7. Thousands Joined Organizations and the Military
As the death rate of men were increasing in the battlefields, other men were forced to quit their job to make up for the loses. In that case, the government put pressure on women to form organizations or join existing ones, especially hospital jobs where they could serve in the front as nurses or be employed as cooks, assistants and entertainers. In the U.K, the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps, the Women’s Royal Naval Service and the Women’s Royal Air Force were created in 1916, 1917 and 1918, respectively. By 1918, more than 100,000 enlisted in these organizations, with about 9000 serving in France. Other organizations such as the Red Cross, Salvation Army, Women’s Land Army (farmers), Voluntary Aid Detachment, Women’s Volunteer Reserve and the Women’s Auxiliary force attracted thousands of women during the Great War. Some of these organizations also hold fundraising events to support their work at home and overseas. In the U.S, women were only allowed to join the military in 1916, and by the end of the Great War more than 22,000 military nurses and 10,000 in other support roles served at home and overseas.
6. Some were Initially Turned Down but Made their Own Ways to Help the War Effort
Besides rumors and gossip stories about women pretending to be men to join the conflict around the world, two real stories stand out. One was the story of Maud Butler, a 16 years old Australian waitress desperate to join the Australian army. She found bits of a soldier uniform, cut her hair, signed up and boarded a ship. At night she went out of her room, joined the men playing cars (who did not notice), and went to sleep later. However, on the following day a suspicious officer asked for her disk, and she thought it was because of her black boots (soldiers wore tan boots). The officer had not yet discovered she was a girl, but when Maud was told she had to pass a medical examination she confessed, and was later taken back to Australia. The captain of the boat said he would have let her come if the secret would have not spread around.
The other story is that of the Scottish doctor and suffragette Elsie Inglis. When the War Office refused her helped in 1914, she managed to go to the western and eastern fronts, and established Scottish Women’s Hospitals. She was also able to serve in Serbia, where she attended to the sick and wounded soldiers. She died a day after her return home.