Maggie Andrews: Foster mothers - Episode 4

Groups of young evacuees, standing on railway stations with gas masks and cardboard suitcases have become an iconic image of wartime Britain, but their histories have eclipsed those of women whose domestic lives were affected.

In her new book, “Women and Evacuation in the Second World War”, University of Worcester Historian and Author, Professor Maggie Andrews, explores the effects of this unparalleled interference in the lives of women, looking at the impact on their everyday experience, and on ideas of femininity and domesticity. She shows that evacuation changed views of motherhood forever.

In this programme, Professor Andrews tells History West Midlands Publisher, Mike Gibbs, the stories of some of these women.

In other programmes in this series, Professor Andrews reveals the experiences of mothers who waved goodbye to their children as they were evacuated; those who left their homes and families to travel with their young children; and of the women who became foster mothers, sometimes for years.

Professor Maggie Andrews book “Women and Evacuation in the Second World War”, published by Bloomsbury Academic, is available in bookshops and from Amazon.

Keywords: Maggie Andrews, Evacuees, University of Worcester, Women