In the film Lifeboat, Alfred Hithcock personifies the roles available for women in World War II through the closed setting of a lifeboat lost at sea. The three female characters: Connie Porter, Alice MacKenzie, and Mrs. Higley portray more typical female occupations, with the exception of Mrs. Porter, who is a journalist, Alice and Mrs. Higley are a nurse and mother respectively. Their roles parallel the limited vocations available for women during World War II.
The audience is introduced to Connie Porter at the beginning. She sits in the lifeboat without any damage to her hairdo, makeup, or fur coat, and takes photos of the wreckage displaying no empathy for the victims. John Billheimer in his book chapter, “Lifeboat,” mentions that the Office of War Information characterized Connie Porter as a “selfish, predatory, amoral, international adventuress” (104). Unlike the other female characters, Mrs. Porter is wealthy. Her position as a journalist, a male-dominated profession at the time, is more accessible due to her class position. However, as she is an independent woman, she is corrupted by material possessions. During the mid-twentieth century, social anxieties around autonomous women were prevalent. Therefore, Mrs. Porter gives her markers of class—her coat, typewriter, and bracelet—to the ocean, and she flirts with Kovac. Despite her sovereignty at the beginning, Mrs. Porter is pushed into the domestic sphere by the end of the film.
Alice MacKenzie is a forgettable character who gives first aid and nurses the men on the Lifeboat. This is evident in the reading as John Billheimer mentions her once only by her occupation, “a nurse” (102). She performs first aid on Gus and talks mainly to Sparks and Connie. Her reason for traveling to England is to see a married man. She pairs up with Sparks and her character is defined in relation to him for the majority of the film. They are framed together during the storm, the aftermath, and even during the rescue. Her actions and character can be connected to the role of nurses in WWII, who were defined by their service to male soldiers.
Finally, Mrs. Higley represents the women at home. She is hysterical due to the death of her baby when rescued onto the lifeboat, and she tries to jump into the water afterward. During WWII, mothers lost their sons and her grief is evident of this national despair. Additionally, Hitchcock does not give Mrs. Higley any rational thought. The nuclear family in the mid-twentieth century was prevailing. By not allowing for Mrs. Higley to recover, the personified homemaker, Hitchcock displays that there is no reason to live without children as she completes suicide. He reinforces the woman as the primary caretaker and parallels the limiting domestic roles of women at the time.
By linking female characters to the roles available to women, Alfred Hitchcock in his film Lifeboat displays the restrictive positions for women in the United States.