A Discussion of the Representation of Masculinity and Femininity in ...

series of, at times, violent actions. This level of demonstration was not supported by
Baden-Powell who argued in an article in The Times that ‘rights are not won…by
advertising and clamouring for them” (August 9, 1913: cited in Johnson: 1994:20). This
is in line with the ideology on which he grounded the Scout and Guide movements which
attempted to inculcate a “happy acceptance of one’s social and economic position in life”
(Rosenthal:1986:7). In other words, conformity and deference to authority were
characteristics Baden-Powell wanted to instil in Britain’s youth.
4.6 World War One
The war brought new ways of thinking about gender into the fore, as perceptions
about women and girls working outside of the home reached new levels of social
acceptability. In 1918, the war ended and while all men over 21 were given the vote, it
was only given to most women over 30. The war did not bring about vast changes in
respect to the institutional and social subordination of women, but rather brought about
the potential for slow incremental changes to take place in the future. In 1916 the
Guides published a new aim “to put women on a better standing as citizens than they
had heretofore- ie on terms of comradeship rather than dependency” (Girl Guides
Gazette: April, 1916: cited in Johnson, 1994: 62). However, as Johnson acknowledges
“there still exists an emphasis within the movement on the perceived future role of
women as wives and mothers, albeit with an expanded horizon through participation in
Guiding activities” (p64) well into the 1920s and 1930s.
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