Women fundraising for Belgium, First World War (2024)

FAQs

Women fundraising for Belgium, First World War? ›

In 1916 women's patriotic committees formed the Dominion Parcels Scheme. Until the end of the war, the scheme sent parcels to soldiers overseas at the rate of 24,000 per month. Some women's groups met daily to manage the demands of filling parcels with tobacco, tinned food and hand-made woollens such as socks.

In 1917, there were just over 1,300 women refugees involved in the manufacture of shells and cartridges for the Belgian army, in factories that were set up in France by the Belgian government and in England by engineers and entrepreneurs.

Women's work in WW1

New jobs were also created as part of the war effort, for example in munitions factories. The high demand for weapons resulted in the munitions factories becoming the largest single employer of women during 1918.

The Salvation Army, the Red Cross and many other organizations depended on thousands of female volunteers. The American Red Cross operated hospitals to care for war casualties, staffed by nurses, hundreds of whom died in service during the war.

Originally founded as the Women's Emergency Corps in 1914 by the Honourable Evelina Haverfield (1867-1920), the Women's Volunteer Reserve was established to provide support in raising funds for the war effort and providing services such as canteens and clubs for soldiers.

Belgium, like neighboring Netherlands, has a strong tradition of women fulfilling a predominantly domestic role, rather than a professional one. Roman Catholicism, the traditional religion in Belgium, has supported different gender roles for men and women.

They served as stenographers, clerks, radio operators, messengers, truck drivers, ordnance workers, mechanics cryptographers and all other non-combat shore duty roles, free thousands of sailors to join the fleet. In all 11,272 Women joined the US Navy for the duration of the war.

“Their duties are still very much along feminine lines,” Heidelbaugh says. But they did work alongside men, and surprisingly, they received the same wages, if they were able to rise to the same rank (despite facing greater restrictions)–more than 40 years before the Equal Pay Act of 1963.

During the WWI, large numbers of women were recruited into jobs vacated by men who had gone to fight in the war. New jobs were also created as part of the war effort, for example in ammunitions factories which was the largest single employer of women during 1918.

Working conditions of female workers

By the late 1918, so many men went to war that women had to take over their jobs. Labor unions fought hard against hiring women in factories. Women were paid half the wages of men and worked in conditions that were sometimes dangerous and unhealthy.

What is a female soldier called? ›

Female members of the United States Army are referred to simply as “females” when being addressed by gender.

The Signal Corps Female Telephone Operators Unit, known as the “Hello Girls”, was a unit of women who operated telephone switchboards, sworn into the U.S. Army Signal Corps, during World War I. The term, “Hello Girls”, was used for women who first greeted callers with the word “hello”.

During World War I, World War II and the Korean War, the Gray Ladies wrote letters and read to wounded soldiers, helped them get involved in crafts and other activities and did much to ease the loneliness and boredom of long hospital stays.

Girl Scouts selling WWI bonds. Many girls in these organizations were also involved in helping other volunteer groups support the needs of the home front and soldiers. Camp Fire Girls, for example, provided childcare for European orphans who were refugees in the United States.

Stateside, with millions of men joining the military, previously inaccessible work positions became open to women. They took jobs as factory workers, switchboard operators, technicians and countless others in almost every field and industry.

Some 21,498 women enlisted and served in the U.S. Army as nurses during World War I. They were stationed in military hospitals in the United States and overseas. They were positioned near battlefields where they tended to over a million soldiers who were wounded or who were unwell.

One of the areas of employment where new opportunities opened up for women was in transport. Women began working as bus conductresses, ticket collectors, porters, carriage cleaners and bus drivers. During the war the number of women working on the railways rose from 9,000 to 50,000.

As more and more men were drafted and had to leave their jobs, the U.S. government and various industries were seriously looking for female workers who could replace their men's jobs. Especially during 1917 and 1918, there were a vast number of demands for female stenographers, telegraphers, and phone operators.

World War I saw a huge number of female volunteers on all sides. A large number of these women were drafted into the civilian work force to replace men who had been conscripted or to work in munitions factories. However, there were a number of female soldiers who chose to take their fight to the front lines and beyond.

Three notable women of World War I: Marie Curie, Mabel St. Clair Stobart, and Aileen Cole Stewart. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. What were the consequences of the Treaty of Versailles?