How Did World War 1 Shaped Australian Identity

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World War One had significant impacts on all of Australia and will be forever indented in our rich history. Australian troops are most well known for their involvement in the invasion of Gallipoli in 1915. Where many ANZAC soldiers died while trying to protect Russia. The National Army Museum, n.d. I believe that World War One majorly impacted and forged Australian Identity today because Australians formed national through the ANZACs and helped to create the culture of today as well as establishing women’s rights. These impacts were the founding reasons that shaped Australian culture and society today. The soldiers that fought for us created new women’s rights, the infamous Anzac legend and multiculturalism. In World War One racism was at an all-time high due to the …show more content…

While men went away, many women started to take on traditionally male roles in society. This is shown by a record of a letter written to Mary Jane Derrer on her receiving a Medal of Honour for her work as a nurse in the army. (“Nurse Awarded the Military Medal | Naa.gov.au,” 2024). In this time women were seen as weak or uncapable but as the war went on women started to help the war aid by becoming nurses and healing the wounded men as well as helping to find men missing in action. Vera Deakin was one of these women who worked for the Red Cross and helped to find many men who were MIA in the war. Australian Government, 2020. She was revolutionary and was one of the first women to work in the military and broke gender stereotypes at the time as well as finding many missing men. With out her many men would have never have been returned home.With many woman starting to work more traditional men roles the roles in society started to change as while the men were at war many woman started to do traditional male roles signifying the start of a dramatic change in