“Did Women Have a Great War? Gender and the Global Conflict of 1914-1918,” by Susan Grayzel, Professor of History, University of Mississippi

Wednesday, March 29, 3:30-5pm, Mershon Center for International Security Studies, 1501 Neil Ave., Rm. 120

“The title of my talk pays homage to a classic and pioneering essay in women’s history: Joan Kelly’s 1977 ‘Did Women Have a Renaissance?’ Kelly’s intent was to see if — by asking a question that placed women at the center of a world event — we could challenge (as she put it) ‘accepted schemes of periodization.’ Following Kelly, the question: ‘did women have a Great War’ offers a starting point to consider whether or not we can separate the collective wartime and postwar experiences of women from those of their male counterparts. If so, how might a female-centered perspective enhance our understanding of the First World War? In order to address these questions, this talk will explore what the war meant, in at least a few ways, to women qua women, in all its messy complexity, by drawing upon a range of sources from visual and material evidence to government documents to women’s own texts. It will then suggest what focusing on gendered experiences does to the history of the First World War and perhaps to modern war more generally.”

This event is co-sponsored by the Department of Theatre at The Ohio State University.

Register here for this event.