Singled Out by Virginia Nicholson
How Two Million Women Survived Without Men after the First World War
It is one of the saddest truths of life that one person’s worst moment will be another’s moment in the sun and this was certainly accurate for the women Virginia Nicholson describes in Singled Out. While some seized the opportunities made available by the avoidance of marriage to carve out freedom from the tradition female role as wife and mothers, others found their enforced spinsterhood a grey prison of pointlessness and misery.
An Unwanted Surplus
Some 700,000 British soldiers were killed during the First World War while another million and half returned home wounded. In fact, more British men died during the 1914 to 1918 war than had been killed during any other previous conflict and it was this monumental loss of life in such a concentrated period of time that placed the women who were left behind in such a precarious position.
Although there had been an awareness of the statistical imbalance in the numbers of men and women since the 19th century, it was only after the Great War that the situation reached crisis point. After the 1921 Census the newspapers began scaremongering in earnest with headlines such as “Problem of Surplus Women – Two Million Women Who Can Never Become Wives” being published.
As it turned out, the Headmistress of Bournemouth High School for Girls had been rather overly pessimistic in 1919 when she announced to her sixth form class that only one in ten of them could now hope to be married and the rest would have to make their own way in the world as best they could, but she wasn’t completely wrong. The huge death toll of the First World War did mean that nearly two million were unavoidably left on the proverbial shelf.
Vastly Different Paths
Society has certainly never been kind to spinsters and this was particularly true in the early twentieth century when unmarried ladies of a certain age were treated as social oddities if not aberrations. The majority of the surplus women had had prim Victorian mothers who taught them that there was no greater purpose in life than to marry and have children and so it is no surprise that, for many, their single status left them feeling bereft.
Most of these surplus women had to work but society prevented them from competing for jobs with the returning soldiers and so they were barred from many industries they had kept running during the War. Instead they could look forward to an unthreatening life as a secretary or perhaps the stuffy formality of a school mistress.
Of course for some women, albeit more often than not the richer ones, the enforced singledom was a blessing as it freed them from the expectations of family and society and allowed them freedom to pursue their own interests. In Singled Out Nicholson tells the stories of many fascinating and pioneering women but certain characters, such as the archaeologist Gertrude Caton-Thompson (who thought nothing of sharing her accommodations with a family of cobras) or the engineer Caroline Haslett, really stand out.
Long Overdue Recognition
While the men who suffered and sacrificed during the First World War are commemorated with medals, monuments and Remembrance Day, the women who were left behind have largely been forgotten and so Singled Out is a wonderful tribute to their courage and perseverance in the face of significant hardship and stigma. These women might not have gone to war but they certainly had their own battles to fight.
Singled Out is a truly excellent book and Virginia Nicholson has worked wonders in sourcing information and getting the women to talk about their lives and their personal feelings on being labelled “surplus”. Although the hardships this women endured are vividly brought to life, Nicholson maintains a positive tone throughout and concentrates on the exceptional achievements that women such as those whose life she documents made so that future generations could enjoy equality and choose to make a life outside of the home.
Singled Out by Virginia Nicholson
ISBN 978-0141020624, Penguin Books Ltd, 2008, £8.99, pp336
