In Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain, she writes about her experiences during the first World War. The story gives an in-depth perception of the hardships that she encountered and how they led to her strong ambition as well as views on war. Many of these hardships, especially the losses of her loved ones drove her ambition and contributed greatly to her success. Another important aspect of Testament of Youth is how strongly against war Brittain became due to the tremendous injustice and high mortality rates that stemmed from the war. The effects of the war itself was a direct cause of the ambition and pacifist view that Brittain had which she then used to move forward and find success in her days to come.
From the beginning, it is clear that Brittain had a clear objective for
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It affected the men who were drafted to fight, the families that they left behind, and most commonly forgotten, the nurses who volunteered in the war effort. Brittain was a nurse, but there was a myriad of other women who were in her exact position. Many women felt that they were obligated to assist in the war effort so although they were unable to fight, many of them volunteered as nurses. Helen Dore Boylston was one of those nurses. She was an American who worked on the front line caring for British soldiers. She kept a diary which was later published called Sister: The War Diary of a Nurse. She recounts some of the horrendous scenes that she encountered. She says “In a war, the ones who are going to die don’t matter. It’s the ones who might live that count” (Boylston 1927, 43). This statement shows how she became desensitized to death because she had seen it so often. This was not uncommon, in fact, another nurse named Louie Johnson, in an interview talked about the many patients she had seen. She said that they had to have still been in their teens and during her service, she saw some of the most horrific wounds of war (Johnson,
Over 400,000 African Americans were drafted into the war. They were able to have more opportunities such as enlist in segregated units and work in industries that built weapons for the Great War (Document 5). Propaganda helped influence Americans to conserve food, eat less meat and give it the soldiers, and fight for their families by enlisting in the war (document 6). As more men were drafted into war, women were able to have the chance to be more involved in society. The Amendment for women suffrage was passed and changed America (document 1). It opened doors for women as they were able to vote and have a voice in
The structure of workforce changed, all out war effort and lack of working age male in factories brought women into factories across Europe in incomparable way. Thousands of women worked with the army as nurses and ambulance drivers, with nominal supplies and harsh condition of the front line, they helped wounded soldiers and provided some solace to the dying. Propaganda Picture by E.V. Kealy, P-524, on its poster says “Women of Britain say-GO” I think which means that all the men can go to the war and fight for the nation, while women are taking care of the house. War had changed role women were assigned to but they were refusing to go back to their old Victorian traditional role and challenged the gender status quo of the women after the war which completely changed the patriarchal European states, and American society as
During WWI everyone was affected, whether it was the soldier in the battle field coming home with shell shock, or the children left without a father for a few crucial years, or even a lifetime, or the wives, mothers and grandmothers left at home to either pick up the financial burden or to continue on in the best way they knew how without their loved ones. Overall if a person’s country was at war then they were affected and had to make sacrifices of food, gas, and other supplies necessary to fuel the war effort. Europeans were affected on the home front when women had to go to work, when they gained a greater sense of nationalism, and also when they had to ration food, and produce as much as possible. When labor shortages got to the point where women were brought in in order to fill the void, it signalled a turning point in history. It opened the door for women to stay in the work force even after the war had ended.
The role of women played in any given war is quite often severely underestimated. This sentiment especially goes for the American Revolutionary War, where women actually played an absolutely essential role in our victory against the British. Not only where there different types of women who had helped, but there were many different ways each of them helped--particularly as nurses to help save lives and tend to injured soldiers. Without women helping in the war, we would have most certainly lost (National History Education Clearinghouse).
First off the nurses were important because they were the ones who helped the injured ones or the sick ones. Normally it would be the nurses who would find out if the women disguised as men would actually be a woman and when they found out the truth they would have to go and tell a genreal the truth. Now between 2,000 to 5,000 women volunteered as nurses during the war. Nursing was a gruesome job that provided an upclose look at the horrific casualties of the war. Civil War nurses cleaned wounds, fed soldiers, dispensed medication and assisted surgeons during operations and medical procedure like amputations.
The psychologist Sigmund Freud once said, “Because every man has a right over his own life and war destroys lives that were full of promise; it forces the individual into situations that shame his manhood, obliging him to murder fellow men, against his will.” He initially stated this when he was corresponding with Albert Einstein via letter. This quote is also a great explanation of the events that take place during war that people chose to not recognise. War is terrible, and no matter how hard we try, nothing will change that. Erich Maria Remarque shows us that soldiers have endured dreadfully throughout World War I in his book “All Quiet on the Western Front”. The character in the book, Paul Baumer, endures through the tragedies of war with some of his old schoolmates as well as new comrades that he meets along the way. They survive through all of the tragedies together, but in the end, the war made them lose their friendships as well as their lives. The reality is that war comes with consequences while it destroys people, and there is nothing that will ever be able to change that. The book “All Quiet on the Western Front” shows how war comes destroys people's lives with its consequences through three of its themes: the importance of comradery, the loss of innocence, and the horrors and brutality of war.
This was a very important time period for women because they were finally starting to seem like more than just housewives. Many of them worked full time along with providing for their families. Despite the struggles, the war became a way to bring the nation together to fight for one common goal.
Socially, the colonists were struggling with loyalists (American colonists who support the British) not believing that they could win the war. Women were impacting the war behind the scenes. Women were apart of groups called the daughter of liberty and
The examples illustrated clearly show that women’s participation in the American Revolutionary War helped the Continental army to victory. Women like Abagail Adams whose quick thinking and ingenuity saved the men from having no bullets. She sacrificed her families silver and metals to melt those items in to bullets for the Continental army. Next, Deborah Sampson disguised as Robert Shurteleff. She joined the army and on the battlefield fighting alongside other male soldiers until she was wounded and shortly thereafter discovered. Sampson’s sacrifice highlights how dedicated she was to fight for her country despite the policy of no women in the army. Sampson was a courageous female. Lastly, the nurses of the American Revolutionary War played an important role. Nurses attended the sick and wounded, therefore allowing more men to be out on the battle field to fight. Nurses helped to comfort and heal the soldiers under very harsh circumstances with little sanitation or resources. The women sacrificed their comforts and safety for the war efforts. Yes, women in the eighteenth century were important and their contribution to the Revolutionary War made a
The women during the war felt an obligation to assist in one form or another. Many
This was the start of major social change. Before the war, women had been content to stay at home to bring up the family and do domestic work. It was considered unbecoming for a woman to work. During the war it was considered unpatriotic not to.
For the extensive number of working class women, it was nothing new- these women had unceasingly gone to their jobs. Women in all different standings in society helped the country's case for the war. They did jobs such as heavy coaling, portering or working in fields.
Another way woman had positively influenced the war was through the assisting in the operation of stores and businesses. Due to all the men enlisted in the war the government came across a job shortage there were not enough men to work in stores. women jumped at the chance to help, and support their family's while they were at it. Although woman could not have jobs that required high responsibility woman could work in jobs such as secretarial positions, as clerks, cleaners, ect. This was a major stepping stone to woman proving their equality with men in society and the workplace.
It gave them a taste of what was out in the world and got them to think of themselves as workers instead of just homebodies. At first they were hesitant because it was a new domain, but once they grew accustomed to this new role they weren’t about to evacuate and instead embraced their new power with Rosie the Riveter, the new face of activism. Rosie stood for everything these women fought for and was a symbol of hope and persistence. Her famous words echoed through the streets of the United States, “We Can Do It!” Some of the more daring women wanted to help even more, so they enlisted to go fight alongside the men of their country. These brave women were now soldiers and proved that they could enter dangerous situations and do the job right. For the women of this time there was no going back to the docile housewife of the past. From this point on they were looking for a future outside of the house. Then, in 1945 the war drew to a close and men who had been away began to file home. They were anticipating returning to their old jobs that women had occupied when they were away, however women were resisting to leave.
Women played an important role in allowing the U.S. to improve its GNP before their entrance into WWI. Many women wanted to help the cause overseas, but they were not