From Camp Follower to Lady in Uniform: Women, Social Class and Military Institutions before 1920

Abstract

In the crisis of the First World War, the vast expansion of military control over civil society included women's work. Women contributed not only directly to war production but also to maintaining the entire socioeconomic structure in jobs such as trolley conductor or farm worker. Hundreds and thousands of women volunteered for war work in social and relief organisations. If their work under wartime conditions did not differ radically from the centuries-old tradition of nursing and other forms of care-giving, the considerable human force they now brought to military support work raised to a new level the debate over the proper role of women in modern democratic society. And whether members of the armed forces, employees or civilian volunteers, they all wore uniforms.