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Women In World War One

Decent Essays

July 28, 1914 marked the start of the evolution of women´s roles in the work place. Before the beginning of the 1900’s, it was quite known that women were to stay at home only. All of women’s work was around the house, while men were the ones who went out of the house. However, women moved on to working beyond their homes, as a consequence to World War One. While some had believed that men were ultimately superior to women, the many important roles women played during the war, such as working dangerous jobs and volunteering to fight, positively impacted women’s rights in the work place forever. Although men were the only ones previously allowed to fight in war, the idea of women in combat was introduced during World War One. Women were always …show more content…

There is no doubt about the fact that factory work was a very dangerous job, and without these factories during World War One, the countries involved would not have achieved the level of success that they did. A huge part of war is clearly the weapons. Weapons contribute to a large portion of casualties during war times. The guns and bombs were capable of destroying humans in large masses, which ultimately led to the success of several countries. Women left their house jobs to work the war factories, often putting their lives at risk for the sake of the war. One account demonstrates this lifestyle by explaining that she “had left her to test the limits of her own physical ability, as she provided food, shelter, warmth for her family, sometimes confronting great physical danger at work -- perhaps, for example, hanging suspended to load powerful explosives into the shells that other women had produced” (Davis). While women may have been risking their lives constantly, they were ultimately needed for the good of the war. In reality, women may not have entirely enjoyed these jobs, it still gave them the opportunity to explore other jobs. As this was not entirely possible before this point, this was a huge significant point historically. This opportunity to work in the factories paved the way to women starting to work in factories and businesses. It has been explained that “millions of women across the globe moved to fill in the holes created in civilian society” (Davis). As men were being sent off into combat, women were needed to help keep the world running. Women were being sent to jobs that had always been viewed as men’s jobs, from “smelting iron, to driving streetcars, to plowing fields” (Davis). The fact that women were working men’s jobs for so long made it extremely difficult for men to return to their jobs after the war’s end. Men struggled to get their dominance back in

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