Masculinities on Clydeside: Men in Reserved Occupations During the Second World War

Masculinities on Clydeside explores the experiences of civilian men on Clydeside during the Second World War. The book principally uses oral history interviews as source materials and understands subjectivity as a fluid and ultimately continuous concept, retaining personal agency through major historical changes. While men in reserved occupations are understood as extensively influenced by ‘imagined’ discourses, often resulting in feelings of guilt and emasculation, their subjectivities were nonetheless ultimately rooted in their ‘lived’ and immediate local vicinities, and the people and places of their everyday lives. This ultimate relevance of ‘lived’ existence and the everyday also meant that while wartime relations between men and women were clearly shaped by a range of gender discourses and continually renegotiated, gender boundaries were never fixed or truly separate. The book comprises six chapters. The first provides context to the findings, while the second addresses the issue of masculinities. The third centres upon regional subjectivities, and the fourth looks at wider subjectivities, encompassing national and political identities, class consciousness, religious subjectivities and social activities. The fifth chapter examines women’s experiences of working in reserved occupations in wartime and their interactions with civilian men; the sixth chapter summarises the arguments in the book.