Female Representation, Patriarchal Imperatives and the Malleability of the Female Role in Official First World War Propaganda

Tompsett, Joanna (2024) Female Representation, Patriarchal Imperatives and the Malleability of the Female Role in Official First World War Propaganda. Masters by Research thesis (MPhil), Manchester Metropolitan University.

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Abstract

This thesis aims to contribute to the wider and much understudied debates regarding female representation in British iconography during the First World War. Specifically, analysis will pertain to the official propaganda posters sanctioned by the British government, which constituted the most ubiquitous form of propaganda during the period. In examining the evolution of the female role throughout the conflict, discussion will be centred on the four distinct tropes of female representation, being the depiction of women as victims, women as allegories and women in both quintessentially feminine, and inherently masculine roles. Throughout, it will be evidenced that within each trope of female representation, traditional conceptions of femininity were maintained as far as was possible, thus contributing to the notion that femininity is a historical construct that is malleable according to the exigencies of the period. Using a vast array of primary sources, with the foundational examples being drawn from archives including that of the Imperial War Museum and Temple University Libraries, analysis will evidence that previous historiography has been insufficient, tending to discuss women’s experience of war through a narrative of progress and an exercise in measurement of statistics. Rather, the thesis aims to contribute to existing debates in focusing on the cultural understandings of gender identity.