Women W/O Men

Book Summary

Marlene Epp, an author of extensive work in the area of Mennonite history, presents here the story of thousands of Mennonite women who, having lost their husbands and fathers to wartime tragedy and displacement, travelled through war-torn Europe and eventually settled in Canada and Paraguay. More than a mere description of the events that led them from their native homes, this work encompasses the culture of women refugees and, in particular, how they 'remembered' the events. The women wove the memories into personal histories that helped to deal with the horror of the past and led to a sense of normalcy in their new and strikingly different homes. Epp also looks at how this emigration was experienced differently because the subjects were women. These women often used ingenious strategies to protect themselves and their families. Their struggle against a patriarchal society led to a 'deconstruction' of old gender roles in the Soviet and war environments, and then a 'reconstruction' of new roles in postwar Canada and Paraguay. Through the analysis of the relationship of female-headed households with patriarchal, postwar society, Epp gains access to the personal worlds of these women. This analysis then shows 'the intersection of gender, war, and immigration.' She has also helped in the better understanding of the culture of postwar immigrants, the culture of postwar families, the workings of refugee settlement agencies, and the functioning of postwar ethnic communities in Canada and Paraguay.

Book Details