World War 1 Women At War

Before the outbreak of World War One in 1914 a woman's role in the workplace was quite restricted, jobs for women consisted mainly of domestic labor, nursing, teaching, and agriculture if their family owned a small holding.

Although some women were employed in factories they performed mainly menial and repetitive tasks and were paid a small percentage of what their male counterparts earned.

The Great War changed the role of women in the workplace forever, as more and more young men volunteered or were conscripted into the armed forces to fight in the war, women were called apon to fill their roles in the factories, mines and many other roles traditionally carried out by the men.

Women were the unsung hero's of the war, keeping the industrial wheels turning and the home fires burning.

Although very few women ever fought in The Great War women were enlisted into Auxilliary Armies, so that the men could be released to fight on the front line.

In the UK, many women joined the Women's Army Auxilliary Corps, which later became known as Queen Mary's Army Auxilliary Corps.

The women were largely employed on unglamorous tasks on the lines of communication: cooking and catering, storekeeping, clerical work, telephony and administration, printing, motor vehicle maintenance.

women also became truck and ambulance drivers as more and more of the men were called to the front line.

Because of naval battles and blockades during the war food supplies from abroad became scarce and food production on the home front had to be massivly increased, in Britain 113,000 women joined the Womens Land Army which was set up in 1917, to provide a workforce to run the farms.

Many members of the land army came from the middle and upper classes of society.

They made a valuable contribution to the war effort, but there numbers were very few compared to the millions of working class women running the farms in the rest of Europe.

A number of Russian women joined The Legion of Death, to fight for their country.

The First Battalion from St Petersburgh distinguished themselves during a retreat by capturing over 100 German prisoners, sadly alot of the battalion died during the battle.

Russia's women soldiers pledged to take their own lives rather than become German war prisoners. Each woman soldier carried a ration of cyanide of potassium to be swallowed in case of capture.

The members of the women regiments, agreed that death was to be preferred to the fate they would probably meet at the hands of the Germans.

With so many men fighting in the trenches, there were hundreds wounded every day, Nurses were brought to the front line, to help in the treatment of those wounded, being on the front line these women ran the risk of being hit by a stray bullet or even shelled during an enemy bombardment.

many of these women were killed whilst carrying out there duties

Even with their new duties women still found the time to write to their sons, boyfriends, husbands, brothers and friends who were fighting on the front line, sending them momento's from home such as pressed flowers from the garden, photographs and embroidered handkerchiefs.

These letters proved to be essential in boosting the morale of their homesick and frightened men.