WWI Women V

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     Two historians of the First World War both depict women as taking up roles previously reserved for men, but they differ slightly in the significance they describe to these unprecedented but temporary wartime duties. Gail Braybon describes the war as a liberating experience for many women. Although women working in munitions factories were subject to new dangers, such as explosions and trinitrotoluene poisoning, they were mindful of and proud of supporting the war effort, whether or not they considered the broader significance of their actions. Joshua Goldstein too describes a sense of freedom in women but emphasizes that it was short-lived. Although the war bent gender roles, it did not lessen hostility to women in traditionally male jobs, increase the value of female labor, or uproot the notion that home life was a strictly female responsibility. Braybon might reply by noting that, while other changes were slower in coming, some women suffragists supported the war and women's role in it to further their cause, and this position may have contributed to the advent of women's right to vote after the war, even by Goldstein's account. Perhaps more central to Braybon's position is that the liberation that women experienced during the war was one of sentiment and therefore made no less real by the lack of accompanying widespread reform. Furthermore, even though the spirit of liberation must have faded with the end of the war, it might have lived on in a latent form and ultimately contributed to the formation of the women's movement.

According to the passage, Braybon would be most likely to believe that the roles taken up by women during the First World War

Review: WWI Women V


Explanation

In this question, as in all Reading Comprehension mind-reading questions, we will not read anyone's mind at all, but rather identify the statement which is necessarily tied to what has been stated in the passage. Legal validation, spiritual impact, and justification of the war effort all fall outside the scope of what has been discussed in the passage, and so we can eliminate answer choices (A), (B), and (D). Choice (E) is contrary to the fact that Braybon's characterization of the role of women in the passage is positive, and not "at odds" with the development of rights. Furthermore, broader human rights are not touched upon. Meanwhile, answer choice (C) is supported by the author's points that Braybon considered the women's liberation important because it was one of sentiment and also because it was latent, and on both of those counts it might be difficult to observe.

The correct answer is (C).


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