WWI+Women+During+War

**Women During War** By Melissa Di Fabio and Alexa Carone Leading up to World War I feminists and campaigners for womens rights began gaining extreme patriotism and supporting women's involvement in WWI. Women hoped that women involvement in the war would result in a more serious respect for women and their equality. Over 25,000 women joined the war in effort to protect their country, gain respect from their "superiors" and gain the rights they were entitled to.
 * 1. How did women first get involved in World War I?**

media type="custom" key="12748516" align="center" Some men did not want their wives working during the war. They thought it would be better if they just stayed home and took care of the home and took care of the children.
 * 2. How did men respond to this?**

Women were not permitted to participate in combat but there were many jobs that they did take up. Many were nurses, provided food and supplies to the military, they were also telephone operators better know as the "//Hello Girls",// others entertained the troops and many also became journalists. These women took extreme pride in their work and did their jobs to the best of their ability. They fought for the troops and argued, persuaded and scrounged for supplies
 * 3. Did women participate in the war?**

//**Famous Women Involved in World War I:**// - A Baltimore millionaire who set up a hospital at the front from 1914-1918 - Her famous saying was, "//Just as you send your clothes to the laundry and mend them when they come back, so we send our men to the trenches and mend them when they come back again. You send your socks … again and again just as many times as they will stand it. And then you throw them away. And we send our men to the war again and again … just until they are dead//.”
 * Mary Borden**

- Janis gave 610 performances in 15 months, sometimes having nine 45 minute shows a day - She was one of the first American performers to entertain during a war that was not fought on the home front - She was one of the first woman performers permitted near a war's frontlines - Janis had also said that unlike the other french women who were performers, they were not looked at as sex objects like the french, the were put "//on a pedastal that grew and grew//"
 * Elsie Janis**
 * -** At the height of Elsie Janis' songwriting and musical career she volunteered to go onto foreign soil and perform for the troops

- The head of the Women's Land Army, very serious suffragist who urged women to get jobs and join the war effort - Author of the famous books, __//Mobilizing Women's Power//__ and //__A Women's Point of View: Some Roads to Peace__// she believed in a peaceful approach to freedom and equality, both for women in the war and at home. - Blatch claimed, "//every muscle, every brain, must be mobilized if the national aim is to be achieved//.”
 * Harriot Stanton Blatch**

Women were payed much lower than men in the war, they made more money than they would pre-war, but made less money then men did in the war. Women worked at the workplace and at home so they had the "doubleshift" while men were away.
 * 4. What were women paid during the war?**
 * 5. How did they maintain their role at home and in the workplace?**



Some of the most important work done by women was in the ammunition factories. It was very dangerous work with explosive chemicals because it meant that one explosion in a factory could trigger many other ones. They also worked as power machine operators and in naval station machine shops as well. Some factories were also in need of female power machine operators due to lack of male workers.
 * 6. Did women handle machinery?**

No, not all women were nurses. They took on many other jobs, such as factory workers, land army and working at the home front. In addition, other jobs that needed to be filled due to the lack of men. Most people were against women working because they saw it as women trying to take jobs from unemployed men. The government had to overcome these challenges and see that women working would only be temporary. The government decided to launch a propaganda campaign to sell the importance of the war effort and to lure more women into working.
 * 7. Were they all nurses, or were they assigned different jobs?**
 * 8. How did the government respond to the women being in the war?**

Women responded to the call to work differently depending on age,race, class, maritial status and number of children. Half of the women who took war jobs were minority and lower-class women who were already in the work-force. Women suffered from the "double shift" of work and caring for the family and home. Some women wanted to work depending on the conditions but some of the husbands did not want their wives working.
 * 9. How did women on the homefront respond to this?**

Women had to work seven days a week in the workplace but also had to continue their jobs on the home front, which consisted of taking care of the children at home.
 * 10. What hours did the women work?**

Works Cited:
 * []**
 * []**
 * []**