What Women Did on the Home Front During WWI
- With thousands of young soldiers heading off to war, women were called upon to join the workforce. Women became bank tellers, factory employees, stenographers, phone operators, street car conductors, farmers and railroad attendants. The Women's Defense League coordinated jobs more directly related to the war effort including telegraph and telephone operator and stenographer positions. The "Seattle-Post Intelligencer" noted in 1917, that women telegraphers and stenographers were "...more apt than men in this line of work."
- Homemaking and motherhood also underwent a shift as a result of women moving from the home into the workforce during World War I. Since many jobs did not provide childcare, positions for older women who could serve as babysitters and housekeepers became more common. Women of all classes who had functioned exclusively in the homemaking realm taking care of their own cooking, cleaning and child rearing, now called on an older generation of ladies to take care of their children while they worked.
- Women were the muscle behind the patriotic support of the war effort offered by organizations such as the Red Cross, Patriotic League and Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA). Women in these groups did everything from knit socks for soldiers to work in military hospitals. Additionally, women were encouraged to recruit men who had not yet signed up to serve as soldiers.
- Conditions in factories, particularly those producing munitions, were dangerous for female employees. Most employers made little effort to accommodate the needs of women -- no restrooms were set aside for their use and childcare was rarely available. It took time for women's unions to gain momentum and during the war, women were generally paid only half the salary of male employees. While war-time equal pay laws were in effect, employers dodged them by hiring several women part-time to replace a full-time worker.
