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= __**The Role Of Women In WW1**__  =

 By Laura Hernando


Women contributed greatly in World War One in different aspects. They were used as a form of propaganda, and not only were they a major contribution to the improvement of how women were seen, they also helped Britain achieve victory.

__Propaganda__
 They were used as symbols by the government in different ways, and were able to effectively persuade men to join the army.

During WW1 music became a very influential form of propaganda. Vesta Tilley was a very famous music hall singer and male impersonator at the time, and most of her songs persuaded men to join the armed forces. During her show young men were invited to go on stage, and when they did so they were asked to join the army. Pre-arranged children in the crowed were prepared to give white feathers as a symbol of cowardice to those who refused to sign up. She was so successful in recruiting men that she became known as "England's Greatest recruiting Sergeant". She sang songs such as "We Don't Want to Lose You but We Think You Ought to Go", "The army of today's all right", and "Six days leave". Her lyrics were a blatant persuasion for the masses: "We've watched you playing cricket and every kind of game/ At football, golf and polo you men have made your name/ But now your country calls you to play your part in war/ And no matter what befalls you/ We shall love you all the more/ So come and join the forces/ As your fathers did before."

A few m    onths after the start of WW1, the Order of the White Feather was founded by Admiral Charles Fitzgerald. The aim of this org    anization was to persuade men to enlist in the British Army. To do so, women would give a white feather to any man who wasn't wearing a uniform. The white feat    her was seen as a sign of cowardy and caused humiliation to the man who was given one. Therefore men were coerced to join the British    Army. The orga    nization was succesful to such an extent that it caused the government problems when public servants came under pressur     e to     enlist. The government had to give employees in state industries badges that showed that they were helping in the war so that women wouldnt't give them any feathers. The idea of a White Feather symbolising cowardice originated from cockfighting, since a white feather of an cockerel's tail indicated that it was an inferior cross-breed and therefore a poor-fighter.

The image on the left is of the comic "Union Jack" from the 26th of December 1914.

Women such as Joan of Arc inspired women to help in the war. However she was not used to persuade women to fight in the war, but to buy stamps that had images of her engraved and consequently donate money which would then be used by the governement to produce weapons and shells. Although Joan of Arc was French she wasn't used as a propaganda symbol by just France, as can be seen in the poster to the right, she was also used by America.

Posters of ordinary women were used in Britain as propaganda because they reminded men of who they were fighting to protect and because the posters would also give them a sense of comfort for they would think of they're loved one that remained at home.

__The improvem____ent of how women were seen__


[[image:Suffragists_Parade_Down_Fifth_Avenue,_1917.JPG width="279" height="182" align="left"]]
 The lack of men created the opportunity to form societies that were entirely dedicated towards women, which improved how women were seen not only because they became prosperous but also because women were able to speak more freely.

The Women's Suffrage Societies were mainly composed by middle-class women who campaigned to be able to vote in elections. These societies unified, before the war in (1897), and created the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS). However it had little success. Because of this, a new campaigning organisation called the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) was made which argued that the movement had to become more radical and militant if it was to succeed. The members of this group became known as the suffragettes. They disrupted political meetings, went on hunger strikes when imprissioned, harrassed ministers, chained themselves to railings, set fire to mailbox contents, smashed windows and sometimes even set off bombs. The organization was really succesful at showing the media and men that women were able to unite and form a group that could have consequences in government. Women were seen more powerful, and were therefore more respected and better seen. It could also be argued that these organisations was successful because in 1918 women over the age of 30 who were householders, the wives of householders, occupiers of property with an annual rent of £5, and graduates of British universities were given the right to vote with the Representation of the People Act. The reason why they were given the right to vote is because in 1917, the government had the need to have an election but the law only allowed men who had been resident in the country for 12 months prior to the election to vote and therefore a large percentage of the population wouldn't be able to vote. Parliament was forced to revise the law, and because at the time the WSPU and the NUWSS were able to persuade the Liberal Prime Minister, Asquith, he changed the law so that it allowed a minority of women to vote (in addition to other changes that allowed men who had fought in the war to vote). This made women seen nearly at the same political level as men, which meant a great change in the way women were seen, from being seen as just housewives to liberal women.

The image above is of the Suffragists parade down the fifth avenue (NY) that took place in October 1917, they are displaying placards containing the signatures of over one million New York women demading to be able to vote.

Other organizations such as the Women's Royal Airforce, the Women's Land Army, the Women's Hospital Corps, the Women's Police Volunteers also increased the respect of many towards women.

Surveys by 1917 showed that women's job had improved. Wages were in some circumstances higher. However not usually since more than one woman was hired to do the job of one man, and therefore they were given half of the pay of that of a man's which was what they were generally paid before the war. The government came to an agreement with the trade unions and agreed that women would be paid the same as men, but in many factories this was not taken into account. The conditions in which women worked were generally better, and their independency was largely enhanced.

__Women's contribution in society and in England's victory in the war__
 World war one, was as much as a physical war as an industrial war, for to have a constant and reliable source of weapons, ammunition, ships and aircraft material was as vital as being able to use the supplies.

To ensure that armies were provided with supplies, governments such as that of Britain and the United States mobilized many women into war-related industries, and to ensure that men were available for military use, they also mobilized women into ordinary male jobs. Because of this, women became the subtitutes of men and therefore necessary and more significant. However this meant that women were now exposed to be very different working conditions, which were in some ways better but in other ways worse.

Compared with domestic work, war-related industries offered an alternative to the badly paid hard work of cleaning, and made women earn more than what they would earn doing women's work, but still not more than the amount that women that worked in men's jobs before the war earned. The conditions were generally better, but in some factories women had to work in an environment with deafening noise, unclean, dark (caused by blacked-out windows) buildings. Some women were thrilled by being able to drive trucks, cars and motorbikes in their jobs, but others were poisoned, injured and even killed in munitions factories.Furthermore women had to work at heavy machinery or tough jobs but were still responsible for domestic duties. Many of the women that weren't helping in the war at the home front, were helping in the western front as nurses or combatants. Most women didn't fight; 80000 women served in the three British women's forces as non-combatants, but some did, such as the english woman Flora Sandes, who fought with the Serbian army on the same terms as men. In the soviet union, Lyudmila Pavlichenko was a sniper, and Lydia Litvyak and Katya Budanova were fighter pilots.

 Sources: http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/FWWfeather.htm http://women-in-war2.tripod.com/ http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/britain_wwone/women_employment_01.shtml http://europeanhistory.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/XJ/Ya&sdn=europeanhistory&zu=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bbc.co.uk%2Fhistory%2Fbritish%2Fbritain_wwone%2Fwomen_combatants_01.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/britain_wwone/women_employment_04.shtml The book: "Modern World History" by Ben Walsh The Film: "Women at war, aspects of war"