2017 Berkshire Conference on the History of Women, Genders and Sexualities

June 01 - 04, 2017

Despite the important historiography published in the last thirty years that has transformed our understanding of the ways the First World War simultaneously challenged and shored up gender identities, popular memories of the war in Europe tend still to revolve around a number of key stereotypes common since the war itself: the sensitive and innocent young combatant, the plucky nurse, the stoical mother, the grieving widow, and the psychologically damaged veteran. The enormous interest in the First World War and its legacies during the Centenary years has opened up new opportunities for academics to engage with museum professionals, archivists and activists. This roundtable will ask to what extent such collaboration has allowed less culturally dominant stories about gender to emerge which challenge these repetitive myths. The panellists come from different disciplines and backgrounds. The academics all have expertise in gender and the First World War: Sharp on German women and international pacifisms, Fell on French and British women and war, Meyer on masculinity and the history of care, and Darrow on French women and war. The other two panellists, Carlson and Moore, are an archivist and museum curator who have worked closely with academic partners developing exhibitions, websites, activities and popular books that allow diverse audiences to engage with a range of WW1 histories. They have both recently curated exhibitions that offer lesser known women's war stories: on women and industry, and on women, war and knitting.