War Writing

Definition

Despite the development of journalism as a profession for women by the late nineteenth century and the fact that Britain’s most famous war artist was a woman, women’s experience of war for much of the Victorian period was limited. Until the Crimean War (1853–1856), British women were permitted to accompany their men to war. Women of the lower classes supported their husbands (they had to be married) through performing rudimentary domestic chores in difficult conditions. Middle- and upper-class women often volunteered as nurses and this caring aspect of women’s war contribution lasted until the second Anglo-Boer War (1899–1902). It also influenced to some degree their approach to the chronicling of war. From the 1880s with improved communication technologies, the newspaper and periodical press expanded, providing increased opportunities for women as writers and journalists. Victorian women often struggled for complex reasons to find a platform to articulate their views. For...