01/28/2026
By Jacqueline Knapp
The College of Fine Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, Global Studies Program, invites you to attend a doctoral dissertation defense by Jacqueline C. Knapp on "Every Man is a Soldier, and Every Woman is a Man": Uniforms and Sexual Morality in British War Society, 1914-1939."
Candidate Name: Jacqueline C. Knapp
Degree: Doctoral
Defense Date: Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026
Time: 3 - 5 p.m.
Location: Dugan 204, South Campus
Dissertation Title: "Every Man is a Soldier, and Every Woman is a Man": Uniforms and Sexual Morality in British War Society, 1914-1939"
Dissertation Committee:
- Advisor Christopher Carlsmith, Ph.D., Department of History, UMass Lowell
- Patrick Young, Ph.D., Department of History, UMass Lowell
- Daniel Egan, Ph.D., Department of Sociology, UMass Lowell
Abstract: Clothing is a fundamental material in everyday life. Yet clothing is also symbolic and can express someone's gender, social status, country of origin, and more. Nowhere is clothing more symbolic than during conflict. Conflict disrupts a society and the normative sociological components that provide structure and categorization, including sexuality. Such disruption can lead to opportunities for experimentation and acts perceived as deviant, such as cross-dressing. To determine how the utilization of uniforms by women affected sexual morality within Britain and its military diaspora during WWI and the interwar period (1914-1939), this dissertation considers three case studies involving female cross-dressing soldier Flora Sandes, music hall impersonator Vesta Tilley, and policewomen who served throughout the country. Case studies employ symbolic interactionism and narrative theory. I argue that the uniforms utilized by women during WWI served as a status symbol for the transmission of sexual morality through the application of the wearer’s uniform privilege, female masculinity and social status, allowing for the manipulation of sexuality to conform to heteronormative principles and chivalric masculinity.