Superfluous women. "Britain after the First World War had about

[raccoon]

Two million more women than men. The press labeled them ‘superfluous ‘ or ‘surplus’ women.”

(This historical note is in the front of the novel Surperfluous Women, by Carola Dunn.)

I am sure it was the same in France and Germany after the First World War. As in the South after the Civil War. And also in Germany after World War II. And Russia too I expect.

I know of some cases where American soldiers stationed in Germany after the war married German women. I expect some German women married Occupying soldiers from other countries as well.

The author also listed under acknowledgments a book called Singled out: how two million women survived without men after the first world war.

Anybody know of any other sources for information about this subject?

[bobbieinok]

1. A Dorothy Sayers's novel had Lord Peter Wimsey hire some of them as investigators.

They helped him solve crimes.

I learned about this part of post-WWI English history years ago when I read her book.

Sorry, I don't remember the title of the book in which she introduced Wimsey's 'surplus women' investigators. They appear in several of her books, IIRC.

[Hekate]

6. Yes, I remember them as well. Miss Jane Marple (of Agatha Christie) was another WWI spinster...

They are remembered in literature. I'm glad there's at least one non-fiction book as well.

~~It's been years since I read Dorothy Sayers, but I still have her entire collection of now-crumbling paperbacks.

[bobbieinok]

8. A favorite is the book where Wimsey works in an ad agency- It Pays to Advertise??

Prefer Allingham mysteries about Albert Campion.

You mention Miss Marple. Have you read Patricia Wentworth's Miss Silver books? Also an older women detective. Most of her books are free online at fadedpage.com.

[Hekate]

11. Murder Must Advertise. Wimsey goes undercover using part of his family name...

Full name: Peter Death Bredon Wimsey. Undercover name: Death Bredon.
Someone gets suspicious and tries to look him up in Debrette's. He says (whimsically, ahem) "Not all puppies are in the stud book."

[smirkymonkey]

2. Superfluous women?

Superfluous - unneeded, expendable, redundant, useless, dispensable, etc...

As though women without men are completely worthless creatures, with no value on their own. I find the term offensive.

[Tipperary]

3. I am with you on this. I have a busy afternoon today, but this has raised my hackles.

I will be back.

[raccoon]

4. Maybe you do find the term offensive. I don't particularly like it myself

I don’t particularly like the term myself.

You can blame the British press after World War I for coming up with that term. So, if you come back as you threaten to, you can get your hackles raised at them.

The fact remains, even if you use another word, in post World War I England and in some other countries after wars, there was a shortage of men and consequently a lot of women remained unmarried. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

[Tipperary]

5. Lol.

I like your reply. No sarcasm. That was funny.

[smirkymonkey]

10. Really?

I thought it was a bit tone deaf.

[appalachiablue]

9. It's objectionable to me too. Like the term 'displaced' used for women

post divorce. A close work friend who was looking for classes and support following a divorce that she had to initiate noticed one listed in a county community adult education course catalog titled 'for displaced divorced women.'

That write up was so bad I called the dept. since she wouldn't, and the administrator did listen and said they'd look into it. 'Dis-placed' is such a negative term, meaning women who are really helpless, adrift and lost if 'not married.' Some may be in that situation if they were suddenly and unfairly treated, and maybe older. It's a strong term that I associate mostly with people dislocated because of severe events like hurricanes, war or something quite catastrophic. Even Nazi camp POWs, after WWII.
During the recent royal wedding, I noticed a bit of the old attitude that women must be accompanied in public, esp. by a man that came up with Doria Ragland, Meghan Markle's mom. Because she' single (and strong, lovely!)and she didn't have a companion/relative with her at the wedding and was 'solo.' It would have been nice, but breaks no laws!

[muriel_volestrangler]

7. The 2 million was of all ages, and there's normally more women than men

due to their longer life expectancy. So the 1921 census found:

More than 700,000 British men were killed during World War One. This tragic loss of life affected the lives of young women in 1920s Britain. Virginia Nicholson has discussed in her 2007 book, Singled Out, the difficulties of unmarried women following the gender imbalance of the population which followed World War One. The middle classes were especially affected with a higher proportion of officers killed than those in lower ranks. The 700,000 deaths resulted in a particularly large gap between the male and female populations of people aged 25 to 34 with 1,158,000 unmarried women and 919,000 unmarried men, according to the 1921 census.

http://ww1centenary.oucs.ox.ac.uk/unconventionalsoldiers/%E2%80%98surplus-women%E2%80%99-a-legacy-of-world-war-one/

So that's 6 unmarried women for every 5 unmarried men in that 'prime' age group for a first marriage. The 35-44 age group also had a big increase - in their case, a lot more widows than women who had never married. "Excess of Females in the marriageable Population (i.e., Single and Widowed, and Divorced)", 1,683 women for every 1,000 men.

http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/census/table/EW1921GEN_M40

By 1921, flu had killed many as well, of course. As far as I know, though, it didn't affect one more than another.

You might be interested in the poem "The Superfluous Woman", mentioned there (but with a bad link), written by Vera Brittain in 1919:

Ghosts crying down the vistas of the years,
Recalling words
Whose echoes long have died,
And kind moss grown
Over the sharp and blood-bespattered stones
Which cut our feet upon the ancient ways.

But who will look for my coming?

Long busy days where many meet and part;
Crowded aside
Remembered hours of hope;
And city streets
Grown dark and hot with eager multitudes
Hurrying homeward whither respite waits.

But who will seek me at nightfall?

Light fading where the chimneys cut the sky;
Footsteps that pass,
Nor tarry at my door.
And far away,
Behind the row of crosses, shadows black
Stretch out long arms before the smouldering sun.

But who will give me my children?

https://allpoetry.com/The-Superfluous-Woman

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vera_Brittain

Her fiance and brother were both killed in the war. She married in 1925; her daughter, Shirley Williams, was a major British politician (still alive, but not very active in politics these days). Her biography Testament of Youth is the definitive description from a non-combatant in WW1.

[Hekate]

12. What a heartbreaking poem. Most of us want love and family and children to love...

This was denied to so many young women through no choice of their own.

That's where I disagree with those who are so offended by the term used a full century ago. These women were not being disrespected -- as far as I can tell, they were pitied for their losses.

Women today do have many more choices of education and careers and lifestyles, but always we feel the clock ticking and sooner or later the majority of us do want children. That simply does not change.

[raccoon]

13. Thank you. You and Muriel have great reading comprehension skills.

You read something and you get the real meaning of it, not get sidetracked with some word which is admittedly out of date that some people don’t like.