Inspirational Women of WW1

During the course of my research yesterday, I found this weblog which is extremely well researched and interesting:  http://4yearsofww1.info - definitely worth a look.

As WW1 progressed, women began to be taken more seriously.  Early in 1917, they lobbied for the chance to serve their country as their men folk did. The plan was to give women the duties of cooking, mechanical and clerical work and other, more menial tasks that would occupy a man who could be fighting.

For the first time, in the summer of 1917, women were able to wear uniforms and go to work in jobs normally reserved for men. Their pay was less than that of their male colleagues and would remain so for many years. 

And women could not rise to higher ranks. By the end of the war, 80,000 women had volunteered to serve at the front with the WAAC, the Women's Relief Defence Corps or the First Aid Nursing Yoemanry. Their amazing contribution to the war effort deserves recognition.

Photo: Women of the Queen Mary's Auxiliary Army Corps entertain troops with a tug-of-war-match, Etaples, 1918.

For more amazing photographs see the Facebook Page Wipers: A Soldier's Tale from 1914 - 1918