Women played an extremely important part in the war. Many would even argue that their part was as important as the men in the Army. World War One was such a distressing and disruptive time for women in Australia, as it was filled with anxiety. Some women stayed at home with their children or continued in their daily working lives while others yearned to become more actively involved in the war, they wanted to help out friends and family who were already participating in it. Women were encouraged to become a support by propaganda posters (shown above) which encouraged and inspired women to play an active part in the society of war. The posters made them feel tough, worthy, empowered and capable.
Many Australian women served in the army, some as nurses, medical workers and others providing support for soliders by becoming a part of voluntary services. The most popular of these were; Red Cross, The Australian Women’s Association, The Voluntary Aid Detachment, the Australian Women’s Service corps and the Women’s Peace Army. Red Cross was an organisation that originated in world war one, it dedicated monetary aid and provided medical support and trained nurses. It was set up by Vera Durkin and soon became a leading foundation. It gave news to soldier’s families if they had been captured or wounded. The nurses involved with the Red Cross were called blue-birds.
During the war many woman received awards for bravery and honour. More that 2300 women involved in the Australian Army Nursing Service offered their services overseas. They served in many different countries some of these were ; Egypt, Salonika, France, Belgium, Lemnos, India, Gallipoli, Palestine, the Persian Gulf, Italy, Burma, Vladivostok and Abyssinia. Over in these places many women experienced horrible living conditions. The living conditions women had to encounter when in these places were horrible. Sister Ella Tucker, nurse who was on a barge with 557 soldiers and only 6 fellow nurses said, “The wounded think the old ship is heaven after the peninsula. There are 557 patients on board and only 7 nurses.” Shown below a source written by Sister Aileen Lucas tells a little about the living conditions in France. She talks about the harsh and cold climate, frozen water pipes that they could not get water from to treat their patients. Sister Mabel Brown (source shown below) expresses how she was the only nurse in the ward in Belgium surrounded by sick men, this source shows that not only were the living conditions harsh but also how the nurses had to have great mental stamina. Mabel says “The depression which settled on one watching these men die in spite of all you did for them was awful.”
During the war many woman received awards for bravery and honour. More that 2300 women involved in the Australian Army Nursing Service offered their services overseas. They served in many different countries some of these were ; Egypt, Salonika, France, Belgium, Lemnos, India, Gallipoli, Palestine, the Persian Gulf, Italy, Burma, Vladivostok and Abyssinia. Over in these places many women experienced horrible living conditions. The living conditions women had to encounter when in these places were horrible. Sister Ella Tucker, nurse who was on a barge with 557 soldiers and only 6 fellow nurses said, “The wounded think the old ship is heaven after the peninsula. There are 557 patients on board and only 7 nurses.” Shown below a source written by Sister Aileen Lucas tells a little about the living conditions in France. She talks about the harsh and cold climate, frozen water pipes that they could not get water from to treat their patients. Sister Mabel Brown (source shown below) expresses how she was the only nurse in the ward in Belgium surrounded by sick men, this source shows that not only were the living conditions harsh but also how the nurses had to have great mental stamina. Mabel says “The depression which settled on one watching these men die in spite of all you did for them was awful.”
There were many jobs for women in the war under the field of medicine. Some of them were physical therapists, blood Trans fusionists and nurses. 2139 Women served in the Australian Army Nursing service, 432 nurses served in hospitals around Australia and 130 worked with Queen Alexandra Military Nursing service during World War 1.
Here are several sources showing where nurses usually served and the hardship they encountered and the willpower they demonstrated:
In India
Here I am on day duty, and Sister-in-Charge of two
wards. Oh, these poor men from Mesopotamia!
They are … only skin and bone (men from the Kut
campaign). This is amoebic dysentery, and treated
with hyper dermic injections of “Emetine” … most
of the poor men are not long for this world … Oh,
Pete, the men with dysentery would make one
weep! Why are men allowed to suffer like this? And
we hear folk in Australia and England talking about
boys who have made the “Supreme Sacrifice”, and
I suppose stone monuments etc, will be erected to
their memory “of our glorious dead”. What about
the living? The blind, crippled, disfigured and those
poor mad men and women.
Matron Babs Moberly, February 1917, in Melanie Oppenheimer, Australian
Women and War, Department of Veterans’ Affairs, Canberra, 2008 p32
Sister Aileen Lucas writing from 1 Australian
General Hospital tent hospital in France, 1917
The river was frozen … The water pipes burst, and
we could not get any water for some time, not
even to wash the patients… . Here we received
the casualties straight from the field, some very
severely wounded, and feeling the cold very greatly.
A great number of them had trench feet and frostbite.
Several patients were frozen to death in the
ambulances coming down to us.
Jan Bassett, Guns and Brooches, Oxford University Press,
Melbourne, 1992, p56
Sister Mabel Brown writing from a hospital in
Belgium during the influenza epidemic that hit at
the end of the war, 1918–1919
I was alone in [a] ward of 22 beds all pneumonia,
mostly mad, and had about 3 deaths in every 24
hours. I was there [in that ward] 3 weeks without
relief for one hour. The depression which settled on
one watching these men die in spite of all you did for
them was awful.
Jan Bassett, Guns and Brooches, Oxford University Press,
Melbourne, 1992 p38
Sunday 25 April 1915 off Gallipoli
… About 9am my first patients from battlefield commenced
to pour in (We had gone in during night & anchored outside
Dardanelles). We wakened up & could plainly hear sounds
of guns. They came in an endless stream, some walking
holding arms, hands covered with blood, some on stretchers
with broken legs, some shivering & collapsed through loss
of blood & some with faces streaming with blood … we
went for the worst cases first & worked like fury while all
the sound of firing was going on … we took on board
570 wounded … we filled every space, mattresses lying
everywhere on deck … in my ward I had 118 patients (one
Turk badly wounded) … we got to bed between 2 & 3 am.
Melanie Oppenheimer, Australian Women and War,
Department of Veterans’ Affairs, Canberra, 2008 p28
Here are several sources showing where nurses usually served and the hardship they encountered and the willpower they demonstrated:
In India
Here I am on day duty, and Sister-in-Charge of two
wards. Oh, these poor men from Mesopotamia!
They are … only skin and bone (men from the Kut
campaign). This is amoebic dysentery, and treated
with hyper dermic injections of “Emetine” … most
of the poor men are not long for this world … Oh,
Pete, the men with dysentery would make one
weep! Why are men allowed to suffer like this? And
we hear folk in Australia and England talking about
boys who have made the “Supreme Sacrifice”, and
I suppose stone monuments etc, will be erected to
their memory “of our glorious dead”. What about
the living? The blind, crippled, disfigured and those
poor mad men and women.
Matron Babs Moberly, February 1917, in Melanie Oppenheimer, Australian
Women and War, Department of Veterans’ Affairs, Canberra, 2008 p32
Sister Aileen Lucas writing from 1 Australian
General Hospital tent hospital in France, 1917
The river was frozen … The water pipes burst, and
we could not get any water for some time, not
even to wash the patients… . Here we received
the casualties straight from the field, some very
severely wounded, and feeling the cold very greatly.
A great number of them had trench feet and frostbite.
Several patients were frozen to death in the
ambulances coming down to us.
Jan Bassett, Guns and Brooches, Oxford University Press,
Melbourne, 1992, p56
Sister Mabel Brown writing from a hospital in
Belgium during the influenza epidemic that hit at
the end of the war, 1918–1919
I was alone in [a] ward of 22 beds all pneumonia,
mostly mad, and had about 3 deaths in every 24
hours. I was there [in that ward] 3 weeks without
relief for one hour. The depression which settled on
one watching these men die in spite of all you did for
them was awful.
Jan Bassett, Guns and Brooches, Oxford University Press,
Melbourne, 1992 p38
Sunday 25 April 1915 off Gallipoli
… About 9am my first patients from battlefield commenced
to pour in (We had gone in during night & anchored outside
Dardanelles). We wakened up & could plainly hear sounds
of guns. They came in an endless stream, some walking
holding arms, hands covered with blood, some on stretchers
with broken legs, some shivering & collapsed through loss
of blood & some with faces streaming with blood … we
went for the worst cases first & worked like fury while all
the sound of firing was going on … we took on board
570 wounded … we filled every space, mattresses lying
everywhere on deck … in my ward I had 118 patients (one
Turk badly wounded) … we got to bed between 2 & 3 am.
Melanie Oppenheimer, Australian Women and War,
Department of Veterans’ Affairs, Canberra, 2008 p28
During the war many Women felt isolated, lost and scared, nurses were transported to wherever they were needed the most. Before the war broke out it was unusual for women to do paid work. Usually their role was to stay at home tending children, doing the cooking and cleaning whilst the man was at work making a living for the family. However, when war broke out women who did not become nurses were forced to work so they could support their families. These jobs mainly included working around food e.g – bakeries, cheese shops, clothes shops, printing industries. it wasn’t until war broke out that women become involved in more jobs that were considered “ manly” such as, factories and shipyards, however when war ended women were expected to go back to their old jobs. During the war a foundation was set up by the women on the home front called the Australian Women’s Land Army which was a foundation that recruited women to farm lands to do labour when there were no men present. Many women who weren’t actively involved in the war still did their bit to help out by knitting garments or sending woollen blankets to men in the war. The only role that women were allowed to have in recruitment was as a nurse as men and women were treated extremely different during that society. As you can see women in the war encountered several hardships and burdens and should be admired as much as the soldiers fighting in the war.