In Regeneration, we can also see the changing role of women in society. They also symbolize the break down of previous notions of femininity. They also symbolize the break down of previous notions of femininity. They take over the jobs in society that men once held. The appearance and behaviour of the women is far from feminine. The appearance of the women with 'blackened stumps for teeth' and 'a slightly yellow tinge to their skin' which sets them apart as munitions workers or 'munitionettes' (p87) is disturbing. Looking at her fellow workers Sarah says 'they looked like machines, whose sole purpose was to make other machines'. This simile captures the hardship of the women as they work monotonous 'twelve hour shifts, six days a week to survive. However, when we are first introduced to the women, they are cheerful and lighthearted as they sit in a café telling crude jokes and giggling. Sarah tells Prior she likes the work and that its well paid as she earns 'fifty bob a week' in comparison to 'ten bob before the war'. These women symbolize the strength and independence of women that was once denied to them. Prior recognizes that women 'seemed to have changed so much during the war, to have expanded in all kinds of ways, whereas men over the same period had shrunk into a smaller and smaller space' (p.90).
             Sarah's mother Ada is also an independent woman. However, in contrast to Sarah, she has grown up in a society in which women did not have the opportunity to support themselves and her opinion marriage to a wealthy man is the best that women can hope for and she wishes this for her own daughters. Sarah thinks that 'to make marriage the sole end of female existence, and yet deny that love between men and women [is] possible' is 'a dispiriting way to bring up girls' (p.195). Sarah says that in Ada's world &apo
             ...