Lest We Forget

Nogbadd · 2014-11-09T04:09:14+00:00

Ah yes, the white feather. Those early feminists were so brave, we should equate their bravery with that of the men who gave their lives. The old joke about the chicken and the pig discussing breakfast applies here, I think.

JohnnyNumbskull · 2014-11-09T08:57:23+00:00

https://www.behance.net/wip/841595/1527857 revised it a bit for design reasons

Threwaway42 · 2014-11-09T05:33:13+00:00

Could someone explain?

TAKE-A-STAND-FOR-MEN · 2014-11-09T16:49:54+00:00

CAN YOU FUCKING NOT

Welcome to a debunking of historical misconceptions of women and their role during World War I. The post is inspired by the sheer amount of bad history that comes up, with accusations along the lines of how feminists were all sending men to die while they sit at home pretty eating bon bons or some shit like that. It’s a common thing apparently in MRA circles, since they can’t seem to stop talking about how feminists during World War I were trying to kill all men.

It’s pretty damned irritating, and as a bad historian, I plan to use this post to debunk this notion once and for all. Or at at least create a resource for people who get stuck looking at this type of bad history and have no idea how to respond to it.

I’m going to split this into two main parts: White Feather, and whether women were just sitting at home pretty while the men were out there getting themselves shelled. I should note that this is focusing only on British World War I history; this is because the claims are related to British suffragettes, and as such, I kept my focus on British WW1 history.

White Feather: Were Feminists Happy to Send Men Off to Die?

So what is the Order of the White Feather?

The Order of the White feather, according to Wikipedia, was founded by Admiral Charles Fitzgerald in order to shame men into enlisting in the war. The white feather was traditionally considered a sign of cowardness, and as such, being presented with a white feather is a symbol that the person was a coward and that they should be ashamed for not being in uniform. This was supported by a number of famous suffragettes and feminists at the time, including Emmiline Pankhurst and daughter Christabel. The campaign was apparently so successful that badges had to be made for public servants so that they wouldn’t be hounded with feathers.

So a number of feminists supported the Order of the White Feather, and would push for able-bodied men to voluntarily enlist by giving them white feathers. Does that mean that all feminists supported World War I?

Nope. I quote:

Half of the women's suffrage movement in Britain, and a number of prominent women's rights campaigners including Helena Swanwick, Margaret Ashton, Catherine Marshall, Maude Royden, Kathleen Courtney and Chrystal Macmillan, were opposed to World War I. This was an early coalition of women's campaigning with pacifism that later led to the formation of Women's International League for Peace and Freedom in 1915.

World War I was a rather divisive issue amongst feminists at the time. Half of Britian’s suffrage movement were in opposition to the war effort. As a prime example on the split between suffragettes over the Order (and support of the World War), Emmeline and Christabel might have been in support of the Order of White Feather, Emmeline’s other daughters Sylvia and Adela Pankhurst were pacifists and were against the World War, the former beliving that it was another example of “capitalist oligarchs exploiting poor soldiers and workers”, and the latter against the idea of conscription.

In fact, the issue is a wee bit more complicated than that. Emmeline Pankhurst organized a Right to Serve March in 1915, fighting for women to be involved in war-related work such as working in the factories. However, there were other feminists who believed that women should simply stay in their own separate sphere, for they believed this is where women derived their power (start the clip from 9:39). As such, the movement was divided, both on whether women should even be supporting the war at all, and in what capacity should they be assisting in the war effort.

A related issue to White Feather is whether the Order of White Feather was the same thing as conscription. The answer is a resounding no. The Order of White Feather was meant to shame men into voluntarily joining the Armed Forces. While conscription does later become put into law to get more men to serve during this time, this law was written by and passed by men in Parlament. Women had nothing to do with it, let alone feminists or suffragettes.

Women: Did They Just Sit at Home Eating Bonbons While Men Were Getting Shelled?

No, women were not sitting at home eating bonbons while men were getting shelled.

80,000 women went out to serve as non-combatants in the battlefield, serving as nurses, entertainment volunteers, dispatch writers, munition factory workers, etc. Many of these women ended up working near the front lines, where they faced shellfire, bullets, and shrapnel while doing their work (go to around 5:18 for the clip).

It is often said that more women should have been serving on the front lines during the war, presumably in the capacity of a soldier. Problem is, even if women wanted to serve on the front lines as soldiers, they wouldn’t be able to, as laws barred them from enlisting. In addition, during this time period, women were seen as the much weaker sex. It was said that if women were exposed to public life, that their brains would melt and that they would be overwhelmed by the difficulty of it all. To ignore this piece of historical context is downright intellectually dishonest at the very least.

Millions more women were at the home front, working in factories, as part of the police force, as tram drivers and train cleaners, as postal workers, and as nurses or physicians. Women were left in charge of their husband’s businesses while they were away at the home front. Women were volunteering to run canteens and clubs, to knit, to provide medical supplies for those at the front, by housing refugees and fundraising money. Women were working in places like engineering for the first time, and they proved to be just as capable as their male collegegues.

Even then, many of these women were working for low wages, lower than their male collegegues. This is because many employers saw the situation as a temporary thing, and were expecting the women to step aside when the war was over in order to let the men back in. After the war ended in 1918, the vast majority of the women in the workforce was forced to leave after the 1919 Restoration Act of Pre-War Practices Act was passed and factories switched to peacetime production. Those who resisted dismissal faced public outcry, and those who still wished to work were pressured to become domestic servants. Although women won the right to vote at this time, this was a partial victory for suffragettes, as the vote was limited to women over the age of 30—and as such, the women were outnumbered by the men, as all men over the age of 21 had the right to vote. However, this partial victory did give women a way to have a voice in Parliament, and in 1928 all women from age 21 and up were enfranchised.

As such, to say that women just sat around while the men went off to war is insulting.

If I made mistakes in my research, please point it out to me.

Works cited (in pseudo-Chicago format):

Duffy, Michael. "White Feathers" First World War.com, Web, accessed 06 March 2014 [link]
"Emmeline Pankhurst", Wikipedia, Web, accessed 09 March 2014 [link]
iWonder: What World War One Really Do for Women, British Broadcasting Corporation, Web, accessed 08 March 2014 [link]
"Military Service Act, United Kingdom" Wikipedia, Web, accessed 08 March 2014 [link]
Murray, Jenni. "Women’s Hour: World War One: Changing Women’s Lives." British Broadcasting Corporation, 05 February 2014. Web, accessed 07 March 2014 [link]
"Opposition to World War One, Britian", Wikipedia, Web, accessed 08 March 2014 [link]
"Recruitment to the British Army During the First World War" Wikipedia, Web, accessed 08 March 2014 [link]
"White Feather: World War One", Wikipedia, Web, accessed 06 March 2014 [link]
"Women at War", British Broadcasting Corporation, Web, accessed 08 March 2014 [link]

[Downvotes ahoy. Fucking movement made up of anti-intellectuals, I tell ya]

Newbosterone · 2014-11-09T23:11:04+00:00

Male Privilege. In the Battle of the Somme, British forces suffered 60,000 casualties- in a single day.

ShitlordAndProud · 2014-11-09T05:42:27+00:00

Get that fucking pro-war propaganda the fuck out of my face.

If you want men dead and buried in France, don't worry, there's already an entire generation of Europeans down there waiting for you, because of the vile madness and stupidity of a war about nothing more than supposedly turning boys into men: dead ones.

EDIT: Oopsie. I missed the white feather in the background. Very good. Captures the madness just perfectly now.

ferae_naturae · 2014-11-09T04:06:13+00:00

...Reddit is right, /r/MensRights is weird.

Title	Lest We Forget
Author	SindbadTheSailorMan
Upvotes	106
Comments	45
Date	November 9, 2014 3:28 AM UTC (11 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/MensRights
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/MensRights/comments/2lqdx5/lest_we_forget/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/MensRights/lest-we-forget.993680 https://theredarchive.com/post/993680

Comments

White Feather: Were Feminists Happy to Send Men Off to Die?

Women: Did They Just Sit at Home Eating Bonbons While Men Were Getting Shelled?