Remembering French and British First World War Heroines

Abstract

Although few are remembered today, the First World War produced scores of heroines who became household names in their respective nations.¹ From summer 1914 onwards, both British and French journalists, artists, and writers sought out women who could be constructed as heroic and lauded them in the press, in posters, and in popular fiction. First World War heroines tended to have a double function: firstly, although cast as exceptional, they were equally set up as gendered embodiments of the finest qualities of a ‘race’ or a national identity, as role models to bolster morale and mobilize the nation for the war effort. Secondly, their gender was used to underscore the ‘barbarous’ and ‘uncivilized’ nature of the enemy. It was usually activities on the front line that marked women out for heroine status. This proximity to the front, along with the patriotic and heroic qualities of courage, devotion, selflessness, tenacity, and sang-froid with which they were endowed, meant that heroines were often discussed in terms normally reserved for male combatants.