How Did World War 1 Affect Australian Women

Whether it be serving on the battle field, cleansing and healing wounds, or dealing with the war on the home front, running families and supporting the soldiers, Australian women have stood by the soldiers of World War One, serving their country in different ways. The war had greatly impacted and affected the women in Australia and the ones who were away to serve. Since everything in their lives at the time revolved around the war, their lives had changed drastically to cope to this new way of life. These women provided comfort, support and help, where ever they were located, to the men who were fighting at in the front lines.

Nurse and medical attendees played a very important part in World War One. The war had greatly impacted their lives

A pamphlet called A Little Mother had said that “women were created for the purpose of giving life, and men to take it.”, thus saying that it was not acceptable for a woman to serve in any other way than a medical attendee. Nurses or any female medical help were supposed to be single or widowed, since there would be no extra attention or looking for their husband, but since the increase of injured men, married women were able to slip past and join the other nurses. Seen in source A is a nurse, called Matron Wilson, checking around the tents on the patients at Australian General Hospital. She is carrying a parasol, a shaded umbrella, to shade herself from the hot sun and a notepad to take down information about patients. This is the daily

What about the rest of the women in the home front? These women back in Australia had been majorly impacted by the war. Since the war had taken away the brothers, fathers, sons, and uncles of these Australian women, it was up to these women to continue working, harvesting, running and supporting Australia through this period of time. The war had forced women become more than mothers, taking on tasks such as harvesting and working in factories on top of running a family, making their lives a lot harder. To support their soldiers in the war, these women began creating different parties to fundraise money and support the men at war, such as Red Cross and Advance Guard. Even young girls tried to raise money to help too. After collecting money, that money used to produce packages of useful items for the soldiers. These packages included socks, water, food and anything that the women were able to send these men to comfort them, resulting in alcohol and cigars being sent. Source B is a pamphlet about forced conscription. As more men died or became injured, there was a need for more men to join the army. Since the rates of recruiting were so low, the government had turned to force conscription. To confirm or reject this new law, they held a vote and the law was “being rejected by 51 to 49