Women (WWI)

”Daughters of Valor”
(American Legion Monthly, 1939)

Here is an interesting history of the U.S. Army Nurse Corps during the First World War. The author, Robert Ginsburgh, delves into how many nurses served, how many were killed, how they were recruited and trained, where they served in Europe, and the decorations they earned.

”Daughters of Valor”
(American Legion Monthly, 1939)

Here is an interesting history of the U.S. Army Nurse Corps during the First World War. The author, Robert Ginsburgh, delves into how many nurses served, how many were killed, how they were recruited and trained, where they served in Europe, and the decorations they earned.

She Fought in the Trenches
(Liberty Magazine, 1938)

Well, Monsieur, did I ever tell you about the time I was a Doughboy in the Great war?


This is the story of Marie Marvingt (1875 – 1963), an amazing French woman who did indeed serve in the forward trenches disguised as a man during the Summer of 1917.

Women Can Do The Heavy War Work
(Scribner’s Magazine, 1919)

The essential facts are that women can do men’s heavy work with substantially equal output, without any disturbance of the particular industry, and, when guided by proper conditions, without detriment to their health. How far and how long they ought to do it in the emergency arising from the war is to be decided upon different grounds.


Click here to read about the women war workers of the Second World War.

Russia’s Women Soldiers of W.W. I
(Literary Digest, 1917)

The attached news article from 1917 reported on the a Russian combat unit that consisted entirely of women soldiers called The Battalion of Death:

The courage of the Battalion of Death when the actual test came is the subject of many enthusiastic Petrograd dispatches. They behaved splendidly under fire, penetrating into a first-line trench of the Germans and brought back prisoners.

Christmas Shopping for Women in Service
(Harper’s Bazaar, 1918)

Contrary to those trust-fund babies who lord over the Harper’s Bazaar of today, the editors and stylists of that magazine during World War I understood quite well the vital rolls American women were needed to fill while their country was struggling to attain proper footing in a state of total war. The attached file will show you seven photographs of various accessories recommended for W.W. I women war volunteers as well as two illustrations of various practical coats for winter.


From Amazon: Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy: Four Women Undercover in the Civil Warstyle=border:none

A Woman War Worker Cartoon
(NY Times 1917)

Attached is a cartoon that was created during the third year of the First World War by a British cartoonist who feared that women have, through the years, been loosing their feminine mojo – that charming thing that truly separates them from the males of the species.

W.W. I and American Women
(Pageant Magazine, 1951)

Here is a segment from a longer article published in 1951 by an anonymous American woman who wished to be known to her readers only as a women who had grown up with the Century (born in 1900). In this column she insisted that it was the First World War that served as the proving ground where American women showed that they were just as capable as their brothers – and thus deserving of a voice in government.

W.W. I and French Women
(Vanity Fair, 1916)

Here are five quick sketches by the French artist Rabajoi depicting the women of France fulfilling their various obligations as Mariannes, as sweethearts and as family members.

W.W. I and British Women
(Collier’s Magazine, 1916)

Woman’s hour has come! One of the splendid things that have come out of the bloody carnage of war to challenge the admiration of the world is the heroic exhibition of physical strength and courage shown by the women of the belligerent countries. They are doing more than merely substituting at men’s work. In England they are winning their struggle for equality with men.


Click here to read about the lot of French women during the First World War.

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