Military History
Women of the Great War: Yeomanettes
On March 17, 1917, United States Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels took what was then the bold—and controversial—step of admitting women into the navy as yeomen.(1) Hundreds of women between the ages of eighteen and thirty-five headed to recruiting stations to enlist. By the time the United States entered World War I on April…
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Women of the Great War: Before Rosie the Riveter
A generation before Rosie the Riveter, munitionettes “wo-manned” Britain’s factories and mines, replacing the men who volunteered for General Kitchener’s New Army in 1914 and 1915. Women were initially greeted in the work force with hostility. Male trade unionists argued that the employment of women, who earned roughly half the salary of the men they…
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Women of the Great War: Edith Cavell – “Patriotism is not enough”
For the last four years, the hundredth anniversary of the First World War has been a continuing theme here on the Margins and in other places where history buggs hang out. Now the anniversary of the Armistice is less than a month a away. In recognition of that anniversary, over the next two monthsI will…
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