Monday, 21 November 2016

1066 and all that; reliving the past 950 years on


The Battle of Hastings

Hrafn providing the front rank for Crusade, advancing as the
centre of the Norman line during the 2016 recreation of the
Battle of Hastings, photograph by Benjamin Sharkey
It is perhaps true that 1066 is the year most easily associated with something momentous in the minds of the British (or at least English) public. William of Normandy facing Harold Hardrada at Hastings, an arrow in the eye and England was forever changed. The truth, of course, is far more complex. Hastings was important, and defeat for the Normans there would quite probably have safeguarded Saxon control over the country for the immediate future, but victory didn’t mean that the Normans under Duke William would inevitably take over.

Still, it was doubtless an important battle, a pivotal moment in British history with consequences which rang down the centuries, and 950 years after Norman and Saxon clashed along Senlac Ridge the splendid ruin of Battle Abbey saw hosts clothed in maille and armed with sword, spear, and axe once again wrestling for control of that ground, and in the imagination of the 10,000 members of the public who were able to get tickets, fighting for the crown of England.

Historical Re-enactment, and recreating the battle 950 years on

Hrafn, with blue dragons on green shields, the University of Birmingham’s
‘Battle Re-enactment Society’, photograph by Benjamin Sharkey
Historical re-enactment is not new to Britain, and for half a century groups and individuals have brought the past to life (with varying degrees of success and accuracy). The 950th anniversary of the Battle of Hastings drew reenactors from around the world to create a large and spectacular recreation of medieval combat. Recreating the battle allowed the public to not only understand what happened nearly a millennium ago, but to experience it. Reading or being told of the past allows for understanding on one level, but on the 15th and 16th of October 2016, no imagination was needed to see what happened, to see the ebb and flow of fortune, as the horror and heroism of combat was displayed for all to see.

Those who took the field experienced, to some small degree the events of the 14th October 1066 gives a unique insight into the realities of medieval warfare. I was there as part of Hrafn, the University of Birmingham’s ‘Battle Re-enactment Society’ (affiliated with ‘Crusade’, a nation-wide, multi-period society) and though this was my first experience of eleventh century warfare, I have previously taken to the early-modern battlefield with the English Civil War Society, and it gives an understanding of combat which is difficult to gain through more traditional academic avenues.

On the second day I carried the banner of my
society, photograph by Benjamin Sharkey

The Battle of Hastings and me

Taking my place on the ‘field of honour’ at Battle Abbey, fighting with sword and shield whilst wearing a full hauberk of maille on the first day, and holding a great banner aloft the second, was a great opportunity. It was my first outing on a recreated medieval battlefield, my first experience of crossing sword and axe with strangers in front of massed crowds, my first time carrying a banner to a fight – and I really enjoyed it. Walking through the living history encampments of the Norman and Saxon hordes, hearing the cheers of the crowd during the battles, and being stopped to have my photograph taken afterwards, made clear that the public enjoyed it too.

Why living history is important

Battle (and battlefield) re-enactment is but one facet of historical re-enactment; living history and historical interpretation are other ways in which people attempt to bring aspects and elements of the past to life, and I have experience of these. These provide valuable experience for the public, and can give a more nuanced understanding of how people lived in the past, of how material objects were created and used. How better to understand material culture than by engaging with it directly? By recreating elements of the past, or events wholesale, details become clearer, accepted historical ‘truths’, and different interpretations of the past all become possible.

For heritage organisations, historic properties and sites, and museums more generally there are advantages to inviting reenactors and living historians to visit. Events draw the public, increasing footfall and encouraging those who might not otherwise visit the site. They also bring sites to life, displaying them in a way which is different to the norm, and illustrating and interpreting a moment in the past. Battle Abbey, which often features characters from the past, certainly benefited from increased footfall over the anniversary weekend. Tickets were sold out a week before the event, and feedback from visitors made clear that it was the recreation of the battle that drew them on a cold and wet October weekend.

For most re-enactors and living historians bringing the past to life is a hobby rather than a vocation. It is not only satisfying to educate and entertain the public but is also interesting and personally rewarding for those who take part; one advantage I have found from creating historical food is that it is not only interesting but also deeply delicious. Marigold tart is my particular speciality, and without becoming a reenactor it isn’t something I would know how to bake. Which would be tragic!

Academics, too, can take advantage of the experiences of living historians and reenactors; the ‘lived experience’ of the enthusiastic people who recreated the forced march south from York, and the Battle of Stamford Bridge, to Hastings can give insight into what happened, and how it affected those fighting in the days following. Similarly, by creating food to historical recipes using reproduction tools and pots it is possible to get a real taste of the past, and to understand something of the lives of those long past.

Though far from a normal part of the academic approach to understanding and interpreting history, experiencing it offers a unique opportunity to examine the past in a different way. Reading that experiencing a charge by cavalry is intimidating is simple, but feeling the earth move as a relatively small number of horse gallop past, even knowing that there is no real danger, gives a more visceral understanding of how inexperienced and nervous soldiers might have felt.

Links:





Friday, 24 January 2014

Illustrations of conflict: in what way does poetry reflect the attitudes of those affected by warfare?

Each war, great or small, has made its mark on the psyche of those who fought or who experienced it, and on societies which were affected by it. This is reflected by the artworks produced during conflict; great paintings and sketches, stark photography and film, heartfelt and often black humour-filled songs, by letters, memoirs and particularly by poetry. 

This essay will primarily focus on two pieces of poetry written during the World Wars; Goldfield was a German Jew who fought in the Great War about whom nothing more is known, and John Gillespie Magee, Jr. (1922-1941), who was an American who joined the RCAF (Royal Canadian Air Force) in the Second World War and flew the Supermarine Spitfire.

The two World Wars of the last century have proved fertile ground for poetry of all sorts. Official verse lauded the efforts of “us” and demonised “them”; poetry was used very effectively for propaganda in most, if not all, of the nations involved. In the Great War populations quickly went from being pacific and anti-war to aggressively supportive of conflict. Propaganda was, undoubtedly, a key reason for an about-face and it would be used by all nations to great effect throughout both wars. The German propaganda machine made very effective use of epic cultural mythology, particularly the Germanic/Nordic heroic tradition, and “it should come as no surprise, then, that many German war posters contained images of dragons, Valkyries, and sword-wielding, Siegfried-like heroes” (Josh, 2008) (see Appendix 2).

Alongside governmental or official poetry, used to shape public opinion, there was a vast amount of other work produced during the World Wars. Some of it was written for sale or in an attempt to capture the feelings of a nation.

Much of it was written in an act of catharsis, “the process of releasing, and thereby providing relief from, strong or repressed emotions” (Oxford Dictionaries, n.d.) or as a requiem, “an act or token of remembrance” (Oxford Dictionaries, n.d) for the fallen. Some, as Gregory tells us, was even written simply because it seemed the thing to do!
“Much of it was made to be sold; and much of it was made to order: to engender hate, or to stimulate munition factories and recruiting; and not a little of it seems to have been written by men for no reason other than that ‘war poetry’ was expected of them” (Gregory, 1921).
The poetry of war, then, captures an enormous range of experience and emotion and takes many forms: from a paean glorifying war to an obloquy denouncing it.

“An einen Vermißten Freund!” (to a missing friend!) was written by a German Jew named Goldfield about whom very little is known; Appelbaum (2013) is able to tell us that he was killed during the First World War but nothing more, not even his first name. Not very much is known about the participation of German Jews in the Great War, partially due to the bureaucratic pogroms of military records and public memory by the Nazi Government. Penslar (2011) wrote of a 1977 documentary about Jewish participation in the war which asked “who, today, is still aware that between 1914 and 1918 some 500,000 Jewish fellow citizens fielded 100,000 soldiers, of whom 12,000 fell?” (p. 442).

An estimated 1.5 million Germans were killed in the First World War; it is fitting, therefore, that the theme of Goldfield’s poem is death. The title (to a missing friend!) boldly hints, euphemistically, at the theme and this is expanded upon in the first line, something which is repeated, very effectively, in each of the three short verses. There is a very sorrowful tone throughout the poem; it is a threnody for the titular, unnamed friend who has been slain but whose body lies missing.

Despite the discordant theme and feel of the poem there is a regular metre throughout; the order and regular beat of the lyrics grants an ordered, martial feel that makes the loss starker and more apparent. Each of the three stanzas is a quatrain where the first and second pair of lines rhyme in an AABB pattern reminiscent of the English sonnet. Each quatrain builds on the one before throughout, developing the theme as it does, in the manner of a sonnet. However, it lacks the closing rhyming couplet, and the precise rhyming structure, of the English sonnet so Miller (n.d.) might better describe it as an “indefinable sonnet”.

The first stanza laments the loss of a friend, certainly slain, but for whom the poem is the only memorial which can be offered as there is no body to mourn over:
“You have no grave, no cross … but you did die.
Maybe in some dark thicket your bones lie
Or you were sunk in swamp in deep of night,
Or Cossacks cruelly robbed you of the light.”
(Appelbaum, 2013).

There is great impact from the caesura in the opening line; the pause gives the reader a moment to think about what the lack of grave or marker means before the declaration of death is made. The alliteration in the third line, “sunk in swamp”, offers a sibilant suggestion of a body dragged deep beneath the earth, further alliteration in the fourth line, where “Cossacks cruelly” offer death, suggests the Eastern Front. It is, perhaps, a cruel irony that Russian Cossacks would be involved in pogroms against the Jewish people of the Ukraine in the following war.

The second stanza builds on the first quatrain; the uncertainty of how the soldier’s friend has died is married to the certitude of the death. The duality of reasons for mourning is powerfully presented:
And when it was and where and how …and why
I know not: death in forest does not cry.
You are a skull now white-bleached by the rain
Round which the weasel lightly leaves its train.
(Appelbaum, 2013).
In this quatrain Goldfield personifies death, stating that death does not offer tears. He uses evocative language to contrast the vital, living nature of the forest and weasel with the lone, imagined, remains of the fallen friend – a skull. The skull is striking and forms an iconic, stark, image which has long been tied with death, and which poses an instinctive warning to any who see it. It is a symbol that echoes with the inevitability of death, a memento mori, Latin for 'remember (that you have) to die’ (Oxford Dictionaries, n.d.), which is instinctively understood and that reminds all of humanities shared mortality.

The closing stanza renews the theme of death and loss, underlining earlier references to the solid reality of the earth and, very effectively, again linking death with nature:
You are the ploughed earth on which horses stand
You are the grain that once did crown the land
You are the bread the farmer once did eat
You are the strength when peace returns to greet.
(Appelbaum, 2013).
The reader is offered closure, of a sort, in the final quatrain. The dead man is compared, dramatically, with the very land which he fought for, his loss reflecting the real hunger besetting the German people as the country was blockaded by the Royal Navy and her allies. Goldfield promises that his fallen friend offers a future once the rifle has been put down, “when peace returns”, and that the dead will be remembered and will give strength to those who remember them, feeding them spiritually (as they will be fed physically once goods are allowed to flow into the country once more).

The subject and form of Goldfield’s “to a missing friend!” can be compared with a far better known poem, “the soldier” by Rupert Brooke which was written in 1914 when patriotic war fervour was at its height. Rather than lamenting the fallen as a great loss as does Goldfield, Brooke offers a celebration of sacrifice for the betterment of his country. This is a good example of how attitudes, both in Britain and Germany, changed through the war: initial fervent support was worn down by the horrors of warfare, particularly on the Western Front. In Britain unthinking support for prosecuting the war lessened in 1915, and reduced significantly throughout 1916. In Germany clever use of propaganda and tight control of media outlets meant that there was general support for the war, despite great hardships, into 1917 and until the morale collapse of the country, leading to the surrender of 1918.

The poem has been translated from its original German by Dr Peter Appelbaum. Dr Appelbaum is a clinical microbiologist and author with an interest in languages and modern Jewish history. Whilst he is undoubtedly an expert who has translated many similar poems there must be concern with any translation as, in poetry, words are often selected very particularly to inspire or convey emotion and subtext; the interpretation of Goldfield’s meaning presented by Dr Appelbaum is his own.

Nevertheless, “to a missing friend!” is a powerful piece of writing which in twelve simple lines underlines the horror felt by the author, how tired he has become and how death is a constant companion; perhaps a friend to replace the one who has fallen. There is a measure of irony that, since we know nothing more of the author than he was a German Jew who died in the Great War with only a surname to act as memorial the poem, a lament to a fallen, unnamed friend who lacks even memorial, has become his only monument.

Not all war poetry is mournful; writing in the Second World War Pilot Officer John Gillespie Magee, Jr. wrote a joyful poem in praise of flight. Though he was an American Magee had crossed the border with Canada in order to fight against Nazi Germany. He completed flight training aged 18 and joined No. 412 Fighter Squadron, RCAF (Royal Canadian Air Force) in June of 1941. Magee flew the Supermarine Spitfire in fighter sweeps over France and air defence over England as well as taking part in test flights of new and improved versions of the Spitfire. 

After one of these test flights Magee wrote a letter to his parents in which he commented "I am enclosing a verse I wrote the other day. It started at 30,000 feet, and was finished soon after I landed" (Great Aviation Quotes, n.d.). On the back of that letter was written the verse that would be published and which has become an anthem for pilots the world over: "high flight". It is, perhaps, easy to imagine how inspirational such a flight, one of the first to go so high, could be to a young man whose life was filled with thrills and dangers.

"High flight" is a rapturous acclamation of the joy of flight. It is a sonnet presented in two verses, one of 8 lines and one of 6; Magee's poem has an ABABCDCDEFEGFG structure which fits, if imperfectly, the Italian sonnet style: an octave of eight lines followed by a sestet of six. A key feature of the Italian sonnet is the volta, or turn. This is a change of subject matter or theme between the octave and sestet; as the rhyming pattern changes so does the nature of the poem (Miller, n.d.).

The traditional rhyming pattern of the octave is ABBAABBA when used by English-speaking poets this form has evolved in, such as ABBAACCA (such as in Wordworth's "scorn not the sonnet") or ABBACDCD (such as in Charles Tennyson-Turner's "missing the meteors"). There is more flexibility in the sestet both traditionally and as adapted by English-speaking poets. Magee's structure does not fit this form completely but the octave and sestet are clear, as is the volta; the octave speaks of general deeds where the sestet speaks of going higher, going high enough to have "touched the face of God" (Great Aviation Quotes, n.d.).

Magee, like Goldfield, makes use of alliteration to reinforce the message of his words; the repeated sibilant sounds of "slipped the surly bonds of Earth", "sun-split clouds", "soared and swung" amongst "sunlit silence" into the "sanctity of space" suggest the graceful and fluid movement of a serpent escaping from bondage and finding freedom high above everything. He, too, makes good use of personification: of the subject, which is himself, of his plane and of the air and wind itself. His plane is described as an "eager craft" with "laughter-silvered wings", which is eager to join his dance through the skies. The "shouting wind" is given agency as it is "chased" through "footless halls of air".

Throughout the first part of the poem, the octave, there is reference to light and, especially, to the sun: there can be little doubt that Magee is writing a poem which has nothing to hide and which is very positive indeed. The sun has connotations of life and warmth, of masculine and powerful gods; the octave links the sun to this power, obliquely suggesting that the power of the sun is being sought by the dancer as he reaches higher. "Sunwards I've climbed", Magee writes "high in the sunlit silence" (Great Aviation Quotes, n.d.).

If the octave is the journey high into the skies, into the realm of the sun god, then the sestet tells of the arrival. Magee flies high indeed, higher than "lark, or ever eagle flew" into the "high untrespassed sanctity of space". Sanctity, the state or quality of being holy (Oxford Dictionaries, n.d.), reinforces the divinity of the sun, and of the pilot who flies close to it. Magee goes further still; in the closing line he states that he could "put out his hand" and that, in so doing, he had "touched the face of God" (Great Aviation Quotes, n.d.).

Magee is not alone in creating intensely joy-filled war-time aviation poetry; he may have had inspiration not only from his flight but also from Cuthbert Hicks (1938) poem "the blind man flies": "high flight" shares its closing line:
"For I have danced the streets of heaven,
And touched the face of God"
(Hicks, 1938, p100).
If "the blind man flies" was an inspiration for Magee's poem then a similarity in theme and feel would be expected, however, other wartime aviation poems present a similar perspective. "Fighter pilot", written by William Kean Seymour in 1942, speaks of the pilot's "gay courage" and "valiant heart" (Wings over Cambridge, n.d.). Seymour goes on to reinforce the image of the fighter pilot forged above the Western Front during the Great War, calling him the "knight of our war-torn skies".

These are not exceptions; "on wings of valour", written in the autumn of 1942 by an unknown author, talks of the glory of war in the air, compares the soul of the pilot with an adventurer of an earlier age. The poet compare talks of the adventuresome spirit, the "Viking heart", taking in hand the "helm of...destiny" through the "ocean of adventure". Similarly to Magee's poem there is the link to divinity; "on wings of valour" the author describes the pilot as being "Woden-borne"; a god who inspires warriors and poets who is linked to the sky. "Silver wings", or "the navigator graduate", by Marvin Petersen speaks of the role of the navigator rather than pilot; it too likens the role of the airman to the divine, the "Gods of flight" and uses images of the air and celestial bodies to convey the positive, optimistic outlook common to these poems of flight (Wings over Cambridge, n.d.). Even when the subject matter is less triumphant, as in William Butler Yeats 1919 poem “An Irish airman foresees his own death”, the tone is upbeat and happy. Yeats’ Irishman knows that he “shall meet my fate…among the clouds above” and yet feels “impulse of delight” through the “tumult in the clouds” (Wings over Cambridge, n.d.).

So, when we look at Goldfield's poem of loss and compare that to Magee's joy-filled verse there are a number of things which strike. "To a missing friend!" is filled with loss, remorse and pain echoes through the lines. It is filled with images of solid, real images of earth and of nature. Other works written by poets who have served in the army, in both the First and Second World War, have similar earthy tones and mournful, pain-filled lyrics. The poetry of airmen during both wars, as exemplified by "high flight", is the antithesis of their land-based compatriot’s works. The diction is different, more up-beat and positive, with divine, heavenly and celestial imagery in place of the earthy reality.

Part of this great contrast may be found in the social narrative which accompanies the armies and air forces which took part in the conflicts. The public perception of the army and air force in the 20th century may well have contributed to the themes and types of imagery present in their poetry; the pilots seen as knights in the sky, free from worldly woes, clean and full of adventure, chivalry and near-divine power as contrasted with the weary, tired multitude in khaki, grey and brown who burrow and crawl through mud and barbed wire, locked in a constant struggle for survival.

If, as Gregory (1921) tells us, a portion of the poetry of these great wars was created by young men and women who felt they owed a duty to their peers and to posterity to craft artworks, or by impressionable people who felt the pressure to conform to social perception, then that might go some way to explaining why poetry of the infantry and air force is so different. Once a body of work written for protest or propaganda had reached a critical level other works would draw from these, thus creating a self-perpetuating cycle of verse where the infantryman is wretched and the airman triumphant.

Conflict has had a great impact on those affected by it as demonstrated by the great body of art which has been produced by those who fought, who were involved and who lost friends, family and loved ones. The large number of pieces of poetry which have been written by combatants, ignoring for a moment the nurses, drivers, cooks and other thousands of people who were involved but who did not ever hold a weapon, is testament to how strongly it touched on them. There are dozens of themes and subjects for these poems, from a requiem for fallen friends and comrades to a bold anthem glorifying war and its warriors.

Great emotion has often be married with great inspiration to create poems which have made an enormous impression on the word's psyche; Magee's "high flight" is often used for remembrance of airmen and was famously quoted by U.S. President Ronald Regan after the Challenger disaster, and in much the same way as Brooke's "the soldier" is a commonly chosen piece for funerals and memorials of other servicemen and women.


Appendix 1: Poems

Anonymous - On Wings of Valour

Not looking back to ask the reason why
Our plane is set along this course,
Gladly we shall go, unsullied by remorse;
Nor blaming now the mundane evils of the past
Or that idolatry which planned our flight; we die
To live enthroned forever with the fold
That dwells immortal in the Halls of great Valhalla.
Long-dormant Viking hearts awake at last -
We take in hands as bold as those of old
The helm of our own destiny; and for our vast
Ocean of adventure, instead of waves, the boundless sky.
Once more, inviolate, erect and proud
As those who never down to tyranny have bowed.
On wings of valour. Woden-borne, we fly.

Rupert Brooke – The Soldier

If I should die, think only this of me:
That there's some corner of a foreign field
That is for ever England. There shall be
In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;
A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,
A body of England's, breathing English air,
Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.

And think, this heart, all evil shed away,
A pulse in the eternal mind, no less
Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;
Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;
And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,
In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.
  

Goldfield – To a missing friend!

You have no grave, no cross … but you did die.
Maybe in some dark thicket your bones lie
Or you were sunk in swamp in deep of night,
Or Cossacks cruelly robbed you of the light.

And when it was and where and how …and why
I know not: death in forest does not cry.
You are a skull now white-bleached by the rain
Round which the weasel lightly leaves its train.

You are the ploughed earth on which horses stand
You are the grain that once did crown the land
You are the bread the farmer once did eat
You are the strength when peace returns to greet.
(Translated by Peter Appelbaum)

Goldfield - An einen Vermißten Freund!

Dein ist kein Grab, kein Kreuz...du bist vermißt.
Ob du im dunklen Dickicht wo erlegen bist,
Ob du im Sumpf versankst in stiller Nacht,
Ob dich Kosaken langsam umgebracht.

Und wo es war und wie und wann -- warum?
Ich weiß es nicht, der Tod im Wald blieb stumm.
Du bist ein Schädel nun, den Regen bleicht,
Um den im Busch das Wiesel flüchtig streicht.

Nun bist du Land, das einst der Ackrer pflügt,
Du bist das Korn, das einst den Wald besiegt.
Du bist das Brot, das einst der Landmann ißt,
Du bist die Kraft, wenn wieder Friede
  

Cuthbert Hicks - The Blind Man Flies

I am blind: I have never seen
Sun gold nor silver moon,
Nor the fairy faces of flowers,
Nor the radiant noon.

They speak of the dawn and the dusk,
And the smile of a child,
Of the deep red heart of a rose,
As of God, undefiled.

But I learnt from the air to-day
(On a bird’s wings I flew)
That the earth could never contain
All of the God I knew.

I felt the blue mantle of space,
And kissed the cloud's white hem,
I heard the stars’ majestic choir,
And sang my praise with them.

Now joy is mine through my long night,
I do not feel the rod,
For I have danced the streets of heaven,
And touched the face of God

John Gillespie Magee, Jr - High Flight

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air. . . .

Up, up the long, delirious burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or ever eagle flew
—And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God

Marvin C. Peterson - Silver Wings

I’ve won the right to wear these Silver Wings
And see the many awesome sights
Of which the poet sings.

I’ve earned a place among the Gods of flight
Under the Sun’s and moon’s eternal light.

Now I can join that group so proud
Who can look down upon a cloud
And find their way across unmarked space
Where for them alone there is a place.

I can now join that honored fraternity
Whose members look into eternity
Who fly beyond the fetters of Earth
And see at once, yesterday’s death
And tomorrow’s birth.

I stand today upon duty’s threshold here
Where opportunity is shining clear
And know that what tomorrow brings
Depends on how I guide these Silver Wings. 


William Kean Seymour - Fighter Pilot

The tardy dawn has burst in sullen fire,
Grey mists along the level acres lift,
The pilot looks upon his heart's desire,
A clean sky with the westering cloud adrift.
There in the height of his plane
Will mount, and climb again,
And there his spirit, breathing power, will rise
Swift as a swallow's, free, in English skies.

So clear the air; he drinks it as he smiles.
This is his element, his realm of dreams,
In measureless immensity of miles,
Swirling beneath a vault of stellar beams.
For this he grew and planned,
To claim with eye and hand
Unhindered passage where no feet may tread,
Where men, like migrant birds, use wings instead.

His helmet fixed, he gives the word and then,
Waving his squadron as their engines start,
He soars and sings above the world of men,
The beat of battle racing in his heart.
In mortal combat there,
Far in the upper air,
He fights for freedom, one of freedom's sons,
Lone in his aery sphere of blue and bronze.

What destiny is his he does not know;
He does not ask, for asking names a fate;
He goes where duty summons him to go,
He'd sweep undaunted up to heaven's gate.
He holds one purpose well,
In flying to excel,
To roll and loop and bank and dive and spin,
To meet the foe in battle, and to win.

This is the Happy Warrior, this is he.
On his gay courage all we love depends;
His is the valiant heart that keeps us free;
By him a Commonwealth its life defends.
We praise he hands and eyes,
Knight of our war-torn skies,
True son of Britain , fearless in his faith,
Ready to serve her, even unto death.

Appendix 2: German Propaganda, World War 1


"Germania" 1914. A painting by Freidrich August von Kaulbach
(History in Images, n.d.)

"With full steam ahead, we are with you"
(History in Images, n.d.)


 Hindenburg prepares arms for Germany
(History in Images, n.d.)

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Penslar, D. (2011) The German-Jewish soldier: from participant to victim. German History, 29 (3), pp. 423-444

Theilhaber, F.A. (1924) Jüdische flieger im Weltkrieg. Berlin: Verlag der Schild

Wings over Cambridge (n.d.) Wartime Air Force poetry. Available from: http://www.cambridgeairforce.org.nz/air%20force%20poetry.htm, accessed 9 December 2013

Sunday, 24 November 2013

A study on First Wave Feminism, its major battles and relevance to the modern world.

Feminism has been defined as being “the advocacy of women’s rights on the ground of the equality of the sexes” (Oxford Dictionaries, n.d.) and it is said that “feminists refuse to accept that inequalities between women and men are natural and inevitable and insist that they should be questioned” (Jackson, 1998, p1). In truth there are as many definitions of feminism as there are opinions about it; though many definitions are similar, the breadth makes a definitive discussion of feminism difficult. When a group of university students in central Pennsylvania were asked to define feminism each of them struggled, one commented that she didn’t “really know what feminism is except that I should be for it because I’m a girl, lots of people glare if someone isn’t, yet it gets a bad rep”. A more comprehensive answer was also provided:

“Feminism is a philosophy of enabling women to fulfill [sic] their highest potential and not feel intimidated by pre-conceived or socially constructed genders roles. Feminism does not necessarily mean you hate or look down on men, but means that as a woman, you want to better yourself and see yourself as an individual, not necessarily to the detriment of others”
(Harrow, 2012).

Attitudes towards, and definitions of, feminism have doubtless evolved and will undoubtedly evolve further in the future. Mary Wollstonecraft, writing in the late 18th century, addresses the question of equality in the Rights of Women. In her introduction Wollstonecraft refers to “the debated question about the equality and inferiority of the female sex” (Bennett, 1999, p4); long before the Suffragettes were making headlines the question of female empowerment and equality between the sexes had been a topic for debate.

Feminism is commonly described as having three waves: distinct periods with goals which grow and evolve. These are usually referred to as being First Wave, Second Wave and Third Wave, though some sources do use other terms (such as the women’s liberation movement for second wave, and modern, or new-wave, feminism in place of third wave) to refer to particular viewpoints and theories. See appendix 1 for more information on the three waves of feminism.

This essay will primarily concern itself with the struggles of the first feminist groups and with their struggles. Three major battles take the form of the three major demands of first wave feminism: women’s suffrage, educational, and employment or working rights. I intend to initially focus on Britain and the west, defined as “Europe and North America seen in contrast to other civilization” (Oxford Dictionaries, n.d.), and compare the west with the rest of the world, paying particular attention to individual countries as case studies and to underline both common attitudes and general trends.

Suffrage is defined by the Oxford Dictionary (n.d.) as being “the right to vote in political elections”, an 18th century revision of language caused by the struggle for equality by early feminists. The right to enfranchisement was one of the key demands from an increasingly educated and politically aware sex. Much of this awareness was gained through women working on the behalf of other groups to gain emancipation, social and political justice; in Britain women were fundamentally involved and essential in the struggle for working class men’s suffrage. In the United States women were equally involved in the early civil rights and temperance movements, throughout the period of reconciliation between the states in the wake of the American Civil War.

It was felt by many women that issues that affected them were not of concern to the majority of men and that only by gaining a voice of their own would they be able to effect any changes which would benefit them. Their struggle was one which was often overshadowed or confused as other disaffected groups also fought for recognition and emancipation; in many places issues of race and immigration drew attention away from women. Increasingly this led to the use of violent ‘shock tactics’ to grab headlines and to keep the discussion of women’s issues alive. Caine (1997, p11) argues that "political and economic freedoms demanded and gained by men during this period were actively denied to women" and that it was this which acted as a catalyst to turn the cause of women's rights from an intellectual curiosity into a mass movement.

Women were granted the right to vote in 1869 in Wyoming Territory, quickly followed by Utah Territory in 1870 and Washington Territory in 1883. Once these territories gained statehood they preserved women's suffrage, making them the first places to fully enfranchise women (History.com, n.d.). Full emancipation of women did not occur in the United States of America until 1920, and even then it did not include all women as the franchise was not extended to Native Americans in all states until 1962.

New Zealand became the first country to grant the right to vote to all women, both white and Māori, in 1893, and other nations would follow though not quickly. Before World War 1 only 3 countries had joined New Zealand in extending the franchise; Australia in 1902, Finland in 1906 and Norway in 1907 (Kelber, 1994, p10). During and immediately after the war a further 15 countries, mostly in Europe, continued this trend but the road was long and uneven; the last European countries to fully enfranchise women being Portugal in 1976 (where restrictions were lifted, allowing equal voting rights to men and women) and Lichtenstein in 1984. See appendix 2 for details of when countries extended the franchise to women.

Whilst in the west access to the vote appears to be relatively equitable, and arguably there are no real legislative barriers now in place, this is not true across the globe. Three countries remain which have not granted women rights to vote in national elections; Brunei, the Vatican City and Saudi Arabia (Tovrov, 2011).  Brunei is a sultanate and absolute monarchy, with several councils appointed by the sultan to advise him. Neither men nor women are able to vote in national elections, however, there is universal suffrage for local elections from age 18. The Vatican City is a theocracy, headed by the Pope who is advised by the College of Cardinals. The only election is to determine who will be Pope and only Cardinals below the age of 80 are entitled to vote: canon law does not allow women to be ordained as priests, which bars women from being able to join the College of Cardinals. Saudi Arabia is, like Brunei, an absolute monarchy but it does allow national elections. Legislation is now in place to extend the franchise to women as of 2015, four years after it was introduced, though very strict laws remain regarding women. Saudi Arabia considers women to be legally minors under the discriminatory “guardianship system” (Human Rights Watch, 2012).

Whilst it appears that, in general, women have won the right to the vote the situation is not as clear as it may first appear. Whilst women have technical rights to vote in many parts of the world there are legislative or cultural barriers in place that serve to effectively silence their political voice. In Lebanon women voters have to prove they have a minimum level of education (to primary level), something that male voters do not have to do (CIA Factbook, 2013).  In Afghanistan, where great gains for women’s rights have been made over the last decade, a law was quietly removed in 2012 which stipulated that a quarter of all provincial council seats should be allotted to women (Ilham, 2013). There is also a significant risk that women will lose access to their voting rights due to a lack of female security officers; voting is segregated and body searches are required for all people entering a polling station due to the risk of violence or terrorism. There is a major shortfall of female staff (Donati, 2013).

It is not just the developing world which places barriers between women and the vote; the United States too is increasingly implementing restrictions on voting. Whilst legislation is nearly universally presented as means of reducing election fraud “there is no statistically significant — or even insignificant — evidence of in-person fraud at the polls” (Washington Post, 2013). Whilst it is comforting to believe that these restrictions are rare, the amount of legislation passed (and struck down as being unconstitutional) suggest a movement to disenfranchise parts of the electorate in the US. It is not just minority, poorly educated, women with poor English skills who are being affected; legislation in Texas which affects voters who have changed their name (such as married women who took their husbands surname) have given problems for high-profile women such as Judge Sandra Watts (Goodwyn, 2013) and gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis (Washington Post, 2013).

The second demand of first wave feminism was for fair access to education for women. At the same time as women were denied the vote, and men were increasingly gaining access to it regardless of wealth, social position or class. So, too, women were generally denied an academic education. Education, generally, was far from ubiquitous and was generally based on class and wealth. Boys and girls were taught the skills which it was felt they needed to succeed in life; an education was felt to be wasted on girls as they were destined to be homemakers rather than breadwinners.

This lack of educational opportunities was considered by many to be a deliberate policy; an uneducated sex was unaware of their disadvantages and, even if alerted, was unable to do anything about it. “All mid-Victorian feminists agreed that educational deprivation was an essential feature of women’s oppression and one…bearing particularly harshly on middle-class women who were denied access to the schools and universities attended by their brothers” (Caine, 1997, pp115-116). Caine argues further that some women, such as Harriet Martineu and Hannah More, desired educational advantages to better carry out their womanly duties rather than to enter into traditionally male arenas: they desired a “rational and solid education to better enable women to carry out their domestic tasks” (pp71-72).

Victorian arguments against women’s education, particularly more advanced education, often referenced the supposedly innate qualities and weaknesses of womanliness. Billington (2012, p665) writes that “women’s unsuitability for higher education stemmed from their physical weakness which was due to their child-bearing functions” and that “any attempt to assimilate the education of women with that of men would serious affect the sexual functions of women”. Whilst not a universal argument, that men were physically stronger and thus more suited to learning, or that education could have a disadvantageous physical reaction to women, were made time and again, and were considered to be worthy of discussion.

It is certainly true that, without education, many opportunities and careers are unavailable but there are other advantages (both to an individual and to society at large) from increased levels of education. Society benefits from enhanced economic growth, improvements in healthcare (particularly with regards infant mortality), engagement with and understanding of political issues. People gain critical and academic skills to allow access to sustainable employment opportunities and thus enhanced earning potentials, improving healthcare for the student and their family. Women and girls, in particular, benefit; an additional year of schooling reduces the probability of motherhood by 7.3% and increases her earnings by 10-20% (Global Partnership for Education, 2013).

Access to tertiary education in Great Britain came slowly but arrived long before the vote. Girton College in Cambridge was founded in 1869 as the first residential college offering degree-level education; Emily Davies, its founder, rejected the idea of a special curriculum for women, arguing that “only if women succeeded in subjects held to be prestigious for men would their educational achievements be recognised as equally valid” (HerStoria, 2012). Other colleges were soon after established in Oxford and Cambridge but all of them attracted negative attention and criticism; education was seen as a distraction from the domestic duties of women, a threat to the family, and therefore a threat to the social order itself. Studying in a college associated with the great Oxbridge universities, and passing the examinations, did not guarantee that a degree would be issued. Access to formal lectures and examinations was piecemeal and at the discretion of the lecturer; it would be a long time before equality in qualification was gained:

“Women were finally awarded degrees at Oxford in 1920 but in Cambridge the women were denied again in 1921, having to settle for titles of degrees only (called, inevitably, the ‘BA tit’). Women were not awarded degrees on an equal basis to men at Cambridge until 1948, partly because if women had degrees they would also have the privileges that came them, i.e. equal status, voting rights and a share in the governance of the institution.”
(HerStoria, 2012).

The story is similar in the United States of America. Before the American Civil War whilst some higher levels of education were available to women from a (women’s) seminary or academy they were not granted access to regular colleges or universities. The sole exception was Oberlin Collegiate Institute (which became Oberlin College in 1850), which had offered degrees to women on the same terms as men from 1837 (Oberlin, n.d.).  In the wake of the Civil War women began to gain to access college education, usually in coeducational facilities (as opposed to the strictly segregated university colleges in Britain). Some of the more established colleges in the northeast opened women’s colleges which were associated with the already existing (male) colleges: the “Seven Sister” colleges are examples of this second kind of institute. Five years after the end of the Civil War, in 1870, less than one per cent of the female population went to college and this rate rose slowly: it was less than three per cent by 1900 and seven and a half per cent in 1920 (American Association of University Women, n.d.).

Despite the initially glacial pace for women in the west to access education, the situation has now changed markedly and no legislative barriers prevent women from complete access to university education. This does not mean that there are no issues affecting women attending university. Bates (2013) commented on the levels of ingrained misogyny facing female students in British universities in a Guardian editorial:

“Though individual institutions are dealing well with events in some cases, we need to step back and see the bigger picture here. Until we do, and until this wave of violent misogyny is recognised as an urgent nationwide problem by University heads, the hundreds of the reports we receive from young women will continue to end in that same, bewildered question – how is this still acceptable?”
Bates (2013)

Outside of the west access to education is not as equitable, and the accepted norm of the west (the enlightened view that women should have equal educational opportunities to men) is not present. A report from the Institute for Statistics of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) on literacy rates noted that though the overall number of illiterate people had fallen since 2011 the majority of these remained women; 64%, 495 million, of the 774 million people without basic reading and writing skills were women.

It isn’t only access to elementary or primary education which is lacking in some parts of the world: cultural, social and religious barriers affect women being able to access education of all levels across the globe as they did in the west 150 years ago. In Iran, once the most progressive of the Gulf oil states, restrictions have been increasingly applied to education generally, and for women in particular. In September of 2012 a ban was imposed for female students in 77 undergraduate (BA and BSc) disciplines covering specific, academic fields at 36 government universities: this ban covered “a bewildering variety of subjects from engineering, nuclear physics and computer science, to English literature, archaeology and business” (Sahraei, 2012)

There is an argument presented that as other universities exist which grant full access to all disciplines for female students there is no real restriction imposed on women’s educational access. Widespread, international and domestic, outcry over the discriminatory policy has raised questions within the government. As Samadbeighi, (2012) wrote, “responses to the new restrictions have been so extensive that even the Ministry of Education’s academic evaluation organization has taken a position against it and it appears that a review and reversal of the decision may be in the making”

Nevertheless, regardless of legislative barriers (which first wave feminism is primarily concerned with; second wave feminism addressing questions of cultural and social discrimination) the lack of parity of access to primary and secondary education, and restrictions on tertiary education demonstrate that equality of education is not yet achieved. A UNESCO (2012) study further showed that parity in primary and secondary education had not been universally achieved in any part of the world, and that in some areas of the globe (particularly sub-Saharan Africa) there was a greater inequality than parity in access to even primary education. See appendix 3 for more details.

The third demand made by first wave feminism was regarding employment; early feminists demanded equality in remuneration and working conditions, and full access to respectable professions such as the law and medicine. During the Victorian period women, particularly those of the working class, laboured in many dirty and dangerous jobs for long hours and for low pay. In the west legislation has been put in place to allow access to professional careers, with active military service on the front line being the last remaining barrier (in many cases).

Restrictions placed upon women in the military are challenged today, with women taking to the front lines. This happening not just in the west, where three women have succeeded in passing the strenuous Marine Corps’ enlisted infantry training for the first time (Eversley, 2013) but also in such places as Afghanistan. In Afghanistan only half of a per cent of the army is made up of women, women are being trained for their special forces to take part in front line actions, such as conducting night-time raids upon homes (Euronews, 2013).

The Equal Pay Act was passed in the United States of America in 1963 to address the inequalities of remuneration between sexes. In that year women were paid, on average, less than 60% the wage of a man doing the same role. Despite this legislation the position within the US has not become entirely equitable, nor even close to it: in 2012 the disparity was reduced to slightly less than 25% (National Committee on Pay Equality, 2013). This situation is repeated throughout the globe and is particularly extreme throughout North Africa and the Middle East where women earn 28% as much as men (Shah, 2010), see appendix 6 for the full table.

Inequality in reward for work, and access to professional trades, is a continuing problem. It has been said that “women do two-thirds of the world’s work, receive 10 percent of the world’s income and own 1 percent of the means of production” (Robbins, 1999, p354). There are legislative barriers to women’s access to employment. In Sudan women experience economic discrimination and lower pay when compared to men (who do a similar job). However, women do have access to professional roles (for example more than half of the lecturers at Khartoum University were women in 2012) and have a constitutional guarantee to equal pay (which is not realised). There are restrictions on a woman’s access to work as, with some exceptions, they are barred from working between 10pm and 6am (UK Border Agency, 2012).

Across most of the world women have the right to vote; women’s suffrage is not universal but it is prevalent with only few countries (such as Saudi Arabia) still to enfranchise their female population. Cultural and social barriers remain in place which prevents women in some parts of the world from taking full advantage of their political voice. In the west women have access to education without any legal barriers, though again both cultural and social barriers remain. Globally women lag behind men in primary and secondary education, as demonstrated by lower literacy rates, and in some countries accessing tertiary education is difficult with some subjects being banned. Though legislation exists to combat pay inequality, sexual harassment and discrimination in many parts of the globe it is clear that these are only partially successful in the west, and are often missing entirely in other parts of the world

First wave feminism, then, had three “battles” to fight; suffrage, education and employment. There remain barriers in some parts of the world, increasingly including the west, to accessing the vote so it cannot be truly said that the battle for suffrage has been won. In the west it can be strongly argued that there are no legal barriers preventing women from accessing education, however, this is demonstrably not true globally: the battle, again, is not yet won. Finally with inequality in earnings, restricted access to executive positions, and to professions it cannot be truly said that the battle over employment has been won.


As it cannot truly be said that any of the major battles of first wave feminism have been won, let alone those of the second and third waves, the relevance of feminism to the modern world is surely in little doubt. Whilst these institutional inequalities and legal barriers remain the battle lines drawn up by Elizabeth Cady Stanton at the Seneca Falls Convention surely remain as vital now as they were in 1848. 

Appendix 1: the three waves of feminism

The following definitions and time periods focus on the west, and particularly on the United Kingdom and United States of America.

First Wave feminism usually refers to a period from the nineteenth to early twentieth centuries. It was concerned with promoting equality for women with a focus legislated or officially mandated inequalities such as political enfranchisement (the right to vote), education and working rights. This wave is usually considered to have begun in the United States of America in 1848 at the Seneca Falls Convention where Elizabeth Cady Stanton revealed the Declaration of Sentiments. The Declaration of Sentiments was fashioned after the Declaration of Independence and was signed by 100 people, 68 women and 32 men. It asserted that women should enjoy the same rights and privileges as men; it laid out their complaints (paying particular reference to the absolute tyranny which man employed over woman) and concluded by insisting “that they have immediate admission to all the rights and privileges which belong to them as citizens of the United States” (Stanton, 1889, p71).

Groups were quickly formed along the same lines in Great Britain, France and Germany and by the 1870s similar organisations had spread to Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands, and throughout Scandinavia. From the start there was support from men as well as women; Le Droit des Femmes (the Right of Women) was a French newspaper established in 1869 which had enjoyed a mixed readership (Anon, n.d., p19). In Great Britain the formal start of feminism as a movement can be tracked to the formation of the Kensington Society in 1865, followed later in the same year with the Manchester Committee for the Enfranchisement of Women.

Second Wave feminism is usually considered to start some point in the early 1960s and to continue into the 1990s (Rampton, 2008), some significant time after women had gained enfranchisement (1918/28 in Britain and 1920 in the USA, though with some exceptions for Native American women). Second wave feminism, sometimes called the “women’s liberation movement”, focused less on legislative inequalities and more on perception, ingrained prejudice, challenging male-centric culture, and social equality. Where the first wave of feminism was primarily focused on middle (and some educated, working) class white women the second wave was more inclusive.

One major focus of second wave feminism was of education, both for men and women, to understand the struggles, pressures and prejudices facing women. Because of this it became increasingly theoretical, adopting and incorporating political and psychological theories which questioned women’s place in society, introducing the term “patriarchy” into the mainstream to describe “a system of society or government in which men hold the power and women are largely excluded from” (Oxford Dictionaries, n.d.). The other major focus was on sex and gender roles, and on forming safe spaces for women (Rampton, 2008).

The third wave of feminism, sometimes called new-wave feminism, is usually described as following on from second wave in the mid-1990s and continuing today. Part of the force which created the third wave was a response to the backlash from movements and initiatives caused by the second wave, with another being a readoption of earlier ideals of feminine beauty by women and for women. A new set of language and terms has been adopted by the “grrls” of the third wave; women who present themselves as being empowered and powerful, part of a large and global community, taking advantages of the opportunities presented by the internet and social media. Some refuse the title of “feminist” as being outdated and many have attempted to recover abusive language for their own: adopting “slut” and “bitch” in a similar manner to other oppressed groups’ reclamation of “nigger”.

Appendix 2: timeline of women’s suffrage


Year
Country
1893
New Zealand
1902
Australia (other than Aborigines, 1962)
1906
Finland
1913
Norway
1915
Denmark, Iceland
1917
Canada (other than Native Canadians, 1960)
1918
Austria, Estonia, Georgia, Germany, Hungary,  Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia
1919
Belarus,  Luxembourg, Netherlands, Ukraine
1920
Albania, Czech Republic, Slovakia, United States of America (other than Native Americans, 1962)
1921
Armenia, Azerbaijan, Sweden
1924
Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Saint Lucia, Tajikistan
1927
Turkmenistan
1928
Great Britain, Ireland
1930
South Africa (whites only, 1994)
1931
Spain, Sri Lanka
1932
Brazil, Maldives, Thailand, Uruguay
1934
Cuba, Turkey
1935
Myanmar
1937
Philippines
1938
Uzbekistan
1939
El Salvador
1942
Dominican Republic
1944
Bulgaria, France, Jamaica
1945
Croatia, Indonesia, Italy, Senegal, Slovenia, Togo
1946
Cameroon, D.P.R. of Korea, Djibouti, Guatemala, Liberia, Panama, Romania, The F.Y.R. of Macedonia, Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Yugoslavia
1947
Argentina, Japan, Malta, Mexico, Pakistan, Singapore
1948
Belgium, Israel, Niger, Republic of Korea, Seychelles, Suriname
1949
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Chile, China, Costa Rica, Syrian Arab Republic
1950
Barbados, Haiti, India
1951
Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Nepal, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
1952
Bolivia, Côte d'Ivoire, Greece, Lebanon
1953
Bhutan, Guyana
1954
Belize, Colombia, Ghana
1955
Cambodia, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Honduras, Nicaragua, Peru
1956
Benin, Comoros, Egypt, Gabon, Mali, Mauritius, Somalia
1957
Malaysia, Zimbabwe
1958
Burkina Faso, Chad, Guinea, Lao P.D.R., Nigeria (South)
1959
Madagascar, San Marino, Tunisia, United Republic of Tanzania
1960
Canada (all), Cyprus, Gambia, Tonga
1961
Burundi, Malawi, Mauritania, Paraguay, Rwanda, Sierra Leone
1962
Algeria, Australia (all), Monaco, Uganda, United States of America (all), Zambia
1963
Afghanistan, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Fiji, Iran (Islamic Republic of), Kenya, Morocco
1964
Bahamas, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Papua New Guinea, Sudan
1965
Botswana, Lesotho
1967
Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ecuador, Kiribati, Tuvalu, Yemen (D.P. R.)
1968
Nauru, Swaziland
1970
Andorra, Yemen (Arab Republic)
1971
Switzerland
1972
Bangladesh
1973
Bahrain
1974
Jordan, Solomon Islands
1975
Angola, Cape Verde, Mozambique, Sao Tome and Principe, Vanuatu
1976
Portugal
1977
Guinea Bissau
1978
Nigeria (North), Republic of Moldova
1979
Marshall Islands, Micronesia (Fed. States), Palau
1980
Iraq, Vanuatu
1984
Liechtenstein
1986
Central African Republic
1989
Namibia
1990
Western Samoa
1993
Kazakhstan, Moldova
1994
South Africa (all)
2005
Kuwait
2006
United Arab Emirates
2015
Saudi Arabia

Source: Pearson Education (2013) and Women in Politics (n.d.)

Appendix 3: gender equality in education

Gender equality in education, compared at primary and secondary level


Source: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) Institute for Statistics (2012)

Appendix 4: literacy rates


Adult literacy rate
total
84.1%

male
88.6%

female
79.9%
Adult illiterate population
total
773.5 million
female share
63.8%
Youth literacy rate
total
89.5%

male
92.2%

female
86.8%
Youth illiterate population
total
123.3 million
female share
61.3%

Source: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) Institute for Statistics (2013)


Appendix 5: Disparity of income over time (US)


Year
Men's earnings
Women's earnings
$ difference
% difference
1960
$26,608.00
$16,144.00
$10,464.00
60.7%
1961
$27,463.00
$16,272.00
$11,191.00
59.2%
1962
$27,972.00
$16,587.00
$11,385.00
59.3%
1963
$28,684.00
$16,908.00
$11,776.00
58.9%
1964
$29,362.00
$17,368.00
$11,994.00
59.1%
1965
$29,791.00
$17,852.00
$11,939.00
59.9%
1966
$31,055.00
$17,874.00
$13,181.00
57.6%
1967
$31,568.00
$18,241.00
$13,327.00
57.8%
1968
$32,389.00
$18,836.00
$13,553.00
58.2%
1969
$34,241.00
$20,156.00
$14,085.00
58.9%
1970
$34,642.00
$20,567.00
$14,075.00
59.4%
1971
$34,771.00
$20,691.00
$14,080.00
59.5%
1972
$36,614.00
$21,185.00
$15,429.00
57.9%
1973
$37,381.00
$21,397.00
$15,984.00
56.6%
1974
$36,456.00
$21,419.00
$15,037.00
58.8%
1975
$36,207.00
$21,297.00
$14,910.00
58.8%
1976
$36,114.00
$21,738.00
$14,376.00
60.2%
1977
$36,901.00
$21,743.00
$15,158.00
58.9%
1978
$38,051.00
$22,617.00
$15,005.00
59.4%
1979
$37,622.00
$22,446.00
$15,176.00
59.7%
1980
$37,033.00
$22,279.00
$14,754.00
60.2%
1981
$36,854.00
$21,830.00
$15,024.00
59.2%
1982
$36,224.00
$22,367.00
$13,857.00
61.7%
1983
$36,106.00
$22,961.00
$13,055.00
63.6%
1984
$36,842.00
$23,453.00
$13,389.00
63.7%
1985
$37,131.00
$23,978.00
$13,153.00
64.6%
1986
$38,088.00
$24,479.00
$13,609.00
64.3%
1987
$37,389.00
$24,663.00
$12,726.00
65.2%
1988
$37,509.00
$24,774.00
$12,735.00
66.0%
1989
$36,855.00
$25,310.00
$11,545.00
66.0%
1990
$35,538.00
$25,451.00
$10,087.00
71.6%
1991
$36,440.00
$25,457.00
$10,983.00
69.9%
1992
$36,436.00
$25,791.00
$10,645.00
70.8%
1993
$35,765.00
$25,579.00
$10,186.00
71.5%
1994
$35,513.00
$25,558.00
$9,955.00
72.0%
1995
$35,365.00
$25,260.00
$10,105.00
71.4%
1996
$35,138.00
$25,919.00
$9,219.00
73.8%
1997
$36,030.00
$26,720.00
$9,310.00
74.2%
1998
$37,296.00
$27,290.00
$10,006.00
73.2%
1999
$37,701.00
$27,208.00
$10,493.00
72.2%
2000
$37,339.00
$27,355.00
$9,984.00
73.3%
2001
$38,275.00
$29,215.00
$9,060.00
76.3%
2002
$39,429.00
$30,203.00
$9,226.00
76.6%
2003
$40,668.00
$30,724.00
$9,944.00
75.5%
2004
$42,160.00
$32,285.00
$9,875.00
76.6%
2005
$41,386.00
$31,858.00
$9,528.00
77.0%
2006
$42,261.00
$32,515.00
$9,476.00
76.9%
2007
$45,113.00
$35,102.00
$10,011.00
77.8%
2008
$46,367.00
$35,745.00
$10,622.00
77.1%
2009
$47,127.00
$36,278.00
$10,849.00
77.0%
2010
$47,715.00
$36,931.00
$10,784.00
77.4%
2011
$48,202.00
$37,118.00
$11,084.00
77.0%
2012
$49,398.00
$37,791.00
$11,607.00
76.5%

  
Earnings in the US, men vs women and difference, expressed in dollar terms


Source: Census Bureau reports and data, Current Population Reports, Median Earning of Workers 15 Years Old and Over by Work Experience and Sex. Taken from data supplied by the National Committee on Pay Equity (2013)
  

Appendix 6: Disparity of earnings (women/men) globally

 
Disparity of earnings (women and men) globally as a percentage


Source: Anup Shah, Women’s Rights (2010). Data taken from UNICEF, State of the World’s Children report, 2007

“Estimated earnings are defined as gross domestic product per capita (measured in US dollars at 2003 prices adjusted for purchasing power parity) adjusted for wage disparities between men and women. Some numbers rounded for display purposes” (Shah, 2010)

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