected information from a huge range of women of various ages all living in wildly different circumstances. \u00a0The whole thing comes together to give a fascinating picture of women’s lives and attitudes during WWII.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":553,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,7,39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","category-review","category-wwii"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=386"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2900,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386\/revisions\/2900"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}