you might think that the French population was entirely made up of men. Yet while they were off fighting, wives, widows, mothers, and daughters held the country together. Genteel women who hadn’t been allowed to work or study at university were now supposed to be nurses and doctors, teachers and farmers. Livestock and machinery had been commandeered for the war effort, so women tilled the fields like oxen. They worked to provide for families. Is anyone writing about them?
