Propaganda In World War I

Before the World War II, many women only held jobs in the house providing for their children, husband, and the needs that came with taking care of the household, but during the war, this completely changed. Many women were given new opportunities consisting of new jobs, new skills, new challenges, and greater chances to do things that were once only of imagination to them. Women made the war especially possible with taking over the jobs that men would usually do, but could not do because of the war. One of the first things that encouraged women to take on jobs of the men who went off to war was the propaganda. Propaganda consisted of films, radio, and print. These advertisements used showed women fighting in the army and many working in

World War I pressured men into viewing enlistment as a patriotic/nationalistic and masculine right of passage. In the late 19th century, men dominated public, political, and economic occupations. They were the breadwinners. However, due to the massive recruitment during World War I, social and patriotic/nationalistic pressures to enlist were created. These pressures were so strong that men enlisted, even if it hurt their household finances. Men were no longer expected to be the breadwinners, they were expected to fight for their nation. For instance, “Promise not to bear my grudge to France if she takes me.” Even if this soldier perished, he still felt that it was to insure the best for France. His nation was more important than his life. If men did not fight for their country, they were not only unpatriotic, they were not masculine; “Men, not boys, exhibited the masculine virtues of courage, decisiveness, and vigor. War was both a rite of passage to manhood and a guarantor of that passage.” Young “boys” did not resist this pressure. For example, “By an extraordinary piece of luck I was

As young men responded to their call of duty and enlisted in the armed services, this left the American war industry with a severe labor shortage. With so few men left to satisfy the labor needs, a call went out to women to fill this void. However, the initial response to this request was not satisfactory . As a result, the government devised a propaganda enriched advertising campaign to motivate the masses of women by appealing to their sense of patriotism as well as telling women their labor efforts would help end the war and bring soldiers home more

During the early 1900s a new era of warfare emerged as governments began to employ all economic, technological and psychological resources available to defeat their enemies. This concept of Total War altered the direction of humanity and governments understanding in their allocation of resources. This essay will examine the relationship between propaganda used during World War I, its effect on the masses and the absolutely essential need for the success of such campaigns in obtaining military victory. While leaflet propaganda used during the war will be the main focus, considerations will be given to other forms to illuminate the necessity of understanding and utilizing the tools of this very powerful

The war brought challenges, new jobs, new skills and lots of opportunities for women. Women were needed for jobs that were traditionally deemed for males only. According to Mathis (1994), government propaganda was responsible for much of the change in society’s acceptance of women in the workforce. These changes enabled women to enter factories and proved that women were capable of being more than housewives. The propaganda campaign was to mobilize women and was necessary in order to change the public’s attitude towards women. Propaganda was also used to appeal to women to do their part in order to bring their men home sooner.

Posters became propaganda instruments and were also used to encourage army enlistment and to sell war bonds.”(Posters, 2015, para. 9) Men had the roles to be soldiers in war. This showed as a recurring theme featured in propaganda posters. Women in propaganda were asked to volunteer for the Red Cross. “Other women helped procure enormous amounts of medical supplies and then forward them to their destinations” (Ebbert & Hall, 2002, p.43). With women in the service, new regulations, and uniforms had to be made (Ebbert & Hall, 2002, p.27). “Evidently some navy men did not think that going to sea and perhaps getting shot at was as desirable as staying ashore, which might account, at least in part, for the disdain, offensive remarks, and downright meanness that some women met” (Ebbert & Hall, 2002,

World War One was a war that didn’t seem to end: it was four years of fighting throughout Europe, people dying on the sides of both the Allied and Central powers. For about half of the war, the two opponents reached a stalemate. There was no clear winner during battles and there was no progress on either side. The Allied powers, including Great Britain, needed to find a way to add more power into their armies. Perhaps they needed more people who were passionate about winning the war and defeating the Germans and the other Central powers.

During the war period the government had to ensure that they could enlist as many men as possible to join the war effort so propaganda techniques were used to encourage men to join. Source B2 shows a propaganda poster which, these types of posters were created with the interpretation that men were not joining the war as they were cowards. The source is from recruiting pamphlet for the king Shropshire light infantry in 1915. The target of using children to provoke beliefs of cochies is deemed through the propaganda poster. The interpretation is based on the government point of view in persuading men to change their thought about the war, through the propaganda poster we are deemed that men had to sense guilt and embarrassment towards their children, as what would your children think of you, as a starter of their country, would they be proud of the beliefs you embraced. As being propaganda poster is exaggerates within the source which compromises the reliability as it forces men to join the war and abscond the beliefs which contradict their policy of life. However being a primary interpretation it deems negative effects because the poster forces men to feel guilt and embarrassment through the concept of family.

Social construction through media formed and emphasized the common ideas of where women and men belonged in the early 20th century. Many posters and postcards portrayed places that seemed exclusively for men such as open trenches with burning flames, pictures with barbaric wires, and wilderness. In a sense, these settings seemed adventurous and sought to encourage men to join the war and send the overall message that the front was a place explicitly for men. The traditional representation of men at war also brought about its opposition of ideas that women belonged at home. The propaganda tactics intelligently used uniformed women to appeal to men and ultimately shame them into enlisting. In Figure 1, a British propaganda poster shows a long line of men which all appear to be going to war. In big bold blue letters it is written, “STEP INTO YOUR PLACE .” This first shows the pressures put on men to join the war by claiming that war is specifically a place where all men belong. Secondly, the absence of women in the poster shows that women did not belong on the battlefront. Many poster cards depicted soldiers living outdoors in open trenches. Portrayed as war zones, these pictures sent an overall message that these dangerous places were furthermore exclusively for men. These messages reinforced the traditional ideas of where women belonged; and further emphasized that

World war one also known as the great war had some awful events and lots of people died. The amount of propaganda used to recruit people to join the war was incredible. There were many "great" battles during this four-year war, but the downside of some many battles means so many deaths. The invention of airborne weapons to use in the war was a big step up in weapons and warfare. Propaganda used to recruit men to join the army.

During World War II, propaganda was used for many reasons. It was used to create support and promote citizen involvement in the war. It was also used to motivate citizens to become involved by joining the military or supporting the war effort at home. Propaganda is often biased, and used to promote a specific point of view.

Propaganda was a big deal for women during World War Two because it influenced them to join the war and work out of the house. Until World War Two women were thought to only be helpful in the house however once they were desperate during the war, they found out women were able to do the same jobs as men (Mathis). Propaganda was shown in magazine articles, advertisements, radio programs, and posters of women working; it changed the view of the public on how women should be working (Mathis). A famous saying "The More Women at Work-The Sooner We 'll Win" was on posters to show the benefit of women being able to help contribute to the war (Mathis). An example from D-Day

Posters of World War I: Aggression, Civilization and Gendered Representations During World War I (1914-1918), Allied propagandists and press media favoured the large-format poster as a medium for their messages as they could be easily mass-produced and placed in both urban and rural areas. Usually rendered in full-colour to attract a greater audience, these World War I propaganda posters incorporated symbols and stereotypes which drew upon a familiar semiotic and linguistic world to their viewers. Allied propagandists and press media attempted to achieve an array of objectives: morally justify the war, recruit conscripts, request monetary aid, silence opposition, persuade neutral actors as well as increase newspaper sales. Propaganda in

Images of women were often exploited in wartime propaganda, as they were romanticized and significant female figures. An example is England’s image of Britannia, a Romanesque warrior, who encouraged men to fight for their country and protect their women and children (Welch D, Propaganda for Patriotism and Nationalism, 2014). This information substantiates with Jo Fox in her article, Women in World War One Propaganda (2014), as she says “Women served as the embodiment of the nation: Mère-Patrie, Marianne, ‘the spirit of Australia’, Mother Russia, ‘Liberty’, and Britannia all took the female form, appearing as both demure and combative.” German and French propaganda on postcards romanticized war and women, depicting soldiers thinking of their loved ones while at war and helped them envisage heroic returns (McCallum, 1996, pg.141). Women were used as a tool of propaganda in WW1, their involvement due to propaganda issued was a preponderant factor since women had partial support of the war. More than 175 000 women were involved in the industrial activity of the war because of campaigns such as the “Register of Women for War Service” as claimed by McAndrew M, Thomas D and Cummins P (1997, pg.224-225), authors of The Great War; 1914-1918; Problems, Issues, Sources, Skills. Moreover,

The use of propaganda and the war of words between belligerents played a big part in making the First World War total, as "the orgy of killing on the battlefield took place against the backdrop of an orgy of loaded words." The government and press were able to manipulate public opinion during the war using words as tools to inspire national spirit, breed hatred, sacrifice, courage and endurance. Such propaganda included posters asking people to "Wake up America! Civilisation calls every man, woman and child!" A British poster that emphasises the involvement of the total population in the war effort shows different kinds of people engaging in war responsibilities – men at battle, women in the workforce making uniforms, men making weapons – and it asks "Are YOU in this?" This kind of all-embracing propaganda had the aim to brainwash whole nations. The combination of the public's thirst for information about the war and various governments' urgent need to mobilise entire civilian populations for the war effort led to a moulding of the public's thinking through the printed word. In Germany, for example, the military had the right to censor the press and any information that could distress the people was suppressed, while unfavourable news about a situation on the front was passed over silence, delayed or toned down. This was the same in Britain and France. The First World War was total because propaganda and censored news were