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In May 1958, and four years into the Algerian War of Independence, a revolt again appropriated the revolutionary and republican symbolism of the French Revolution by seizing power through a Committee of Public Safety. This book explores why a repressive colonial system that had for over a century maintained the material and intellectual backwardness of Algerian women now turned to an extensive programme of 'emancipation'. After a brief background sketch of the situation of Algerian women during the post-war decade, it discusses the various factors contributed to the emergence of the first significant women's organisations in the main urban centres. It was only after the outbreak of the rebellion in 1954 and the arrival of many hundreds of wives of army officers that the model of female interventionism became dramatically activated. The French military intervention in Algeria during 1954-1962 derived its force from the Orientalist current in European colonialism and also seemed to foreshadow the revival of global Islamophobia after 1979 and the eventual moves to 'liberate' Muslim societies by US-led neo-imperialism in Afghanistan and Iraq. For the women of Bordj Okhriss, as throughout Algeria, the French army represented a dangerous and powerful force associated with mass destruction, brutality and rape. The central contradiction facing the mobile socio-medical teams teams was how to gain the trust of Algerian women and to bring them social progress and emancipation when they themselves were part of an army that had destroyed their villages and driven them into refugee camps.
’ women from seeking these roles.22 Prior to the First World War, while most wounded soldiers were cared for by male orderlies, paid female nurses were sometimes attached to military services and army wives did their share of nursing. On the whole, the number of women in military hospitals throughout the nineteenth The founding of the FANY and early-twentieth century was low. However, Florence Nightingale’s work during the Crimean War and the development of Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service that replaced the Army Nursing Service in 1902 did much to
A New Naval History brings together the most significant and interdisciplinary approaches to contemporary naval history. The last few decades have witnessed a transformation in how this topic is researched and understood, and this volume captures the state of a field that continues to develop apace. It examines – through the prism of naval affairs – issues of nationhood and imperialism; the legacy of Nelson; the sociocultural realities of life in ships and naval bases; and the processes of commemoration, journalism and stage-managed pageantry that plotted the interrelationship of ship and shore. This bold and original publication will be essential for undergraduate and postgraduate students of naval and maritime history. Beyond that, though, it marks an important intervention into wider historiographies that will be read by scholars from across the spectrum of social history, cultural studies and the analysis of national identity.
a reason for leaving. On 12 May 1973 The Times announced that the 2nd Battalion, strongly criticised by republicans, was to be rested after its tour ended in July 1973. The defence correspondent of The Times, Henry Stanhope, attributed this to the pressure from army wives, who ‘had a point’.31 The Army was overstretched and front-line infantry units were doing one tour in Ulster every eighteen months, which meant that a married infantryman could expect to see his wife on about half the days in the year.32 DAWSON 9780719096310 PRINT (v2).indd 46 14/10/2016 12
Even in the latter part of the nineteenth century, the only existing provision for family welfare within the armed services was that for army wives ‘on the strength’ (that is, married with the express permission of the soldier’s commanding officer), legitimate children and legitimate stepchildren.7 However, in the late 1880s and early 1890s, only six men per company of one hundred were granted permission to marry, and then rarely below the rank of Senior Noncommissioned Officer (NCO).8 Figures for 1861 show that only 48.31 per cent of other ranks under the age of 40
5 The Mouvement de solidarité féminine: army wives and domesticating the ‘native’ The campaign by the French army for the emancipation of Algerian women offered to displace the ‘traditional’ Muslim family and gender roles by a particular western model of the couple and companionate marriage. It is particularly significant that this model was rarely reflected upon or recognised by the French as a specific cultural and social form, but accepted in an automatic and unquestioning way, as ‘natural’ and proper. It was precisely this unreflective agenda that provided
impressions are of harmony and discipline. The hero is the absent officer, but his character is articulated through his absence; he has deprived himself of this domestic heaven to do his duty by his country. It was argued earlier that representations of army wives were crucial in articulating ideas not only about the soldier’s family but about himself, his social behaviour and his moral qualities. The most
the other hand he equally consoled himself that this spared him the additional burdens that family men carried when contemplating the prospect of their imminent death and its consequences.38 Not everyone was so sympathetic or able to manage the emotions raised by the presence of women and children on campaign. A colleague of Rifleman Harris, irked by the personal discomfort he felt on encountering distraught wives seeking news of their husbands after battle, came to the conclusion that army wives were nothing but a nuisance and army husbands nothing but selfish.39
and the children to be domiciled there as a family group. For the active soldier, family life in India would have meant much more disruption and certainly more extended and frequent periods of separation. The army wife in India has been described most baldly as a piece of ‘camp equipment’. 24 While Jane Lewin would have shared with her fellow army wives some of the risks and privations
and New Zealand fighting alongside our men but drawing twice and in some cases three times as much.29 The campaign for increased pay and allowances also continued in the pages of both national and local newspapers. In December 1941 both The Star and the Yorkshire Evening Post carried articles campaigning for higher allowances for service wives. The article in The Star, headlined ‘Army Wives Must Have A Fairer Deal’, was written by Irene Ward, Conservative MP for Wallsend, demonstrating the continued interest of local MPs in the plight of service wives.30 Although