World War 1 Women Research Paper

“A woman is like a tea bag. You can’t tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water,” Eleanor Roosevelt. The two world wars were an awakening to many men who lived in this conservative society at the time. As men went to war as soldiers, a range of opportunities arose for women in several departments of the working field which allowed them to show their capability of completing the same tasks as men. Although they were told their employment was only temporary until the soldiers returned from the wars, it was forever recorded in history and was a humongous leap for women’s rights. On top of being mothers and housewives, some of the many respected jobs that they moved into included factory workers, nurses, and soldiers.

Women Working at Homefront During both World War 1 and World War 2, women worked in factories as temporary replacements for men. Females fulfilled dangerous jobs like building ships and driving fire engines and trains as conductors and nurses. They were air raid wardens, messengers, and members of the first aid parties. Often times, they were asked to carry “heavy shells”

One of them was Aviator Eugenie Mikhailovna Shakhovskaya, and she was the first female American, World War 1 pilot. Then, there was Loretta Perfectus, and she was one of the few women in the military that weren’t nurses, but one of the first female soldiers. In addition, there was Lenah Higbee, and although she wasn’t directly addressed as a soldier, she was a nurse who lost her arm, but continued to work, and this is why she had a ship named after her. Flora Sandes was another well known soldier from the world wars. Originally, she was a nurse and author who got separated from her past and “decided to join the Serbian army dressed like man and trained over 250 women to fight as soldiers.” Similarly, Dorothy Lawrence, a journalist, also decided to dress herself as a man just to be a soldier in