‘Patriotic Femininity’: Women's Morals and Men's Morale During the Second World War

1998/07/01 by Phil Goodman · 1 voice
Social Sciences · #Historical Gender and Feminism Studies #Italian Fascism and Post-war Society #World Wars: History, Literature, and Impact

paper · doi:10.1111/1468-0424.00100

openalex publication_date 1998/07/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21

Abstract

The Second World War was a period which witnessed struggles for the definitions of appropriate ‘patriotic’ feminine identities and behaviours as much as it placed demands on men and their masculinities. The disruption to normality led to a heightened sense of heterosexuality. There were contests for the definition of femininity, contests which contradicted the centrality of discourses constructing domesticity and passivity. The way history has been constructed the heroic myths of the Second World War are male, thus there is a need for other kinds of critical knowledge to provide an understanding of women's lives and another, feminine, kind of heroism.

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