Women and Gender in Postwar Europe charts the experiences of women across Europe from 1945 to the present day. Europe at the end of World War II was a sorry testimony to the human condition; awash in corpses, the infrastructure devastated, food and fuel in such short supply. From Soviet Union to the United Kingdom and Ireland the vast majority of citizens on whom survival depended, in the postwar years, were women. This book charts the involvement of women in postwar reconstruction through the Cold War and post Cold-War years with chapters on the economic, social, and political dynamism that characterized Europe from the 1950s onwards, and goes on to look at the woman’s place in a rebuilt Europe that was both more prosperous and as tension-filled as before. The chapters both look at broad trends across both eastern and western Europe; such as the horrific aftermath of World War II, but also present individual case studies that illustrate those broad trends in the historical development of women’s lives and gender roles. The case studies show difference and diversity across Europe whilst also setting the experience of women in a particular country within the broader historical issues and trends, in such topics as work, professionalization, sexuality, consumerism, migration, and activism. The introduction and conclusion provide an overview that integrates the chapters into the more general history of this important period. This will be an essential resource for students of women and gender studies and for post 1945 courses.

This volume explores the role of gender on both the home and fighting fronts in eastern Europe during World Wars I and II. By using gender as a category of analysis, the authors seek to arrive at a more nuanced understanding of the subjective nature of wartime experience and its representations. While historians have long equated the fighting front with the masculine and the home front with the feminine, the contributors challenge these dichotomies, demonstrating that they are based on culturally embedded assumptions about heroism and sacrifice. Major themes include the ways in which wartime experiences challenge traditional gender roles; postwar restoration of gender order; collaboration and resistance; the body; and memory and commemoration.

These essays, by American, Canadian, and East European scholars, provide a comprehensive look at the status of women in Eastern Europe, with particular emphasis on the postwar situation.

These essays, by American, Canadian, and East European scholars, provide a comprehensive look at the status of women in Eastern Europe, with particular emphasis on the postwar situation.

Investigates the role of women and gender in fascist and non-fascist movements of the extreme right. The text re-examines the nature of the extreme right in the light of research in the field of women's and gender studies, offering an accessible overview of developments in Europe.

How gender factored into politics and society in the United States and East and West Germany in the aftermath of World War II. Gender and the Long Postwar examines gender politics during the post–World War II period and the Cold War in the United States and East and West Germany. The authors show how disruptions of older political and social patterns, exposure to new cultures, population shifts, and the rise of consumerism affected gender roles and identities. Comparing all three countries, chapters analyze the ways that gender figured into relations between victor and vanquished and shaped everyday life in both the Western and Soviet blocs. Topics include the gendering of the immediate aftermath of war; the military, politics, and changing masculinities in postwar societies; policies to restore the gender order and foster marriage and family; demobilization and the development of postwar welfare states; and debates over sexuality (gay and straight).

Pre-University Paper from the year 2015 in the subject History Europe - Germany - Postwar Period, Cold War, grade: 1.0, language: English, abstract: Women's roles have developed significantly over time. In the two parts of Germany, that development happened in very different ways. While women in the East were almost seen as equal to men, at least in theory, the situation in the West of Germany proved to be much more conservative. This paper deals with the development of women's roles in the last 60 years, with the example of three different generations.