HIS42630 Keeping the home fires burning: Women and war in Ireland and Britain, 1914-1945

Academic Year 2021/2022

This module explores the experience of women in Ireland and Britain during the First World War and the Second World War. Taking a comparative approach, it examines the involvement of women in the war effort in both countries and the impact of conflict on gender roles in society and women’s lived experience. Central to the course is a ‘history from below’ perspective, moving away from a political or military history of war to focus on the ordinary everyday experience of war for women. The module will examine the main historiographical trends within the field assessing their impact upon our understanding of gender and war in the twentieth century. Key themes include the interaction between gender and class, and the intervention of the state into domestic spaces.
There is a strong focus on the concept of ‘everyday life’ and the experiences of ‘ordinary people’. Together with diaries and memoirs, the module will introduce students to oral history testimonies and the Mass Observation project in the United Kingdom. Specific topics for seminars will include mobilisation for the war effort; work and the labour movement; family and domestic life; social morality; women’s experiences of bombardment; demobilisation; memory and commemoration. Students will be encouraged to pursue their own archival research.

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Curricular information is subject to change

Learning Outcomes:

On successful completion of this module students should:

a) study, writing and communication skills appropriate to Level 4;
b) have developed a critical understanding of the topic and an awareness of the key concepts and methodologies that historians have used to approach the social history of the two World Wars in Ireland and Britain
c) the ability to handle historical sources, and to critically evaluate a range of primary sources.

Indicative Module Content:

Weekly Seminar topics

1. Gender and women’s history: an introduction
2. Writing Women and war
3. Service and sacrifice: articulating mobilisation in diaries and memoirs
4. Observing the war: Interpreting home front experiences
5. Student meetings and independent research
6. Remembering and narrating war: oral history testimonies from Ireland
7. Wartime Work and emancipation
8. Domesticity, labour and the double burden
9. Gender, sexuality and social morality
10. Families at war: separation and reunion
11. Commemorating women and war

Student Effort Hours: 
Student Effort Type Hours
Seminar (or Webinar)

22

Specified Learning Activities

95

Autonomous Student Learning

95

Total

212

Approaches to Teaching and Learning:
This module will be taught through small-group seminars and will involve class discussion together with close analysis of primary documents. There will also be student presentations. Students will complete an independent research project based on their own primary research.

 
Requirements, Exclusions and Recommendations

Not applicable to this module.


Module Requisites and Incompatibles
Not applicable to this module.
 
Assessment Strategy  
Description Timing Open Book Exam Component Scale Must Pass Component % of Final Grade
Project: This is a research essay of c. 4,000 words, based on work undertaken over the 11 weeks of term. Coursework (End of Trimester) n/a Graded No

50

Continuous Assessment: This includes learning journals and seminar participation Throughout the Trimester n/a Graded No

50


Carry forward of passed components
No
 
Resit In Terminal Exam
Spring No
Please see Student Jargon Buster for more information about remediation types and timing. 
Feedback Strategy/Strategies

• Feedback individually to students, post-assessment

How will my Feedback be Delivered?

Students will receive individual feedback on their assessments after submission of their assignments during the trimester. Feedback will be typically provided online through Brightspace.