As the High Library continues to feature the WWI and America Exhibition, it sponsored the lecture “Defining the Nation: Gender, Race and Belonging in World War I.” Assistant professor of history Dr. Chelsea Schields gave the lecture in the High Library Wednesday, Feb. 14.

Archivist Rachel Grove Rohrbaugh started the event by talking about the exhibit.

Director of the Center for Global Understanding and Peacemaking and chair of the history department Dr. David Kenley introduced Schields.

“It is my pleasure to introduce Dr. Chelsea Schields, who is the newest hire in the history department and brings a new, fresh perspective,” Kenley said.

As a historian of modern Europe, Schields specializes in the histories of colonialism, decolonization, gender and sexuality.

She focused her lecture on the effects World War I had on people’s views of gender, race and belonging in Europe, not the U.S.

However, she connected her lecture to the WWI and America Exhibition by including quotes and personal accounts from people who experienced World War I on either the battle-field or the homefront.

The exhibit similarly includes writings from Americans who experienced the war firsthand.

The first aspect of the war that Schields spoke about was the recasting of gender roles on the homefront.

Before the war, women were seen as too delicate to work, but during the war, two million women replaced men in England’s workplace, according to Schields.

Schields showed the audience a poster made to encourage women to work in the ammunition and weapons factories while the men fought in World War I.

It showed a patriotic, feminine woman in her work uniform, which was meant to help dispel the belief that women would lose their femininity if they went to work.

Schields also talked about the role women played on the battle-fields as nurses and occasionally as combatants. She quoted Flora Sanders, who was the only British woman to officially fight in the war.

Schields described how Russia had all-female battalions. According to Schields, their main purpose was to shame men into recommitting to the war effort, and only one of these battalions fought on the frontlines.

Schields went on to explain the backlash in Europe that occurred after the war ended and the men returned home.

She read excerpts from “A Little Mother,” a women’s pamphlet that felt women should return to the domestic sphere after the war.

The next topic Schields discussed was how the violence of the war affected people’s views of masculinity.

According to Schields, men formed close friendships while fighting in the trenches.

They often had to care for the injured and comfort one another. Schields read an excerpt from a journal in which the writer longed for physical touch and comfort.

Another effect of the war that had an impact on the view of masculinity during this era was post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

According to Schields, PTSD was not considered a mental illness as it is today, and people considered men with PTSD as emasculate and broken.

Schields pointed out that while women were experiencing more freedom and rights, men witnessed violence during the war, and some returned with PTSD.

“The empowerment of women and suffering of men changed home life [after the war],” Schields said.

The third and final topic Schields discussed was views of race in Europe during the World War I era. She talked about how Britain and France sent colonial troops in segregated regiments to the western front.

Schields also brought up the irony that these colonial troops fought to protect rights that they did not have themselves. The French referred to the colonial troops as “bons enfants” (good children) and taught them a simplified form of French.

According to Schields, France was also obsessed with the idea of interracial love. They were afraid that after having liaisons with white women and killing white men in battle, the colonial troops would want rights and would fight against colonialism after the war.

Schields ended the lecture by touching on how these changing views of race and gender during World War I affected Nazi propaganda.

According to Schields, the Nazis in 1920s Italy promoted fascism as a cure for male insecurity and as a therapy for the changes in gender roles and family life.

Junior Elizabeth Hendershot attended the lecture because she is currently enrolled in Schields’ course “Gender, Sexuality, and Colonialism” and has an interest in the topics Schields discussed.

“I learned that views of race, gender and sexuality were disrupted and exposed during World War I, and that continued after World War I and helped shape the views after the war and not always for the better,” Hendershot said. “It was interesting to see how views evolve throughout history. It is a distant topic but still affects today’s social topics.”

“We are still laboring to create the world that World War I tried to create, so it’s good to look back at their stories,” Schields said.

After the lecture, there was a Q&A session and a buffet lunch, where audience members could discuss the topics of the lecture amongst themselves and with Schields.

President Dr. Carl Strikwerda asked Schields about how the changing gender roles during World War I affected some countries’ decisions to have fewer women particpate in World War II.

Associate professor of English Dr. Kimberly Adams asked about the paradox of pacifist women gaining empowerment through the effects of the war.

Associate professor of English Dr. Suzanne Webster asked about the effects of a diminished male population on gender roles after the war.