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Article ID: CBB209443937

‘Today We Have All Got to be Fighting Fit’: The Interconnectivity of Gender Roles in British Food Rationing Propaganda during the Second World War (2020)

Spring, Kelly A. (Author)

Gender and History
Volume: 32
Issue: 2
Pages: 320-340
Publication date: 2020
Language: English

DOI: 10.1111/1468-0424.12446

URI: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1468-0424.12446

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Agriculture Economics Domestic space Science and war; science and the military Gender World War II Propaganda Food supply 20th century, early Great Britain

British food rationing of the Second World War was all encompassing, requiring women and men to take an active part in sustaining the consumption needs of the entire population in order to defeat the enemy. However, the road to victory was laden with gendered connotations, which officials infused into food rationing propaganda. These depictions ran along the lines of a sexual division of labour, perpetuating the ideal of the male provider or military figure and female domestic. However, while representations of men's and women's activities differed, they were also shown to be linked. Each gender was dependent on the other, forming cyclical bonds between women on the home front and men in civilian and non-civilian capacities. This article identifies and analyses women's and men's interconnectivity in food rationing propaganda in three key ways, namely by investigating the militarisation of food, exploring the connections between the home front breadwinner and the domestic, and examining women's responsibilities in feeding all British men in wartime, not just their husbands. This article argues that while the government placed women firmly in the centre of its propaganda aims, officials also constructed messages related to men's activities with food, which shifted with the demands of wartime needs.

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