society’s view on gender role The new patient intrigues the magpies, especially the youngish specimens,and they close in two or three deep about the stretcher-cart, gazing at the drawn features under the cowl with tilted, frizzed heads and loving, pitying,languorous looks that stifle like a heavy perfume. Suddenly on soft creature gives away the show: ‘On dirait une femme- you’d say it was a woman,” she breathed “It is a woman!” I answered furiously. The ranks simply melt! (p. 79)Here it is shown clearly how society of the time saw the position of gender. Once Sergeant exclaimed the she is a woman, “the ranks simply melt.” It is clear the injured woman is not as admirable as the injured man. What a man does is simply more important in our society.Sergeant’s piece says a lot about war. Clearly it is a man’s event. The women who served in it where almost trivial. What is interesting, as Sergeant’s own accounts show, is that while women were doing extraordinary things, and were risking their lives as well, it is never really as important as a man’s work. It is all about the soldier who fights in the war. ...
