Women's Sufferance in Military Conflicts - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages... The most amazing thing is that women while performing her duties and entering the work force are not utilising those wages into less housework at home, either by buying sufficient substitute products or labour, or by getting their husbands to do appreciably more housework at home. (Hartmann 1987, p. 120).
Throughout the war years the power of the state ministries to direct the public domains of production and defence increased. Simultaneously, their powers to control activities in the private sphere and in civilian society were strengthened. Throughout these years there was an obvious reliance on women. Women were targeted as responsible for reproducing domesticity under restricted and often perilous conditions. Women while helding responsible were charged for increasing production levels. For both single and married women, the war presented a personal challenge on different levels. For married women it may have presented their first experience of managing the family finances, while balancing this with other domestic responsibilities. (Goodman, 2002, p. 101) Either in the form of military, soldiers or victims in wars, it is the 'women' who suffers. The essay is being divided into two parts: Women as soldiers and women as victims.
Undoubtedly, the cultural system of th...
Yet, the wife's job is still important and public. The military wife has deployed a very carefully constructed public role. She has volunteered on base, attended military functions with her husband, and catered military functions at her home. Her presence (or absence) is carefully noted by her husband's superiors and their wives. She must put the needs of her officer husband, and thereby the needs of the military, above her own needs. By carefully shaping gender roles and the expectations for wives' service, the military has been able to control wives' public roles. (Weinstein & White, 1997, p. 14)

If we talk about women in U.S military, they were encouraged to serve the government who emphasised the need to relieve men in support positions to take part in direct combat. American women had always been employed by the army as civilian nurses, clerks, laundresses, and telephone operators. Moore (2003) writes, "Unlike white male immigrants, however, women were not offered citizenship rights in exchange. Moreover, they were not eligible to use military facilities, to receive government life insurance, or to be awarded military burial if killed while performing military service". (Moore, 2003, p. 3)

Women in First World War were actively supported by the middle-class women's movement organised under the umbrella of the Federation of German's Women's Associations (BDF), and by the Social Democratic labour movement. At first, the National Women's Service (NWS) concentrated on helping to organise wartime nursing care, food supplies and relief for the family of soldiers and for those made jobless by war. Soon, women widened its scope and became active in child and youth welfare, protection ...Download file to see next pagesRead More