Or: How Dr. Hallock Morris Picked Her Theme
Before we go too much further with this blog, I need to define the parameters of our “theme” of gritty women. I’ve named my blog Grit, Guts, and Glass Ceilings for a particular purpose. As I noted on the about page for this site, two summers ago, I proposed to do a presentation on women’s contributions to the war effort for The Albert H. Small Normandy Institute, a competitive program for talented high school students. Each year, fifteen student/teacher pairs are selected from around the country to participate in an eight-month program about World War II with its primary focus on the D-Day landings at Normandy. The highlight of the program – in most years – is a trip to Normandy, France.
Unfortunately, Covid came along and cancelled the trip in 2020 so this particular class of scholars studied for well over a year before meeting in Washington, DC, and Bedford, VA. This extra year allowed me to read broadly (and deeply) into the lives of many women who helped with the war effort. Not only did I learn personal stories like the ones I shared in my opening entries to this blog, but I also had a chance to develop a theme. Originally, I had planned to write about Rosies, Land Girls, and military women. But, over these past two years, I realized several things, including:
- Women made great spies and resistance workers because they were unexpected participants;
- Women’s home front contributions were a form of war work which we often discount; and
- Women’s work had an impact on the social norms of the day.
Most importantly, however, I found an underlying theme in all of the diaries, memoirs, oral histories, letters, and secondary sources that I’ve read: These women were good at their jobs because they all shared a commonality – they had grit. Like Elizabeth Warren (who you may not agree with politically, but I digress), “Nevertheless [they] persisted.”
So, what exactly do I mean by grit? In a nutshell, grit is a combination of spirit, guts, and courage. These are all things women showed during World War II, whether they joined the services, worked the land, assembled airplanes and ships, built bombs, or – in the case of British women – preserved through everyday life, figuring out how to feed and clothe their families while living through the Blitz and other bombings. But perhaps we need a more “scholarly” definition of this term. This comes from McArthur Genius grant winner and psychology professor Angela Duckworth, the author of Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance (2016). According to Duckworth, grit can be defined as “Passion and sustained persistence applied toward a long-term achievement, with no particular concern for rewards or recognition along the way. It combines resilience, ambition, and self-control in the pursuit of goals that take months, years, or even decades.”
Women must have grit – guts, courage, and persistence – to break through what is commonly called the glass ceiling. A typical definition of the term sounds something like this: an unofficial limit which prevents some, especially a woman, from advancing to a top position in a company or organization. In political science, we talk about glass ceilings when we look at elected officials: Nancy Pelosi, becoming the first female speaker of the House, Kamala Harris, becoming the first female vice president in the United States, or Margaret Thatcher becoming the first female British Prime Minister. This June, Linda Fagan became the first female vice commandant and first female four-star admiral in the United States Coast Guard. As these barriers continue to fall, it’s hard for modern women to remember that there were significant cultural barriers in place to the women who wished to serve in the war effort during World War II.
Keep these concepts in mind as you continue to follow along here at Grit, Guts, and Glass Ceilings. Although my early focus in this research has been on the World War II era, I am expanding my storytelling to include other conflicts and social movements, as well as political women’s history from the founding First Ladies to our current Vice-President and Speaker of the House.
Upcoming entries: The Concept of Intersectionality.
Sources
“Admiral Linda Fagan Becomes USGC’s First Female Four-Star Admiral. (2021, June 21). The Maritime Executive. https://www.maritime-executive.com/article/adm-linda-fagan-becomes-u-s-coast-guard-s-first-four-star-admiral?fbclid=IwAR1wdJON-2_U0oUQwUFJUe5a0m2dCGt3NzdBBmYnHnjfPvr3YgSD4Ux05V0 [Last accessed July 18, 2021].
Duckworth, A. (2016). Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance. [Kindle Android version]. Scribner.
Fessler, L. (2018, March 26). “You’re no genius:” Her Father’s Shutdowns Made Angela Duckworth a World Expert on Grit.” Quartz at Work. https://qz.com/work/1233940/angela-duckworth-explains-grit-is-the-key-to-success-and-self-confidence/ [Last accessed July 18, 2021].
“Glass ceiling.” (2021). Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary. Cambridge University Press. https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/glass-ceiling [Last accessed July 18, 2021].
See Also (for Fun): True Grit in the Urban Dictionary.
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