Women S Roles In World War One
These women worked primarily with gunshot wounds and gas victims. The Fad's would have to keep wounds clean, distribute painkillers, and inject these painkillers into men's wounds. The Fanny however had a much more undesirable job. Fanny's would have to clean and disinfect rooms that housed wounded soldiers. "Some of these volunteers even recalled having to get rid of bodies from the hospital. " (www. Sachem. Du/Erlenmeyer) Not only did these women have to clean the soldier's wounds, but on occasion had to clean the soldiers themselves. Although volunteering as a FANNY seemed unlikable, the women were happy to help aid the grateful soldiers.
Other jobs that women did included land work. One group of women were The Women's Land Army. The Women's Land Army worked to bring in the harvest and maintain the farms. Anything that could be done by hand by the WALLA was done by hand in order to save fuel. Since the need for WALLA workers was so high, recruiting officers never thoroughly checked women's ages. Girls at the age of only 14 were accepted after lying that they were 18. Although the job was tough, "women were only paid 18 shillings a week. 12 of these shillings would be devoted to food and board, leaving only 6 shillings for women to spend for themselves.
Considering a pair of pantyhose cost 3 shillings, they did not have much. " (www. Sachem. Du/Erlenmeyer) Not only did women take over jobs to help the war effort, but they also went out and "contained" for the U. S. Soldiers. "They would provide entertainment, hand out food, cigarettes, and sweets, and sewed buttons back on uniforms. " (WV. Www. Warranted. Com/ hoosegow) Women would sing and dance for the soldiers to keep their spirits up. But not only did they sing and dance, but also gave lectures and read poetry. The soldiers would look forward to seeing the women perform for them.
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It would give them hope even when things were going wrong. A soldier described Sarah Wailer's performance saying "I shall never forget as long as I live the blessed white dress she had on the night she recited to us. We had not seen a white dress in years. There we were all ready to go into the line, and there she was talking to us like a girl from home. It sure was a great sight, you bet. " (War And Gender: How Gender Shapes the War System and Vice Versa) In order to raise awareness for the war and show their support, women began campaigns to help the war effort. One campaign in particular was the White Feather Campaign.
In this campaign, women would go around and hand out a white feather to any healthy looking man, trying to shame him for being a coward. At that time a white feather was a symbol Of unfulfilled civic duty and receiving a white feather showed the women's disappointment in that man for not going to serve his country. The point of this campaign was to shame men into going to fight. Although in many cases it proved successful, women soon stopped the White Feather Campaign because people spoke out against it. After World War One women were looked at differently. Men realized that they could actually work and take responsibility.
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