Women Writers in World War II

This article covers the period 1939 to 1945, looking at women writers and their work throughout the Second World War. It explores their writing in the context of the jobs they were, in many cases, called upon to do over that time, and also examines the subjects they chose to write about. It attempts to answer certain central questions, as, for instance, was there a difference between generations in the way women wrote and the issues that concerned them; did they look outside the war situation for their subject matter or did they engage? Readers are pointed to leading research on women's writing in the war years, to biographies, and to primary texts.