The twentieth century witnessed not only two world wars but also the
confrontation between democratic and totalitarian regimes. The pernicious ideology
and repression of dissidents led to the collapse of most totalitarian systems in Europe,
while democracy proved to be a progressive path of development. At the same time,
the differences and common features of totalitarianism and democracy remain a
promising area for research. Scholars usually focus on the many differences between
these regimes in the political, economic, social, and cultural spheres, trying to
emphasize the parallelism of their development. However, were the differences in the
gender policies of totalitarian and democratic systems in the twentieth century so
striking? We did not find a thorough answer to this question in the academic
literature. At the same time, whatever it may be, this answer will significantly deepen
the understanding of the essence of the two political regimes from a historical
perspective. The methodological basis of this study includes the gender approach, the
concept of “double helix” by M. R. Higonnet and P. L. R. Higonnet, and the
methodology of analysis of propaganda works by G. Jowett and V. O’Donnell. A set
of general scientific, historical and interdisciplinary methods was also used to solve
specific problems: a critical analysis of sources, typological, critical discourse
analysis, retrospective, historical-comparative, analytical-psychological, statistical,
analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction, analogy, comparison and generalization.
Based on a wide range of primary sources and historiographical studies of
previous years, the social position of women in Great Britain and the USSR on the
eve of the war was outlined. The peculiarities of the involvement of women in the
army and paramilitary organizations in the interwar period are determined. The study
characterizes the normative and legal regulation of women's service in military units
during the Second World War. The specifics and conditions of women's service in the
armed forces of Great Britain and the USSR from 1939 to 1945 were clarified. The
peculiarities of the coverage of the issue of women's service during the Second World
War in the public speeches of politicians were traced. Approaches to the organization
of British and Soviet propaganda aimed at recruitment of women to the military units
are compared. The features of demobilization and commemoration of female veterans
of the Second World War in Great Britain and the USSR were outlined. The
sociocultural interpretation of women’s military service by servicewomen and other
members of the British and Soviet societies was analysed. The author concludes that despite the significant differences between the
totalitarian and democratic regimes in their approaches to state-building, propaganda,
economics, and social and cultural affairs in the interwar period, during the war, there
was a convergence between them, in particular in organizing women’s military
service.
Both states used a utilitarian approach to women to recruit large numbers of
them to the military because there was a lack of human resources. At the same time,
both governments tried to keep the status quo in gender relations, where women are a
subordinate group to men. Of course, during the Second World War, it was almost
impossible not to change what would be considered “suitable” roles for women, but
in general, gender relations were kept unchanged. For example, one can see it in the
peculiarities of the public discourse that was rather different for both countries, but
the common feature was the representation of women as an auxiliary force in the
military even in those cases where they performed operative and combat tasks. For
example, when many Soviet women held combat positions, the public discourse
mentioned only a few cases of heroines, and there were no mentions of the large scale
of this phenomenon. General materials in the media about the Red Army usually
addressed the soldiers exclusively in the male gender. Also, we can see it in the
example of the British women who performed operative tasks in the anti-aircraft
defence and held positions that before the war were combat ones and then were
reclassified by authorities during the war into non-combat positions to keep the
women`s status in society as non-combatants.
Thus, given the wide range of similarities between the totalitarian and
democratic countries toward women in the military, it can be concluded that in this
case the differences between their political regimes were placed in the background,
giving way to their patriarchal essence.
