Womens Role In Ww1 Essay

Before WWI, women were restricted to traditionally feminine jobs. Their work was considered inferior and they were paid less than men. However, once WWI began, women were able to integrate themselves into a variety of different workforces. Since most men were off to serve in the military and navy, women that stayed behind replaced their positions in factories and other industries. Other women worked closely with the military as nurses or even soldiers. The war had provided a variety of employment opportunities for women and the most common job for women was at home, working in factories and filling in positions for their husbands, fathers, and brothers in their absence. Although the highest demand for workers were in previously male-dominated

However, many women were very inexperienced when they first started. According to the BBC article, “World War One: The many battles faced by WW1’s nurses,” “Thousands of young women from middle-class homes with little experience of domestic work, not much relevant education and total ignorance of male bodies, volunteered and found themselves pitched into military hospitals.” (S2) In other words, not all of the heroic nurses we hear about were very experienced at first. Most had to learn very quickly because of the enormous number of soldiers that needed to be tended to. Another quote from the same article is, “The image and the conspicuous Red Cross uniforms were romantic but the work itself exhausting, unending and sometimes disgusting.” (S2) This quote shows the reality of being a nurse in WW1. It wasn’t all fun and games. Death was constantly surrounding nurses which most likely scarred many of them for years. Soldiers constantly had to be tended to, and nurses had to be a source of relief as well as good caretakers. Not to mention that a lot of nurses had to be out on the trenches, caring for soldiers while also risking being killed