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=How did the roles of women change after the 1st world war?=

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There are many different aspects to the effect of World War I on women. These aspects include political, economical and social changes. These aspects are included below.

Political Gains
Before and during World War 1 women were fighting for equal rights. The need to replace men in male dominated jobs allowed women to work jobs that had only been available to men in the past. Therefore they became educated in new areas such as medicine and factory work. Many feminists (suffragettes) became very patriotic and supportive of the war in hopes it would help them politically. Joshua Goldstein writes "Suddenly, campaigners for women’s suffrage became avid patriots and organizers of women in support of the war effort. Many of these feminists hoped that patriotic support of the war would enhance the prospects for women’s suffrage after the war, and this came true in a number of countries." Rights to vote came two years later in the United States.

Political Tools
However not all the political aspects were positive. During World War 1 the government used women as a major way recruiting men. The government used propaganda posters, such as the one below to get men to enlist. But this was not the sole way of recruitment. The order of the white feather was used throughout britin as a way of shaming men into enlisting into the military([|order of the white feather]).



Economical aspects
There were many economical changes regarding women during the 1st world war. With the lack of men there was much need in many fields for workers. So in specific fields that in the past had been closed to women were suddenly available. Women were suddenly being employed as bank clerks, ticket sellers, chauffeurs, railroad trackwalkers, and car wipers and oilers. They were also employed in steel mills, powder and ammunition factories and airplane works ([|Where women worked in WWI]). Which was a big change to their previous jobs which consisted of cleaning, cooking, sewing, child care and textile work.

'By 1914, a quarter of all clerks were women, double the number ten years earlier. At the outbreak of the War, just over three million women were employed in commerce and industry.' David Stevenson

However again this was not all positive as many women, especially in Britain, were forced to work in the munitions industry. These women received around half the salary that men were paid. By 1914 there were 212,000 women working in the munitions industry. Munitionettes was the name given to these female workers ([|Munitionettes]). Some of these women were also called canaries because of the yellow skin they got by working with TNT([|Canaries]). Over 400 of the canaries died as a result of the TNT.



Social aspects
According to Edward Leeds WWI “caused the collapse of those established, traditional distinctions” between men and women. Not only were women accepted into new and different fields they were also able to go to war. More than 25,000 US women went to war in Europe during World War 1. They worked mainly as nurses, telephone operators, entertainers, and journalists. In Russia though some women took part in combat. But women didn’t only join the war they started joining different social movements. Such as the Red Cross, Patriotic League, and YWCA.

Comparing countries
In Russia some women took part in battle dressed as men, as seen below, during the Czarist period. Many women, 13000, in the US also took part in the war though they did not take part in the battle ([|American Women in World War I]). They mostly did clerical, supply and communication work. In Britain 80,000 women served in the military, but also did not take part in battle. In Germany the women took on the same posts as the British and American women and many more. The additional posts include medical and manual labour. Both the United States and Germany allowed women to vote after the war.



Conclusion
World War I had a heavy impact on how the world viewed women starting the process of how they are viewed today. Not only did women gain political freedom and new education, it also enabled them to experience new things that they would not have been able to experience if World War I had never come to be. But the experiences of World War I were not all positive. This included being underpaid, dying of exposure to TNT, and being used as a political tool.

[|Overview of Women in WWI]