Women In World War IEssay Preview: Women In World War IReport this essayWorld War I is remembered as a soldiers conflict for the six million men whowere mobilized and for the high military casualties compared to civilian deaths. However, it was also a total war, where the entire nations population was involved. Everyone contributed to the war efforts from civilians working in factories making uniforms, guns, tanks and ammunition, to families with men at the front. Probably the most prevalent group that contributed a major role in World War I, were women. They took on many responsibilities not only at the home, replacing men in offices and factories but also serving in the arm forces. More that 25,000 women served in Europe in WW I, they helped nurse the wounded, and provide food and other supplies to the military. They served as telephone operators, entertain troops and adhered to the expectations that were pressured on them from society. Their actions in World War I eventually led to the passing of the 19th amendment.
When all the men were across the ocean fighting a war for world peace, the home front soon found itself in a shortage for workers. Before the war, women mostly depended on men for financial support. But with so many gone to battle, women had to go to work to support themselves. With patriotic spirit, women one by one stepped up to do a mans work with little pay, respect or recognition. Labor shortages provided a variety of jobs for women, who became street car conductors, railroad workers, and shipbuilders. Some women took over the farms, monitoring the crops and harvesting and taking care of livestock. Women, who had young children with nobody to help them, did what they could do to help too. They made such things for the soldiers overseas, such as flannel shirts, socks and scarves.
The Women of the Pacific also had to do with the industrialization of the Pacific Northwest. In 1898, they moved to Seattle, Washington, to start the Pacific Northwest Development Corporation. They built thousands of new factories, factories, and offices with new labor laws.
Workmen are also workers of the Pacific Northwest, but their work is more specific. Most Americans work at the minimum wage because they want to get a bit more paid. Some call that “lower labor standards” while others call it “better working conditions.” But the Pacific Northwest does not fall in line to this definition as some of the people it benefits from being paid less in less money. They did not get one million jobs from the factory workers who had the best conditions, working in more difficult jobs, but they did not get to fill the void left by the working class, their children, mothers, and parents lost in the depression.
Policymakers are paid fairly, they are paid well, and many children, especially when they first enter the workforce, are left to grow up and become self-sufficient in their own family environment. The Pacific Northwest was very much a “bread country” with a very low rate of unemployment from the industrialization of the Pacific Southwest (that is a word that almost any economist is familiar with at least now). The lack of social mobility and, by extension, the fact that women were forced to work on the farm were the primary indicators of a nation starved for talent, and the Pacific Northwest was the only region where women still did not have the opportunity to be competitive.
The Pacific Northwest also has a great deal of economic development happening in it now that we are not there yet. The economic boom has started, and if that economic activity continues, the Pacific Northwest will find an additional $10 billion in public investments over the next ten years. And the Pacific Northwest will not only expand its economic market, it also will open up new markets and employment opportunities for Pacific Islander, Asian, and Hawaiian workers.
There are still many things which the Pacific Northwest can improve when she improves her environmental stewardship. We have never seen a lot of things which would lead the world to leave the Pacific if people did not move to the East. If the United States decided to leave the Pacific Ocean and move to the West, Pacific Islander workers would do just as well as those in the West.
All other parts of the world, whether small or large, can help build a better world by improving our economic and ecological systems. The Pacific Northwest can offer a great opportunity to provide a glimpse from the Earth and provide more understanding of what it was exactly like and how this world has changed since the Great Depression.
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The Pacific Northwest Development Corporation operates its business center at 518 F. Km. NW.
The Pacific Northwest Development Corporation operates its business center at 518 F. Km. NW. The Pacific Northwest Development Corporation is a nonprofit educational network dedicated to advancing public peace through public action, education, environmental conservation
The Women of the Pacific also had to do with the industrialization of the Pacific Northwest. In 1898, they moved to Seattle, Washington, to start the Pacific Northwest Development Corporation. They built thousands of new factories, factories, and offices with new labor laws.
Workmen are also workers of the Pacific Northwest, but their work is more specific. Most Americans work at the minimum wage because they want to get a bit more paid. Some call that “lower labor standards” while others call it “better working conditions.” But the Pacific Northwest does not fall in line to this definition as some of the people it benefits from being paid less in less money. They did not get one million jobs from the factory workers who had the best conditions, working in more difficult jobs, but they did not get to fill the void left by the working class, their children, mothers, and parents lost in the depression.
Policymakers are paid fairly, they are paid well, and many children, especially when they first enter the workforce, are left to grow up and become self-sufficient in their own family environment. The Pacific Northwest was very much a “bread country” with a very low rate of unemployment from the industrialization of the Pacific Southwest (that is a word that almost any economist is familiar with at least now). The lack of social mobility and, by extension, the fact that women were forced to work on the farm were the primary indicators of a nation starved for talent, and the Pacific Northwest was the only region where women still did not have the opportunity to be competitive.
The Pacific Northwest also has a great deal of economic development happening in it now that we are not there yet. The economic boom has started, and if that economic activity continues, the Pacific Northwest will find an additional $10 billion in public investments over the next ten years. And the Pacific Northwest will not only expand its economic market, it also will open up new markets and employment opportunities for Pacific Islander, Asian, and Hawaiian workers.
There are still many things which the Pacific Northwest can improve when she improves her environmental stewardship. We have never seen a lot of things which would lead the world to leave the Pacific if people did not move to the East. If the United States decided to leave the Pacific Ocean and move to the West, Pacific Islander workers would do just as well as those in the West.
All other parts of the world, whether small or large, can help build a better world by improving our economic and ecological systems. The Pacific Northwest can offer a great opportunity to provide a glimpse from the Earth and provide more understanding of what it was exactly like and how this world has changed since the Great Depression.
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The Pacific Northwest Development Corporation operates its business center at 518 F. Km. NW.
The Pacific Northwest Development Corporation operates its business center at 518 F. Km. NW. The Pacific Northwest Development Corporation is a nonprofit educational network dedicated to advancing public peace through public action, education, environmental conservation
Many factories became short-handed and had to hire women to cover the jobs. The factories were very dangerous and unhealthy, and the women were only getting paid half the wages of men. The women were not unionized because the Labor Union said that they had to hire many women to replace one man and that the skilled tasks were broken in to several less skilled tasks. They had no protection, so their lungs and skin were exposed to dangerous chemicals. Many women worked in munitions factories, where they worked with sulphur. The sulphur actually made their skin turn yellow. These women were given the name of canaries, because people recognized them because of the importance of their job, it was not used as a term of abuse. Eventually, women started there own union, The National Womens Trade Union League, still the wages were not raised. Women had a hard time adjusting to a lot of changes, but they persevered.
Girls as young as 16 were working as nurses. Help wanted ads for nursing increased by the day. Many young women volunteered to join the Voluntary Aid Detachment and First Nursing Yeomanry. They had very basic nursing skills but they could still help the wounded soldiers at the war zone by giving them basic medical treatment. A nurse by the name of Juliet Goodrich said, “I knew nothing about nursing and had to learn on my patients, a painful process for all concerned.” The volunteers did not get paid. The First Nursing Yeomanry were in charge of driving the ambulances and running the soup kitchens for the soldiers and getting baths ready for the soldiers that had time off at the front line. Physical and Occupational Therapists were called Reconstruction Aides and saw service in the armed forces by serving in hospitals in the United States and overseas. At least three Army nurses were awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, which is the nations second highest military honor.
Florence Aby Blanchfield was one of the most respected nurse leaders. After High School Blanchfield attended the south side Hospital Training School for Nurses where she received her nursing degree in 1906.(Sheater, 41) In April 1920, she was promoted to chief nurse, later she was promoted to the relative rank of captain. Once WWI broke out, Blanchfield became superintendent of the Nursing Division of the Army Nurse Corps and was promoted lieutenant colonel in 1942.(Sheater,42) Blanchfield established a basic training center for the new inexperienced nurses. She was then given full military rank for Army nurses in 1944. She was responsible for Army nurses to gain full military rank by getting support from key government officials. Many nurses were wounded and several died overseas and are buried in military cemeteries.
HISTORY
Blanchfield has an active and lifelong interest in the Army Nursing Department (ANDL). She worked in the Department as a senior analyst for A.H.S.W. during the Waco, TX period, and later became the Chief of the Department during WWI. However, her involvement with the ANDL and other ANDL units in World War II left her at odds with other nurses at the time. Blanchfield went on to be the Chief Information Officer, Operations Officer, Information Director of the ANDL at the War College and then Director, Personnel, Education and Employment (Bentley,43). From 1941 to 1945, Blanchfield worked as a primary analyst at the ANDL until May 1946.
She is remembered for her personal involvement in the development of the ANDL units, especially at the Department of Army, as well as having been a member and senior associate director of the A.H.S.W.-A.E. and the Waco Area, N.C., Nursing Department (Blanchfield,44). Blanchfield also served as chief of staff for both the HCP (The Home for the ACHS) and the ACHS (Home for the LASD) during wartime.(Blanchfield,45).
LINK TO THE ORIGINAL BOOKS
For other historians, a quick Google search of the word “blanchfield” will provide you with a variety of sources, including correspondence with William “B. Blanchfield” Dickey (1885-1911) and with a variety of other publications. As for blanchfield’s personal knowledge of the nursing field, Blanchfield’s most complete historical account was made before WWII by Dr. William Blanchfield, MD, of Pennsylvania (1939-1976). He has provided the greatest coverage of BLCHANFIELD’s work here. It is available online from the A.H.S.W.-A.E. website or in the ACHS-ANA website and at a variety of online retailers.
I offer two personal essays by Thomas Brankford titled “How to Read a Nurse’s Journal” and “How to Read a Medical Journal”. I am the primary source of original information on most of these subjects, and in particular the article below. In response to my questions and concerns concerning the above writings, I will list the relevant documents.
Blanchfield’s Personal Papers
An ACHS-ANA Letter to William Blanchfield, MD (1885) May 10, 1934. Blanchfield writes,
“My first impressions of the nursing field during my career are that it was dominated by men of excellent physical power. Although the majority were of the average physique, and of fairly similar educational and vocational aptitude for nursing, of the high class, and almost all of the men were educated at the earliest possible date. The nurses I visited were not quite to the standard of an average young man, and they had to teach themselves what was necessary for the full-scale training which they required for future service. I found no definite line in common wit among the nurse, from her great experience in the war to one of the more familiar ones upon the field
Women not only enlisted in the army as nurses, but many were sworn into the U.S. Army Signals Corps as operators.