Meeting Prof Alicia Carroll, author of ‘New Woman Ecologies: From Arts and Crafts to the Great War and Beyond’

In the second episode of this new podcast, Cherish Watton interviews Professor Alicia Carroll, the author of ‘New Woman Ecologies: From Arts and Crafts to the Great War and Beyond‘, which explores how Land Girls in the First World War reflected on their time in the WLA in writing. Do take a listen for some fascinating reflections on Land Girls’ writings and the ways we come to understand their service today.

Read the quotes below for a flavour of some of our discussions:

“Olive Hockin was a suffragette and an arsonist who blew up a golf course and became a landswoman for the war effort before the land army was started.”

“These women have published memoirs and poetry, but actually, historians haven’t really paid much attention to them…sexism undervalues women’s contributions to literature and culture.”

“What she really wanted to do was to prove that she could do any mortal thing that a man could do.”

“The Landswoman journal did publish letters and writings by Land Girls where they complained about people disrespecting the marks the land was showing on their clothes and their bodies… Those are countered with these unbelievably elegant advertisements for uniforms and boots.”

“In the First World War, the posters present the women within this ‘new women’ look through the use of bobbed hair. Then when you move to the Second World War, the magazine changes from The Landswoman to The Land Girl which is part of this wider infantilization process where women are meant to be more like girls than they are women.”