Gender History Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Gender History - Essay Example he men were supposed to be the active participants in the battlefield while for a woman it is important to be chaste and moral to prove that she is a good citizen. The benchmark of patriotism is thus based on the gender of the individual. Here we are going to focus on the same gender construction of the Second World War especially in Britain. Same issue is discussed by Prof. Sonya Rose in her book â€Å"Which People’s War.† Here we are going to discuss the points which are related to the gender construction during the Second World War. All wars which occurred in the history are mainly fought by the men and there are very exceptional cases where women have taken part on actual battlefield right from the mythological war to the modern war. It is generally anticipated that only men are eligible to serve as a soldiers because of their physical strength they have got by nature. Rather the masculinity of any man is judged by his willingness to fight. Of course it doesn’t mean that the women had never participated in the war actively. Some exceptional cases of course are there like Saint Joan or Rani of Jhansi etc. But these women have comprised only 1% and the rest of the women have denied for this work. Generally men and women are socialized to play their role according to their gender. Their minds are culturally prepared accordingly. Hence gender has always been the important and unavoidable matter in the war. Men are given the status of heroes and are always anticipated as the subject while the women are alway s taken for granted as a fragile creature and they are subject to be raped during the war time. Generally war time work used to be divided on the basis of gender. Janet Lee in her book â€Å"War Girl†states, â€Å"Women’s entry into this masculine space of war in any role other than that of nurse, that submissive angel of mercy, threatened the foundation of wartime gender construction with its division into masculine military forces and feminine home