By Shelly Nixon, University of North Carolina at Asheville
download this essay: Nixon_Vera and Feminism
Introduction: Finding Her Place
“I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is, I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat or a prostitute.” – Rebecca West, 1913
As is the all too common tragic fate of many notable women throughout history, Vera Brittain (1893 – 1970) has been largely forgotten. Despite her long and renowned career, Brittain has been erased from most historical texts; details of her contributions to the women’s movement, the pacifist movement, and the nuclear nonproliferation movement are missing in the bulk of academic texts, even in the discipline of Women’s Studies. Yet throughout her life Vera Brittain strove to champion her ideals as well as exemplify them in both her personal life and professional life and was influential during her lifetime.
Though she may not have always succeeded in living up to her high standards nor achieving her goals of complete autonomy and equality for women, she stands as a complex and ultimately human example of the flux in ideology and practice characteristic of the early and middle 1900s. Upon closer examination of her body of work as well as existing literature regarding her life, it can be concluded that her legacy is a crucial piece of feminist history that demands to be reclaimed and brought to light.
Feminism: First Wave, Second Wave, and Wartime/Interwar
“The goal was equality.” — Barbara Arneil, Politics & Feminism, 2001
Dubbed First Wave Feminism, women’s first publicly acknowledged quest for equality actually had its roots in other movements such as abolition and communitarian socialism (LeGates, 197). Rather than remaining at the fringe of other causes, during the 1850s and 1860s women in the Western world (Europe and North America) began to organize formal networks to tackle issues and inequality. “Participants attacked the male monopoly of education, professional careers, and culture; married women’s economic and legal dependence; sexual and moral double standards; women’s lack of control over their bodies; the drudgery of housework; low wages; and, not least, women’s exclusion from politics” (LeGates, 197).
Traditionally First Wave feminism did not provide a theoretical basis or ideology for race, class, and sexuality inequalities, instead “perpetuating a conservative view of the family and women’s role … failing to overcome a white, Eurocentric, middle-class orientation” (LeGates, 237). The ultimate goal was enfranchising women and opening up access to the primarily male public sphere (Arneil, 156). Feminists active during this time believed women’s legal ability to vote would be the catalyst for other social reforms (LeGates, 241). Indeed First Wave Feminism is widely agreed to have reached its pinnacle after World War I, and feminism as a cohesive movement did not re-emerge until two generations later (LeGates, 281 & Arneil, 161).
According to mainstream historians, the re-emergence of an organized, public feminist movement occurred in the late 1960s and peaked in the early 1970s (LeGates, 328 & 364). “More than one hundred years after women first began organizing for equal rights, second-wave feminists caught the media’s attention…” (LeGates, 328). Still fighting many of the same battles, second wave feminism did not appear at its core to be radically different than first wave feminism (LeGates, 237). Inequality continued to be rampant in the public arena, continuing to provide a clear example of sex discrimination. Yet major shifts in the theoretical underpinnings of the movement were at work; some of which were completely new to feminists and feminist thinkers.
Rather than adhering to the prevalent thinking in earlier times emphasizing merely an equal public playing field, radical second wave feminists began to challenge the structure of the playing field itself. Touting the slogan “The Personal is Political,” second wave feminists began to challenge inequality in private as well as public life. “[W]omen were increasingly realizing that the private sphere was in fact the place where power was exerted over them the most. It has, therefore, to become central to political analysis rather than excluded from it” (Arneil, 165).
The term “patriarchy” entered feminist vocabulary, implying that men not only controlled opportunities available in the public sphere such as employment, politics, and education, but that they dominated the private sphere also. Trying to enact a paradigm shift in which egalitarianism was the norm, feminists tackled sexist language, modes of thought and behavior, and family and personal relationships (LeGates, 346). Often criticized, as is first wave feminism, for focusing primarily on privileged white women, second wave feminism is nonetheless where the stirrings of acknowledgement of race, class, and sexuality inequalities began to emerge within and be incorporated into the women’s movement (LeGates, 347).
It is more than reasonable to inquire about the goings on during the years between the first and second waves of the Western feminist movement. At first glance, most historical texts treat this as a dark time in feminist thought at worst and a period in which women focused on other concerns at best. “The absence of highly visible and effective organized feminist movement dominates most historical accounts of the interwar years” (LeGates, 281). As with much mainstream literature, feminism in these two generations is merely more than meets the eye. A more thorough analysis yields a time in which, while it did not flourish, feminist thought remained as a substantial ideological and social movement.
Feminism and the women’s movement did not disappear altogether during the period beginning with the end of World War I and ending in the late 1960s. Rather feminist thinkers and activists continued to articulate new ideas; they were just less successful than previous and subsequent generations. This was due primarily to a lack of cohesive structure as well as a conservative backlash (LeGates, 281-282). “Feminist organizations had to expend endless energies in defending themselves, and, intimidated, they moderated their goals” (LeGates, 292).
The experience of war cannot be discounted when examining feminism during this time; a desire for stability in part manifested itself as “a return to normalcy at war’s end, understood as traditional gender roles and the security of a familiar domesticity” (LeGates, 290). Though incredibly pronounced after the end of World War I, similar desires surfaced at the end of World War II as well. Idealized femininity and domesticity proved to be a worthy adversary for those passionate about the pursuit of creating a new world based on redefined gender roles.
True to their roots in first wave feminism, wartime and interwar feminists strove to make headway for women in public life. “British women worked unceasingly for female candidates, raising funds, writing letters, distributing educational materials and propaganda, and holding firm in the face of resistance” (LeGates, 297). Equal pay and economic opportunities for women served as other primary focuses. “[T]hey recognized … that the key issue for women now that they had the vote centered on their work” (LeGates, 309). Though many women’s organizations were founded and flourished during these years – the International Council of Women, the International Woman Suffrage Alliance, and the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom – on average it was a liability to declare oneself a feminist (LeGates, 297).
As a transition time between first and second wave feminism, wartime and interwar feminism on the surface looks to be “the obsession of a minority of aging women” (LeGates, 301). Younger women, however, it can be argued were busily attempting to incorporate feminism into their personal lives. Perhaps the roots of the sexual liberation and the prevailing slogan of second wave feminism can be found in the flapper’s fashion and social choices, unattractive as they were to traditional first wave feminists. Regardless, it can also be argued that this new found sexual freedom actually weakened the bonds between women exemplified by romantic women’s friendships characteristic of first wave feminism (LeGates, 304).
Divisions in the feminist movement around reproductive rights and family planning provided another challenge to a cohesive, public social movement. Given the massive numbers of casualties in both World War I and World War II, any ideology at odds with increasing the birthrate was highly unappealing. Though many pioneers in both arenas appeared during this era, such as Margaret Sanger, true appreciation of their ideas and efforts were not realized until second wave feminism and beyond (LeGates, 304-305). It must also be noted that any radical feminist reforms surrounding marriage were unappealing, as marriage itself “appeared more enticing than ever,” given the allure of security, tradition, family, and increased sexual intimacy (LeGates, 306). Thus the birth of women’s struggle to balance career and marriage. “No feminist or feminist organization at this time went beyond any earlier feminist critique of marriage; they developed no ideology that called for its radical reformation of abolition” (LeGates, 307).
In essence feminism in the wartime and interwar era can be summarized as private feminism. Though strains echoing the large social movement of the past and precipitating the resurgence to come, it was overall a challenging time not conducive to public pronouncement. This is not to say public feminism disappeared; rather it became incorporated into other movements and transmuted to primarily the individual sphere. “[I]n small and countless ways, and in spite of feeling the divisions of age, class, race, sexual preference, politics, and ideology, women continued to press for change. They tried to improve their lives and the lives of others around them through many channels: pacifism, internationalism, antiracism, unions, leftist or mainstream political parties, businesses and professional organizations, birth control leagues, homemakers’ auxiliaries and cooperatives, and equal-rights groups” (LeGates, 321).
Vera Brittain’s Professional Life
“Women do their best work when they are allowed to do it, not as women, but as human beings.” — Vera Brittain, Why Feminism Lives, 1927
Primarily an author, Vera Brittain is arguably best known for her autobiography Testament of Youth, first published in 1933. However her professional career began nearly two decades earlier. As it was unusual for most women of her time, Brittain pursued an education in lieu of marriage. “When she told her parents that she wanted to go to Oxford, they were amazed. Not only because this would make their daughter’s education unnecessarily expensive, but also because it would reduce her chances for a suitable marriage considerably” (Zangden, 28). As a student at Oxford, however, she abandoned her studies in 1915 for “war work” (Gorham, 97).
During the early days of World War I, this was not an uncommon choice to make. “[L]abor shortages in a number of key areas caused the British government to launch a propaganda campaign encouraging the participation of women” (Gorham, 97). Women’s work varied from agricultural and factory work to nursing and later paramilitary participation. While the majority of women entering the work force were classified as working class, upper middle-class women akin to Britain were also afforded the opportunity (Gorham, 97).
For Vera Brittain, then, it was on to deployment as a VAD, or Voluntary Aide Detachment programme participant. While much has been made of this as an obvious or natural decision on her part, she was actually quite hesitant at the outset. Inasmuch as her idealist temperament and high personal standards came into play, at least one author has asserted “she had become convinced that nursing was the path demanding the hardest work and the greatest degree of self-sacrifice, and that it was through nursing that she could best live up to the sacrifice that Roland and her brother were making as soldiers” (Gorham, 100). Thus nursing for her was the most sensible way to assert her budding political and ideological beliefs, rather than merely a job or civic duty. Indeed nursing also held allure ideologically as “members of the nursing units were meant to have the same status as male commissioned officers, and were to be of an equivalent social class” (Gorham, 101). She may not be able to be a soldier due to her perceived lesser status as a woman, but she would have the closest opportunity available for status.
Nursing duties and the day to day job of a VAD were far from glamorous. “Nurses have long complained that others do not understand their work, which involves the most difficult and demanding issues of life and death – both exaggerated during war” (Roberts and Group, 114). In addition VAD assistance during World War I was accepted warily, arguably begrudgingly, by trained nurses. Many of these tensions arose due to class differences, the hierarchical structure of the profession, and the fear on the part of trained nurses that VAD participants may prove to be job competition post war (Gorham, 104-106).
Nursing itself was, and is, primarily a female dominated occupation, and, as such, often questioned as a profession. In the minds of some, nursing represented the ultimate expression of accepted femininity of the time – “the explicitly feminine image of the nurse as comforter of the wounded male” (Gorham, 116). In a feminist analysis of military nursing, however, women were in fact placed into a unique position of power in relation to the male soldiers for whom they cared. This interpretation was not lost on the general public; rather it was a constant, if somewhat taboo, threat to social norms. “[B]ehind the positive image there was a powerful, less openly acknowledged negative image of the nurse as the female devourer of male strength” (Gorham, 116). The fact that women nurses were more prevalent during World War I than ever before only exacerbated this ambiguity (Roberts and Group, 124).
Vera Brittain herself could not have been completely oblivious to the political underpinnings of her decision to serve as a VAD. Arguably the seeds of her three most passionate causes – feminism, pacifism, and nuclear nonproliferation – found fertile ground during her time in military service. “Brittain, some feminist pacifists and the more successful of the VADs had faith in the argument that the war, even if it was a manifestation of a particularly brutal kind of masculine madness, created space for women to work, think and practise as artists” (Ouditt, 217). Brittain’s highly successful writing and speaking career is in fact primarily built upon her experiences during World War I and her reflection upon and resulting analysis of those times.
Upon her return to Oxford after the war ended, Vera Brittain began to publish poetry. Her first collection, Verses of a V.A.D., was published initially in 1918. A prolific author, her name graces twenty-nine books that span exactly fifty years and range in topic and format – five novels, two poetry collections, two autobiographies, five biographies, a collection of letters, five books focusing on pacifism, two travelogues, and eight historical texts. During the second World War, she also wrote letters in a weekly circular entitled Letters to Peace Lovers (Zangen, 31). It is also worthy to note her journalism experience, beginning with article publication during her time at Oxford and culminating with book reviews in the 1960s (Zangen, 32-33).
It is not a difficult conclusion to draw that she primarily desired to be an author. True to her high ideals and personal standards, she most likely aimed for a primary career as a novelist due to its perceived prestige. In relation to journalism, the title of novelist ranked much higher in hers, and members of the public’s, mind (Zangen, 36-37). She did not disparage the virtues of journalism, however. Publication of articles served as a powerful vehicle to deliver her pacifist and feminist views to a wide audience. “[S]he devoted much of her time to journalism and this not only because it earned her the necessary money but just as much for the advancement of the Women’s Movement” (Zangen, 37). She was nothing if not passionate and opinionated.
Vera Brittain has often been characterized as primarily a pacifist writer. Indeed “she never made an attempt to describe the quintessence of all her feminist convictions in one conclusive theory” (Zangen, 35). Yet in all of her writings emerge themes of women’s lived experience as well as imaginings of a different future. Brittain’s feminist arguments are contextualized by the time in which she lived. “In her numerous articles revolving around women’s issues Brittain gives a detailed picture of women’s situation in the 1920s and 1930s on the one hand and her own opinions and demands for changes on the other” (Zangden, 38).
As did other feminist thinkers and writers of her time, Vera Brittain was faced with the task of deconstructing assumptions about women’s minds, bodies, and character. During this time women as a whole were still bound by the belief that biology is destiny; women’s primary function was to bear and raise children (Zangden, 38-39). Not to mention, women were viewed as fragile and inferior when compared physically with men. This bias extended to the mind as well, resulting in a worldview that at its core insisted women’s place was in the home and nowhere in the public arena. “A woman was taken to be interested solely in domesticity and personal relationships, which were supposed to constitute her happiness” (Zangden, 39). Vera Brittain tackled this typecasting repeatedly in her writing, holding firm that women’s minds were not inferior, merely untrained and traditionally unused. By opening up access to educational opportunities, females would perform on par with males. Her argument applies to perceived physical inferiority as well (Zangden, 41-42).
Brittain’s main feminist thesis was her understanding that women’s lack of social status and power stemmed from the belief that women were inferior. It was not a lack of skills or interest nor an inherent defect that led to the devaluation of women and her banishment to and isolation in the home. “The suppositions attached to women lead to specific expectations concerning their tasks and behaviour” (Zangden, 45). Vera Brittain refuted the common assumptions in her time that women’s lives revolved entirely around wifehood, motherhood, and domesticity. Regardless, a common critique of her work is that she lacks a clear understanding of class differences. In generalizing her conceptualization of women as a whole, most of her ideas directly apply only to heterosexual upper middle class women (Zangden, 45). Wifehood and motherhood are normal and alluring. Marriage was merely to be reformed to follow a companionate and monogamous ideal, rather than reconstructed. Childrearing was a sacred duty, reformed into a more communal task, as was domestic tasks (Zangden, 52-56).
Also true to the prevalent tenets of feminism of her time, Brittain asserted that women had the right to marry, bear children, and pursue paid work outside of the home. Women deserved equal occupational rights and equal pay (Zangden, 59-61). In her thinking women were not superior to man and should thus be hired or promoted solely on the basis of their sex. However no occupation or field should exist in which women could not partake. “There is no job high enough on the ladder of prestige that Brittain would not want open to women, that she would not think within reach of women – for example women as philosophers” (Zangden, 62).
Obviously these reforms to marriage, childrearing, domestic life, and career pursuits could not be accomplished without the cooperation of a suitable husband. Ideally men should modify their current behavioral norms accordingly. Fathers should spend more time with their children. Husbands should learn to fend for themselves and neither demand nor expect wives fulfill their every whim. In the workplace, men should share opportunities and historical privileges (Zangden, 69).
Feminist themes were present in her fiction as well as nonfiction works. Though often termed dated or old-fashioned, her novels are, again, existing within a specific historical context. Ever present is the “questing female hero,” whose drives are autonomy and identity (Montefiore, 152). Though her plots may be technically conservative, “in the portraits of Brittain’s female protagonists keywords of her feminist theory like full humanity, self-determined lives, self-confidence are on the agenda” (Zangden, 121). Her heroines may in theory be viewed as templates for her vision of a complete feminist woman. However it must be noted that fiction is written to be sold to and read by a largely lay, versus academic, audience. Thus judging her stories and characters by a stringent and narrow theoretical lens diminishes her accomplishment of publication given the need for palpability to a wider, more conservative, audience.
Many biographers of Vera Brittain’s life often stop here when speaking of her as a feminist. It is widely asserted that after the late 1930s, she no longer identified herself as a feminist and rather focused her talents and energy on pacifism. This is a superficial and incomplete analysis of her complex character and beliefs as well as an excessively narrow definition of feminism. Indeed it can be argued convincingly that pacifism was merely an outgrowth or extension of her feminism, and both movements are more similar than distinct. “The experiences of the First World War not only initiated the slow emergence of Brittain’s pacifism, it also made her realize the connection between pacifism and feminism” (Zangden, 29). In her opinion, war is a product of men, specifically “the masculine principle of power and tyranny” (Zangden, 66). It is here that she begins to theorize in a very subtle way the concept of patriarchy and the effects of hypermasculine dominance articulated more clearly in second wave feminism and beyond. She calls upon women to rely on principles of “love and co-operation” in order to envision and create a peaceful future (Zangden, 69).
Vera Brittain’s Personal Life
“Pacifism is nothing other than a belief in the ultimate transcendence of love over power.” – Vera Brittain, 1942
Vera Brittain’s professional career is not the only aspect of her life which exemplified her feminist ideology and vision. Aspects of her personal life demonstrate her struggle to integrate her ideals into practical daily living. Three of the most important relationships of her adult life were her best attempts to model and practice what she proselytized. Vera Brittain married with the intent of egalitarian companionship. She nurtured an intimate working and emotional partnership with a woman her intellectual and professional equal. Finally she strove to bear and rear her children in a conscious and deliberate manner which fostered both their independence and intellectual development.
Perhaps the most ambiguous or challenging express of her feminism in practice can be found in her marriage. According to one biographer, Brittain looked at her marriage to George Gordon Catlin as an experiment in which to test her ideals (Roiphe, 257). In order that neither may sacrifice their respective careers, Brittain and Catlin agreed to a “semi-detached” marriage (Roiphe, 259). The proposed arrangement placed Catlin half the year teaching in the United States and traveling the rest of the time. Brittain was to remain in their London residence. This seemed for a time to solve the problem of sacrificing career and autonomy for traditional marriage. “She and Catlin could pursue independent careers on separate continents, and travel on their own, and come together en famille for short stretches of time” (Roiphe, 259). In addition, Brittain did maintain use of her maiden name during her long marriage – an anomaly in her time.
At first Brittain was thrilled and Catlin was supportive of this new model of intimacy. After a time, however, Catlin extrapolated “semi-detached” marriage to mean he was free to pursue extramarital affairs. Though on a deeply personal and emotional level, Vera Brittain held to her monogamous ideal, she also did little to dissuade Catlin in his dalliances. In fact he often wrote or spoke to her of such encounters. Brittain “did not feel that she could expressly forbid it, given the unusual freedom she herself had requested and seized, and yet she was deeply threatened by the possibility of her husband ensconced with another woman” (Roiphe, 261). She was also not unaware of how her marriage looked to outsiders, stating in a letter to Catlin, “our work – at any rate my work – depends largely for its success, not only upon the fact that were are ideally happy together, but that we are known to be so” (Roiphe, 261). Thus she felt compelled to concede to Catlin’s perceived need for regular sexual activity, albeit outside of the marital bonds. Perhaps also this explains the lack of divorce in their particular case. As a public figure striving to live her ideals, Brittain would probably never admit her unhappiness in a marriage she had so carefully constructed; it would be akin to defeat.
Another strain on the “semi-detached” marriage was Catlin’s struggling career. As they were both ambitious, it would not have been easy for Catlin to deal with Brittain’s international reputation as an author and speaker once Testament of Youth was published. This was only exacerbated by the continued existence of traditional gender roles which cast the husband as the public success. His own success faltered with his inability to find an academic appointment in England, far fewer publications than Brittain’s own, and a failed run for public office (Roiphe, 286).
It is impossible to conclude any sort of discussion on Vera Brittain’s experimental “semi-detached” marriage without introducing and discussing her relationship with Winifred Holtby. Since the time she and Winifred first met at Oxford, they “had been inseparable – living, working, lecturing, and traveling together” (Roiphe, 277). Despite Brittain’s marriage to Catlin, this relationship continued to flower. The grand experiment of “semi-detached” marriage included Winifred from its inception. She was to reside at the jointly-owned home in London, sharing equally in the expenses and traveling whenever she wished (Roiphe, 259). As such Brittain did not have to severe her deep emotional ties to Winifred in lieu of marriage. Rather Winifred metaphorically entered into the marriage contract along with Catlin and Vera. “In some sense Winifred acted as Catlin’s proxy … She had positioned herself intimately inside the marriage, a narrator and observer of their love” (Roiphe, 280 – 281).
Winifred Holtby and Vera Brittain’s relationship proved to be as intricate and complex as anything else in Brittain’s life. Biographers have often noted the romantic and intimate nature of their correspondence. “Vera was, for most of her adult life Winifred’s true companion. The friendship contained such deep stores of sympathy, such constant, easy intimacy that in certain ways it did resemble a marriage” (Roiphe, 278). As both were prolific writers, they frequently corresponded via letters. Within these letters, as well as Winifred’s correspondence with Catlin are numerous endearments, and Catlin himself acknowledged the potential wedge he drove in between Vera Brittain and Winifred Holtby. He stated in a letter to Holtby shortly after his and Brittain’s marriage, “I know, my dear Winifred, what I am stealing from you” (Roiphe, 278). Regardless there is little likelihood that Winifred Holtby and Vera Brittain’s relationship ever crossed into a physically erotic one.
Winifred Holtby played an integral role in the marriage, both as a connection between Catlin and Brittain and as a surrogate parent to their children. Holtby took an active role in the rearing of Brittain’s two children, John and Shirley. While not the sole caretaker of the children, she did feed and care for them. When Shirley was born, it was Holtby who stayed up the entire night assisting in the birth (Roiphe, 281). Though many may have privately thought and publicly stated that Vera Brittain was primarily taking advantage of Winifred Holtby, Winifred Holtby herself did derive a measure of satisfaction from the living and family arrangement. While Vera Brittain questioned her competence as a mother, Holtby seemed much more suited to parenting. “Winifred … seemed to bring a natural levity to childcare” (Roiphe, 260).
In addition to the role she played in Vera Brittain’s personal life, Winifred Holtby was also integral to Brittain’s literary career. “Throughout their relationship, but especially in the early years, Brittain and Holtby saw themselves as partners in a joint enterprise” (Gorham, 168). They both initially set out as aspiring lecturers, journalists, and writers. Reminiscent of women’s nineteenth century friendships, their relationship contrasted due to the incorporation of focusing on work as well (Gorham, 168). Despite the emotional and familial support they granted one another, “they both considered that the help they could give each other as serious writers was of even greater importance” (Gorham, 169). In fact their relationship can be characterized as a collaboration. “Collaborations exist in a range of ‘authorial’ activities not necessarily named authorship: acts of assistance and inspiration; acts of mentoring or mutual influence; acts of revision of editorial input” (London, 19).
True to the aforementioned criteria of collaboration, this professional support manifested itself in mutual literary criticism, though Winifred Holtby’s criticism of Vera Brittain’s work was often more generous than its reciprocal and was underscored on some occasions by competition and one-sidedness. Holtby is in fact often constructed as characteristically giving more than she received in all aspects of their personal and professional relationship. “In all its aspects, then, but especially in relation to their serious writing, the friendship was sustained by Holtby’s willingness to be extraordinarily tolerant of Brittain’s outbursts of selfishness, envy and competitiveness and at the same time to forgo any expectation that Brittain would be able to offer her similar patience in return” (Gorham, 172).
Regardless of any insecurities she may have felt about her parenting skills, Brittain did do her best to provide a suitable environment for her children. The high standards she held for herself were translated into educating herself about the proper care and education of children. “She believed that the primary role that educated professional women ought to perform for their children was that of moral and intellectual guide” (Gorham, 180). This was not a task she believed she could perform completely alone, nor did she believe that sacrificing career was necessary to feminist motherhood. She was adamant that she “would serve her children best by providing responsible professional care for them in infancy, and by continuing her own work” (Gorham, 180).
Thus, after the birth of her first child, she sought out the assistance of the Chelsea Babies Club. Described by Vera Brittain as a “well-baby clinic,” it was subscriber based with a yearly fee and boasted both a physician and a nurse. She benefited immensely by joining, crediting the clinic with saving her first child’s life due to the care and advice she received (Gorham, 202). Joining the Chelsea Babies Club also fit within her feminist ideals. Motherhood should be viewed as a set of skills that could be learned rather than as an instinct all women had. According to her, “mothercraft is a science which has to be taught” (Gorham, 202). Pointing to the fact that previous reformers had set up infant welfare centers for working class women, she argued that middle class women needed these services as well. Ever the public advocate, she not only patronized the Chelsea Babies Club as a mother but touted its work also. In addition she served on its board of management (Gorham, 202).
Vera Brittain’s decisions regarding the rearing of her children and her refusal to completely abandon her career was characteristic of feminist thought in the interwar years. Women sought to integrate marriage and children along with careers. Part of the basis for this ideological strain in feminism was based upon the fact that men were rarely asked to choose between family and employment outside the home. Rather the prevalent paradigm of marriage and childrearing as women’s, and women’s alone, primary function must be shifted. “Equality must not require the servile imitation of men. Rather, society must be re-structured to involve both men and women in nurture and family life as well as work” (Allen, 193).
Conclusion: A Feminist Life
“You must have a clear idea of what some of us think about the world we are now living in, before you condemn us for our point of view and the penalties which it brings.”
– Vera Brittain, Humiliation with Honor, 1942
Vera Brittain’s personal and professional life demonstrate clearly the complexity of her character. She does not fit neatly into any one rigidly defined category, be it ideological or more concrete. Though she has been described with many labels – feminist, pacifist, internationalist – her life and works do not exhibit merely one main idea. Rather she reflects the uncertainty and ambiguity of the time in which she lived. The wartime and interwar periods are characterized by a desire to return to safe, familiar traditional values in reaction to the horrors of war. Yet in direct contrast to this desire was also the need for women to sustain and build upon the successes of first wave feminism.
It was not an easy time, however, to proclaim oneself a feminist. The grasping for security exhibited by most of the populace did not leave much room for reconstruction women’s roles and attitudes regarding equality. Strident and passionate feminists and social reformers faced considerable conservative backlash. Vera Brittain was not excluded from the prevalent attitudes of her times. What is remarkable, however, is her unwavering conviction in her principles and her stubborn determination to put her ideals into practice in her own life. “Not only should she be seen as a major feminist voice in the inter-war period, but as a minority voice speaking out unequivocally for feminist principles during a period of reaction” (Gorham, 176). Indeed the voice of history is muffled without her inclusion.
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