We Will Wait
Wives of French Prisoners of War, 1940-45
Sarah Fishman(Author)
Yale University Press
Published on 25. December 1991
Book
Hardback
276 pages
978-0-300-04774-5 (ISBN)
Description
Sarah Fishman's "We Will Wait" offers a view of the condition of women, and particularly the 800,000 wives of French prisoners of war, in Vichy France. It provides both personal accounts of several representative women and an analysis of the Vichy state. The paternalistic government assumed that women without husbands needed not only financial help, but also guidance, leadership, and moral protection - which exposed the hypocrisy, manipulation, and ineffectiveness of the regime. Drawing on interviews and archives, Fishman's book shows that although the POW wives faced widely differing conditions, they did have a sense of shared identity, which was reflected in the support groups they formed. The book explores popular attitudes towards the wives, which were shaped by unspoken cultural assumptions about the inherent nature of women. The strength of social norms allowed them to adjust to war and separation without challenging their ideas about the position of women in the family, and mediated their readjustment once their husbands returned. The war was by no means a catalyst for social change.
The analysis benefits from oral histories, rarely used sources such as 1940s women's magazines, and restricted Vichy archives.
The analysis benefits from oral histories, rarely used sources such as 1940s women's magazines, and restricted Vichy archives.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
20 illustrations, bibliography
Dimensions
Height: 242 mm
Width: 159 mm
Weight
650 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-300-04774-5 (9780300047745)
Copyright in bibliographic data is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or its licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Content
Women in France before the war; the trauma of separation; the Vichy regime, the prisoners of war and their families; power, class, and gender - public agencies and prisoners' wives; the daily life of prisoners of war wives; prisoners' wives united - sisterhood and solidarity; waiting wives - representations of women alone; conclusion - the return.