Please note the call for papers below.

Conference “The Gentler Sex.  Responses of the women’s movement to the
First World War 1914-1919”

Thursday 8 and Friday 9 September 2005, Institute of Germanic & Romance
Studies, Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU

Organisers: Ms Ingrid Sharp, Department of German, University of Leeds
[log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Dr Alison Fell,
Department of European Languages and Cultures, Lancaster University
[log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>

Deadline for abstracts: 15 February 2005

The First World War marked a crisis for the burgeoning women’s movements
in Europe and in the United States. The outbreak of the war forced those
active in the women’s movement to make a choice between supporting their
own country in a time of crisis or remaining true to the dominant vision
of the natural pacifism and international sisterhood of all women. The
call to arms polarised women in every nation, often dividing those who had
worked closely together, with some rallying unproblematically to their
nation’s flag, others suspending their struggle for women’s advancement
and turning their backs on their international contacts ‘for the duration
of the war’, while yet others remained (or became) staunchly pacifistic,
developing and refining their ideological position as the war progressed.

This two-day conference aims to bring together scholars with an interest
in gender and the First World War, working in the fields of
feminist/gender studies, women’s history and women’s writing, to explore
from an international and interdisciplinary perspective the impact of war
on early feminist thought and activism. The national and international
speakers will discuss cases from many of the combatant countries,
including Britain, the US, France, Germany, Russia and Belgium as well as
offering a comparative perspective.

Papers will examine women’s writings produced during the war and its
immediate aftermath by women active in the women’s movements. Topics will
include discussions and conflict over the interpretation of a
specifically ‘womanly’ response to war, women’s relationship with state
and nation, the reality and status of women’s wartime service (nursing,
charity work, munitions and factory work, women taking on ‘men’s’ work);
women’s role as mothers in wartime; sexuality; attitudes to peace and war;
guilt and responsibility.

The conference will be held at the IGRS in London on Thursday, 8th and
Friday 9th September 2005.  The organisers will bring out a volume of
selected essays, either as a book or as a special issue of a suitable
journal, soon after the conference has been held. The focus of this volume
will be on writing produced by women active in the women’s movement in the
various countries during the period 1914-1919, although we could include
diaries, letters and other material published at a later date.  By
bringing together contributions from scholars working on women from
different combatant nations as well as those who offer a comparative
approach, we hope to make a distinctive and worthwhile contribution to
this area of studies.

Please send proposals, including working title and brief description of
your paper, to the above email addresses, by 15 February 2005.