In anticipation of her guest lecture on Wednesday, June 10, “Fighting for Equality: World War I and American Women’s Struggle for Suffrage,” we sat down with Taylor Phillips for a brief preview of the topic.
How important were women to American participation in World War I?
Women were incredibly important to the American war effort in the First World War. With almost 3 million men being drafted for the war, their absence left tremendous gaps in all kinds of industries around the country that would then be taken up by women. Women were instrumental to the success of the war both at home and abroad, as they organized vast networks to fundraise for war bonds, conserve food, produce personal items for soldiers, and so much more. They were also part of the very infrastructure of the war through their service to the U.S. military in all manner of clerical positions, as nurses and physicians, and through their work with numerous voluntary organizations.
What roles would we be surprised women played?
I think people might be surprised to learn that the very first women to officially enlist and serve in the U.S. Navy (or any branch of the U.S. armed forces for that matter), were women in World War I. American women also helped pioneer physical and occupational therapy professional practices in World War I by working as reconstruction aides to systematically rehabilitate wounded soldiers. And despite the fact that women abroad did not serve in combat roles in this war, their work often brought them close to the Front, and into the constant danger that came with it.
We tend to hear a lot about women supporting the war effort by going to work during World War II. Why do you think women’s participation in World War I has become a blind spot?
In America, I think the discussion of World War I in general gets overshadowed by World War II because the U.S. was involved in the First World War for a much shorter period of time (less than 2 years) compared with the Second World War, and World War I did not have the distinct moral dichotomy that World War II did. The Great War is also further back in American memory, as there are no living participants of this global conflict still with us today. With all of this in mind, I think women’s participation in World War I is often particularly overlooked because the war did not have a major lasting impact on women’s equality in society that later conflicts would have (with an exception, of course, for women gaining their right to vote).
How did this work end up contributing to the suffrage movement?
It was a long-held belief in American society that the right to vote only belonged to citizens who could defend their country militarily, which in turn was used as a reason to deny women suffrage. Women’s service in World War I proved to the nation and the world that American women were patriotic, loyal, and capable citizens who were indispensable to the war effort and admirably served and defended their country during wartime. Supporters of women’s suffrage would use women’s wartime service as further proof that women deserved the right to vote, and that suffrage was actually a military necessity to ensure that women could continue to contribute to the war effort effectively.
Join us Wednesday to hear more amazing details on this subject!
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