Wow! eBook
A History of the Royal Navy: Women and the Royal Navy
Author(s): Jo Stanley (Author)
- Publisher: I.B. Tauris & Co Ltd
- Publication Date: January 30, 2018
- Language: English
- Print length: 256 pages
- ISBN-10: 1780767560
- ISBN-13: 9781780767567
Book Description
Never at Sea’ was the motto of the Women’s Royal Naval Service (WRNS) in its two-stage life from 1917-1919 and 1939-1994. Yet most of its members-commonly known as Wrens-wanted to serve on the ocean wave. This book considers the history and identity of the Wrens and shows how they developed from port-bound cooks, clerks, telegraphists, radar plotters and mechanics to fully-fledged members of the naval service. Using previously-unpublished first-hand material, this book explores the very different periods in the twentieth century history of women associated with the Royal Navy. It shows how Wrens moved from the exceptionalised and chaperoned ladies of WW1 to the reality of the twenty-first century’s highly respected female submariners and warship commanders. Jo Stanley provides the first accessible gendered analysis of Wrens and their successors and positions the women of the Royal Navy as above all, women who wanted mobility: the right to join the fleet.
Editorial Reviews
Review
“Extraordinary information is revealed, including stories of how women disguised themselves as men to go to sea, not because they wanted to see battle but because it offered a life of adventure and an opportunity to travel the world. There are also fascinating accounts of female pirates, and how they challenged gender stereotypes and influenced other women. … This is a timely and inspiring book.”
(2017-01-05)
About the Author
Jo Stanley is an internationally acclaimed expert on gender and the sea. Her publications include Hello Sailor! The Hidden History of Gay Life at Sea; Risk! Women on the Wartime Seas; and Bold in Her Breeches: Women pirates across the ages. She works as a creative historian with museums and marginalised communities on art-based representations of pasts and is a Research Fellow at Lancaster University’s Centre for Mobilities Research.
