Women's History Commons^™

Queering The Wac: The World War Ii Military Experience Of Queer Women, Catherine S. Cauley

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The demands of WWII mobilization led to the creation of the first standing women's army in the US known as the Women's Army Corps (WAC). An unintended consequence of this was that the WAC provided queer women with an environment with which to explore their gender and sexuality while also giving them the cover of respectability and service that protected them from harsh societal repercussions. They could eschew family for their military careers. They could wear masculine clothing, exhibit a masculine demeanor, and engage in a homosocial environment without being seen as subversive to the American way of life. Quite …

Ready, Aim, Feminism: When Women Went Off To War, Anika N. Jensen

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

I like to imagine that if Sarah Emma Edmonds were my contemporary she would often sport a t-shirt saying, "This is what a feminist looks like."

Edmonds was a patriot, a feminist, and, along with an estimated 400 other women, a soldier in the American Civil War. Fed up with her father’s abuse and appalled at the prospect of an arranged marriage Edmonds left her New Brunswick home at the age of fifteen and soon adopted a male identity to become a successful worker. When the war erupted, she was compelled by a sense of patriotism and adventure to join …

Women And World War Ii At Gettysburg College, Keira B. Koch

Student Publications

An examination of the women attending Gettysburg College during World War II. This project examined what the women did and experienced during the World War II, along with analyzing campus culture and life.

Silenced Voices: Sexual Violence During And After World War Ii, Cassidy L. Chiasson

Honors Theses

This thesis explores the different types of sexual violence present during and immediately after World War II and focuses specifically on the European Theater of the war. Memoirs, journals and diaries were used as primary sources. This research focuses on the overlapping themes of sexual violence in the form of forcible rape and sexual violence as a means of protection and survival. The goal of this research is to provide a comprehensive view of the complexity surrounding many situations in which sexual violence occurred. It also aims to partially fill the gap in historical literature on this topic, and bring …

Ms-177: Lillian Quinn Letter Collection, Avery N. Fox

All Finding Aids

The collection consists primarily of letters written from Lillian Quinn to Lillian Carling. The letters span from January 27, 1937 to August 8, 1949 and focus on family health, activities, and troubles of the Quinn family, as well as their opinions about World War II and how it impacts the family.

Special Collections and College Archives Finding Aids are discovery tools used to describe and provide access to our holdings. Finding aids include historical and biographical information about each collection in addition to inventories of their content. More information about our collections can be found on our website https://www.gettysburg.edu/special-collections/collections/.

Marriage And Gender: A History Through Letters, Victoria Kern

Senior Honors Projects

Research on the evolution of marriage can be found quite easily, but the opportunity to see into the lives of married couples from the past is rare. Through the analysis of letters between my parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents, I provide a glimpse of what being married has meant throughout the 20^th Century for heterosexual couples. Societal ideas about what makes a marriage ideal have changed over time, but they have always been closely linked with gender expectations (Berk, 2013), so a feminist approach to the analysis of the evolution of marriage is used with my family’s letters as a …

Interview Of Margaret Mccoey, M.S., Margaret M. Mccoey, Matthew Riffe

All Oral Histories

Margaret “Peggy” McCoey is the Director of Graduate Programs in Computer Information Science, Information Technology, and Economic Crime Forensics at La Salle University. Born in the Oxford Circle section of Philadelphia in 1957, Peggy grew up in St. Martin of Tours parish attending their grade school before going to Little Flower High School. After graduation in 1975, Peggy entered La Salle University an undergraduate where she received a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science. Peggy received a master’s degree from Villanova in 1984. Beginning in 1982, Peggy McCoey has taught at La Salle University in some capacity. Throughout the 1990’s, Peggy …

The Women Airforce Service Pilots (Wasp) Of World War Ii, Natalie J. Stewart-Smith

ERAU Prescott Aviation History Program

Hear the fascinating story of the women who flew in WW II as members of the WASP, from Natalie Stewart-Smith. Her thesis on them was the very first academic study of the WASP and is based on numerous personal interviews, including Jacqueline Cochran, their founder. The military contribution of women fliers during World War I is a seldom seen part of the WASP story as well.

“I Am Always Thinking First Of You:” The Chamberlains In Love And War, Bryan G. Caswell

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

Soldier. Professor. Hero. Braggart. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain has been called many things by many people. Regardless of whether one loves or despises him, Chamberlain and his role in the American Civil War never fail to evoke intense emotion. While books, movies, and the occasional painting have all immortalized Chamberlain the soldier, rare is the occasion to observe Chamberlain the husband. In honor of Valentine’s Day, I bring you the story of the Chamberlains; a story of romance and rebuttal, of peace and conflict, of injury both physical and emotional and, in the end, a deep, abiding love. [excerpt]

Foreign Affairs: Policy, Culture, And The Making Of Love And War In Vietnam, Amanda C. Boczar

Theses and Dissertations--History

Foreign Affairs: Policy, Culture, and the Making of Love and War in Vietnam investigates the interplay between war and society leading to and during the Vietnam War. This project intertwines histories of foreign relations, popular culture, and gender and sexuality as lenses for understanding international power relations during the global Cold War more broadly. By examining sexual encounters between American service members and Vietnamese civilian women, this dissertation argues that relationships ranging from prostitution to dating, marriage, and rape played a significant role in the diplomacy, logistics, and international reception of the war. American disregard for South Vietnamese morality laws …

Gettysburg Historical Journal 2015

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

No abstract provided.

Broken Promises: Rape, Race, And The Union Army, Kellie J. Hedgers

All Master's Theses

Through the use of Union courts-martial records, this paper will examine the ways in which black women who had been assaulted by white men were denied justice in military courts. Although the Union Army was often perceived of as an army representing freedom and higher moral purpose, the court martial records reveal a darker side. They reveal that sometimes black women found no safety behind Union lines; rather, they found themselves victims of sexual violence by white men and had little recourse to justice. Although outwardly the Union Army was devoted to abolishing slavery, the inner workings of its courts …