Women and the Great War: Femininity Under Fire in Italy

Drawing on both wartime discourse about women and the voices of individual women living at the Italian Front, Allison Belzer analyzes how women participated in the Great War and how it affected them. The Great War transformed women into purveyors and recipients of a new feminine ideal that emphasized their status as national citizens. Although Italian women did not gain the vote, they did encounter a less empowering form of female citizenship just after the war ended with Mussolini's Fascism. Because of the Great War, many women seized the opportunity to participate in a society that continued to recognize them as guardians of the nation.

Author: A. Belzer
Publisher: Palgrave MacMillan
Published: 11/17/2010
Pages: 271
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.73lbs
Size: 8.50h x 5.50w x 0.60d
ISBN: 9781349286607

About the Author
ALLISON BELZER is an Assistant Professor of History at Armstrong Atlantic State University, USA.