The horrors that the soldiers witnessed during the war stayed with them once they returned home and this crisis of masculinity, that was thought to revert back to normal after the war, continued. In fact, the gender crisis was made worse with the way in which the soldiers were medically treated on their return home. As we have previously seen, the war made the expectations of masculinity unobtainable due to the emotional and psychological traumas that the soldiers endured. This resulted in the men suffering from traumatic shock with symptoms including seizures, tremors, paralysis and disruptions to the senses. In order to treat these symptoms, French doctors used similar solutions to how they treated women for hysteria. This treatment was adapted by Paul Sollier who approached the trauma as a medical problem rather than a social one to remove the soldiers from any blame that it was their fault for their traumatic shock. However, the soldiers were aware that they were being treated like women and not only felt emasculated but also angry with these feminine characteristics within them, adding to a crisis of masculinity during post-WWI.
Another effect of total war upon gender was the threat that women posed to masculinity, which was also seen in the rise of feminism. While the men were away fighting, the women were expected to fill their places in society that they had left. This included doing more masculine roles such as farming and factory work, leading to the whole of society becoming more masculine and the women breaking down the concept of social difference. However, there was an expectation that this shift in the gender norms would return to their pre-war ways after the war, yet this was not to be. Women liked this new independence that they were given and were not willing to give it up, which resulted in the rise of feminism. Before the start of WWI, feminism was already on the climb and was primarily reformist with more than 123 feminist organisations and 35 feminist newspapers which published a range of interests including campaigning for education for girls. Yet during the war, women were being heavily used in the war industries and the feminist movement played a large role to try to improve their working conditions in factories. Having experienced a more masculine role during the war years, women began to be seen as a threat by the soldiers of their masculinity. This argument is supported by Mary Louis Roberts who claimed that soldiers at the front were anxious about the women at home. And they were right to be as the women were enjoying their freedom and new-found independence. This liberation led to concerns of marital infidelity which is another demonstration of gender reversal during the war years as men were seen as imprisoned in the trenches while women had freedom but the image of promiscuity that came with it. This image of infidelity exemplifies the isolation as well as the emasculation of the soldiers. However, these anxieties produced scornful feelings towards women as it was widely thought that the women were apathetic to the sacrifices that the soldiers were making for them and the masculine ‘front’ started to become detached from home with the constant worry of the changed women that the men would return to. This dismissal of domesticity was seen as an insult by the soldiers for all they had done for civilisation during the war. The rejection of the typical social construct of women led to a marriage crisis after the war. Marriage had two key advantages: to organise society (with the man seen as the provider and head of the family while the woman was seen as the nurturer) and to create children, which was necessary after the war. Thus, marriage was seen as the perfect way for society to return to its norm after the war and it soon became a symbol for everything the soldiers had fought for. Yet, women’s refusal to marry soon became seen as another rejection of all the sacrifices they had made, resulting in more scornful feelings towards them. Nursing was another way in which women could have been viewed to threaten masculinity due to the men having to submit themselves to the female nurses. However, this could also be viewed differently as the female nurses were submissive to the men as they took on the role of carer while nursing them back to health. These examples of the way in which women began to change their roles in society threatened the masculine ideals of the soldiers and added to the gender crisis of the time.
Thus, this rejection of the societal norms that women had during the war resulted in a new image of female identity. This new image of the independent woman was called la femme moderne or la garçonne. In 1924, the editor of the newspaper L’Opinion, Jacques Boulenger, depicts her as, “freer in her behaviour than women before the war…she has a taste or desire for independence…she is absolutely determined to be independent”, highlighting this female change which allowed women to be more independent. This change was not just representative in the way they dressed, but in their new values. Their new modernist principles defined both economic and sexual opportunities. The French politician, Léon Blum argued that women should be allowed to have more sexual freedom before they marry due to them having a polygamous instinct. But it was not just their ideals that were making women more similar to men, but also the way in which they were physically portrayed. Both la femme moderne and la garçonne were women who rebelled against the conventional ideas of how they should dress, making the fashion during the interwar period a symbol of gender crisis. The nickname originated from Victor Marguerrite’s famous novel, which was titled La Garçonne. In the novel, he describes a garçonne of the post-war time as wearing androgynous clothing with short, cropped hair. Traditionally, what symbolised womanhood was the female shape, yet the popular, masculine fashion created a ‘no waist, no hips, no breasts’ illusion. This illustrates the more masculine image that women were trying to portray in this gender crisis by redefining the traditional feminine ideals. This was mainly due women abandoning the corset which sparked an outcry among society that also included objections to the short hemlines on dresses and skirts as well as short hair. A famous patron of this new look was Gabrielle Chanel, who made this minimalistic, casual look among women increasingly popular and she quickly became associated with the young, independent women of the time. Even Chanel herself sported the bob hairstyle in 1916. The hairdresser René Rambaud (who popularised the short hairstyle) claimed that this look was “an epoch. It was a particular sign of the time”, highlighting how important a symbol it was in women’s transition in society. Chanel’s pioneering of the sportier, more masculine look was to help make women’s physical movement easier, thus giving them more freedom. Mary Louise Roberts calls this an example of “visual language of liberation”. However, this new fashion had many critics due to it being offensive. The first was due to the supposed lack of the modesty with the shortened length of dresses and lower necklines and the second was because of the blurred barriers it created between the sexes – what is deemed as feminine and masculine. In 1925, a Catholic author famously wrote, “Modern women shouldn’t try to masculinise themselves, and thus lose their sex – a woman becoming a boy: No!”, which I think perfectly illustrates both the religious and cultural apprehensions in witnessing this new woman and her more masculine identity during WWI and the interwar periods.
In conclusion, France witnessed a crisis in the traditional perceptions of gender from 1914 to 1939. There was a reversal in the sexes – men feared they were becoming more feminine as they struggled to uphold the societal expectations of masculinity when witnessing life in the trenches; women took on the roles of men which had been left behind in society, thus causing them to leave the conventional ideals of femininity behind which threatened the masculinity of the soldiers when they returned from the war. Despite the government trying to impose the masculine ideal on soldiers, the horrors of warfare resulted in this ideal being unobtainable and a consequent breakdown in the gender norms. Women continued to seek independence and the rise of feminism progressed after the war and is an extremely prominent, political movement today. This shows how the World War I gender crisis has had continued effects through to our modern day and I am sure will continue to do so in the future.