1. WOMEN IN WWI
THE INVISIBLE ARMY

2. WOMEN IN WWI WOMEN IN WWI Homefront Contributions
Overseas Contributions – Nursing
Sacrifice – Llandovery Castle
Feminism?
Talking to women – before and after the war
Student Task – argumentative paragraph using evidence from text

3. HOMEFRONT CONTRIBUTIONS
This picture was taken in Canada at a school for the blind.
These young ladies are knitting and sewing items to be shipped overseas to the front.
This is a good example of the kinds of contributions made by Canadian women during World War I.
Women made things like pillows, sheets, flannel shirts, socks, and scarves.
Many Canadian women tried to do more but were discouraged by their social status and by rules established by the Canadian government.

4. NURSES IN WWI

5. NURSES
most prominent  role that Canadian women played at the front in Europe.
over 2000 women enlisted as nursing sisters in the Canadian Expeditionary Force during WWI.
the role of women at the front was very limited because of army rules and social constraints.

6. NURSING CONTINUED
A military hospital, taken around Christmas time in 1914
Military hospitals were almost always overcrowded and understaffed during WWI
Often times there were not enough beds for the wounded
These are the conditions in which nursing sisters worked

7. TRAGEDY FOR WOMEN IN WWI
“...within 10 minutes of being struck, the Llandovery Castle went to the bottom, and for nearly two hours the enemy submarine, in an apparent attempt to destroy all evidence of this breach of the Geneva Convention, systematically shelled or tried to ram and sink lifeboats and wreckage on which helpless victims floated...”

8. THE STORY OF THE LLANDOVERY CASTLE
a hospital ship assigned to the Canadian service and full of nursing sisters was torpedoed on the night of June 27th,1918
234 lost their lives, including 14 Nursing Sisters
another major disaster took place when the Germans bombed the Canadian hospitals at France.
All in all, 56 nursing sisters were killed during World War I

9. FIRST WAVE FEMINISM
women moved in larger numbers into the paid labour force
women used this power to demand that the federal gov’t put some important WOMEN’S issues on the table
they also used these gains to fight for female suffrage (the right to vote)

10. TO WOMEN WORKERS Are you working for love or for money?
After the war…
Propaganda bulletin [1918]
TO WOMEN WORKERS Are you working for love or for money?
Are you holding a job you do not need? Perhaps you have a husband well able to support you and a comfortable home?
You took a job during the war to help meet the shortage of labour. You have “Made good” and you want to go on working. But the war is over and conditions have changed.
There is no longer a shortage of labour. On the contrary Ontario is faced by a serious situation due to the number of men unemployed. This number is being increased daily by returning soldiers. They must have work. The pains and dangers they have endured in our defence give them the right to expect it.
Do you feel justified in holding a job which could be filled by a man who has not only himself to support, but a wife and family as well? THINK IT OVER
Reference: Department of Labour Archives of the Ontario Government .

11. NOW IT’S YOUR TURN 1. WORK TOGETHER TO EXAMINE THE EVIDENCE
2. USING THE EVIDENCE, COMPLETE THE BOTH SIDES NOW CHART ANSWERING THE FOLLOWING QUESTION: DID WOMEN MAKE ADVANCEMENTS AS A RESULT OF WWI?