Irish Women in the First World War Era by Jennifer Redmond Elaine Farrell

Author:Jennifer Redmond, Elaine Farrell [Jennifer Redmond, Elaine Farrell]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781032088839
Google: 3uplzgEACAAJ
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group
Published: 2021-06-30T16:00:09+00:00

War as Women’s Business

The historical importance of Day’s account of refugees’ stories and relief work is self-evident. Her focus and concerns may be better understood, however, when account is taken of her feminism, the views on war she expressed before leaving Ireland, and their referencing of contemporary pacifist arguments which may have been shared by some colleagues in the Cork branch of the MWFL. Day’s 1916 Englishwoman article and 1918 book, informed by personal experience and evidence gathered from women in the war zone, stood as powerful rebuttals of the anti-suffragist assertion that war was no business of women. She demonstrated for an English-speaking readership how directly and catastrophically war had affected French women, children and the elderly, as well as men mobilised for military service. She also provided valuable detail of a woman war worker’s experience, implying how capably, flexibly, and good-humouredly they could cope in what was considered a male and military environment. Day’s PLG experience undoubtedly prepared her for that work, and her representation of relief workers' skills did reflect the argument for women’s suitability to serve as guardians: that empathy and caring were innately female attributes. Those au fait with contemporary feminist critiques would, however, have understood that such workers were, as Storr put it, cleaning up the mess made by men. Day’s writing may have had most resonance in feminist and pacifist circles but even when she published her Bar-le-Duc book, in 1918, the discourse on war had moved on from the civilians of the Marne and Verdun who would, as much as those trapped in German-occupied territories, become ‘Les oubliés de la grande guerre’. Her work stands as a valuable resource in the rediscovery of their histories.

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