Mothers, Marraines, and Prostitutes: Morale and Morality in First World War France

This essay on women at the French homefront during World War I analyzes the attempts to link the behavior of women with the quests for victory and thereby to help to dissolve the boundary between the home and the battle front. Specifically it explains the attmepts to maintain morale at the home front by linking it to women's morality and sexuality. Thus, it focusses on two related and somewhat contradictors aspects of femine morale: sexuality and materinity.