ABSTRACT
By 1918 the restrictive Victorian image of womanhood — physically frail, sheltered, leisured, private — had been undermined by the wartime experience of both sexes. It was now permissible for women to be physically courageous, enduring, responsible, conscientious, cheerful and outgoing. Many women had witnessed the suffering and anguish of men as they had not in previous wars, and had also worked side-by-side with men as comrades and friends. It was inevitable that this would start to change mutual perceptions, and the granting of the vote at last seemed entirely appropriate. War after all was seen as an abnormal and temporary state, the women’s role in it was viewed in the same light. There was as well a general reaction against public control of private affairs, symptomatic of a longing for the familiarity of the pre-war world.
