ABSTRACT
Despite its function to unite the nation across its internal divisions, Britishness has not formed a monolithic identity. It is mediated by other identities, of place, of class, of religion. It is further mediated by identities of gender. To be British is not necessarily the same for women as it is for men, for girls as it is for boys. For much of the period since 1870, contemporaries used the phrase ‘separate spheres’ to describe the differences in the social construction of men’s and women’s place in British society. Men in this description were assigned to the public sphere of work, politics and ultimately war. The nation as the main organising arena for such public activities provided men with a stage on which to play out their masculine roles. Women’s proper sphere was private: home, hearth and domestic responsibilities.1 ‘Separate spheres’ has always been an inadequate characterisation of women’s (and men’s) roles in nineteenth-and twentieth-century British society, but most representations of Britishness have fallen into line with this public-private demarcation. Historians have become increasingly aware that gender roles, both masculine and feminine, are socially constructed and are therefore subject to change across time (and space).2 This chapter therefore seeks to examine the intersections between gender and national identities in Britain since 1870. It does so by examining the gendered nature of the nation, but also of the roles assigned to men and women within it. To ensure that men are not neglected within such a discussion, it begins by discussing the construction of notions of masculinity associated with the nation, and particularly with the British Empire. However, it does also aim to question a popular opinion among feminists that women are somehow ‘outside’ the nation. Indeed, the campaign for the parliamentary vote by women was part of a wider campaign for citizenship, a claim to be allowed full involvement in the affairs of the nation, and a desire to be seen as patriots alongside men. To explore this, the focus of this discussion will be women’s role in the First World War. The impact of that war on national identity and masculinity was profound, and it has been argued that in the interwar years the nation (and Empire) were feminised or domesticated. Hence the challenge posed to masculinity and its version of national identity since the emergence of a feminist movement was continued. The reactions to such a challenge in the interwar years will therefore be discussed. Women’s participation in the Second World
War was greater than in the First, and the characterisation as a ‘people’s war’ suggests greater integration of women into the nation. Women’s relationship to the state, however, remained ambiguous and the role they were allowed to play was limited. Women’s employment and independence raised questions about men’s place within the nation, particularly when American (Hollywood) models of womanhood encouraged self-expression and freedom from unhappy relationships. In this context, British cinema representations were concerned to portray a woman imbued with Britishness constructed against the American ‘other’. Women’s relationship to the nation therefore remained conditional upon certain standards of behaviour, and this is representative of a wider ambiguity within legal definitions of nationality revealed by immigration and nationality laws. In the post-war period, the domestication of Britishness continued. In this period, however, constructions of Britishness as centred in the home were used to exclude immigrant and black women from the nation. But a notion of Britishness linked to standards of behaviour enabled some (white) women to be targeted as instigators of national degeneracy, as the welfare state enabled the rise of a so-called ‘dependency culture’ connected to single motherhood. Ironically, such attacks came to a head under Britain’s first woman prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, who prided herself on her patriotism. The final section of this chapter discusses the beliefs about gender and nationhood revealed during the Falklands and Gulf wars. Through this discussion, this chapter argues that national identity in Britain has been gendered. The nation has often been associated with men and their actions. However, while women’s relationship to the nation was often viewed as ambiguous, that did not prevent many women seeking to make a contribution to nation through active participation.
