The general mobilization came during harvest time. On 7 August, President of the Council René Viviani called for France’s women to take the mobilized men’s places in the fields. In this war that everyone expected to be short-lived, the aim was to ensure continuity by bringing in the harvests. The harvest and the preparation of the next season were therefore central to the appeal, the author of which had no inkling of how long the fighting would drag on for. The countryside was expected to feed the front.
With the help of the men who remained at the rear, often elderly, more than three million women became agricultural workers, sometimes even heading farms, to carry out the work usually done by men. In the rural world where they had always worked, ill-adapted equipment and a shortage of cattle forced them to carry out tough work like dragging ploughs and reaping without horses, as working animals had been requisitioned. To make their everyday lives easier, mechanized tools emerged during the conflict, like the McCormick reaper-binder.
“They have saved France’s agriculture from the disaster which it might,
without their vigour and tenacity, have collapsed into.”
Report from the Academy of Agriculture, 1916
Employment in industry became feminized from 1915. Women were already present in factories in the luxury goods, textiles, canned products and packaging sectors, and were called upon from 1914 onwards to join arms factories to supply the front. Known as munitionettes, these women suffered very tough working conditions, turning 2,500 shells of 75 mm calibre – 4,500 kg of metal – during a working day lasting over 10 hours. Their pay was higher than in private factories (up to 15% more), but lower than that of male workers.
Jobs traditionally held by men were also gradually occupied by women, including tram drivers, postwomen and secretaries, as they engaged in the world of work. By 1918, 450,000 French women were working in overalls and trousers to support the war effort. But this opening up of the world of work was no guarantee of equality: a female ticket inspector in the metro earned a franc less than her male counterparts.
“If the women working in the factories were to stop for 20 minutes, the Allies would lose the war”.
Joffre, 1915
Workrooms, known as ouvroirs, were workshops for charity and education opened by certain religious organizations from September 1914. Women came to find cloth to use to make warm clothing or changes of clothes, bandages or items for soldiers, or to sew on epaulettes in exchange for a meagre financial reward. These institutions enabled many women to avoid destitution, at least at the beginning of the war.
Cécile Brunschvicg (1877-1946)
In 1899, Cécile Kahn, born into the Parisian bourgeoisie, married Léon Brunschvicg, a philosopher and member of the French Human Rights League who campaigned for women’s right to vote. Inspired by him, she joined feminist movements including the French Union for Women’s Suffrage, which she would become leader of in 1924. As President of the Labour Section of the National Council of French Women from 1916, she looked at the working conditions of women in factories, which led her in 1917 to create the School of Lady Factory Superintendents and the Association of Lady Superintendents, which sought to “preserve the morality, […] supervise the will, and rationalize the use of the female labour force”.
After the Franco-Prussian War, societies had emerged to aid the wounded, under the auspices of the Red Cross. They were very militarized and run solely by volunteers. On the eve of the Great War, the Red Cross counted 250,000 members. At the same time, other initiatives came into being: the private school of the Public Assistance in 1905, and the La Salpêtrière Nurses School in 1905.
French Nurses reported for duty from the outset of the fighting, with those of the Public Assistance staying in hospital. The ladies of the Red Cross assumed their positions, just as the mobilized soldiers did. In 1914, some 23,000 qualified nurses were dispatched to 754 hospitals at the rear. They assisted doctors, cleaned wounds and supported and comforted those who suffered. Nurses were often soldiers’ last female contact before death.
Known in France as the “White Angels”, nurses were praised for their devotion and the help they brought. But they did not form a homogeneous group. While professional nurses were much appreciated by doctors, young volunteers were less so, given their lack of experience and suspicions of greed and depravity. Life gradually became highly regimented for nurses: nurse’s housing, uniform with a nun-like veil, and modest pay.
We can do nothing without our nurses; we love and admire them.
Dr Küss
Marie Curie, working with the French Armed Forces Radiological Service, assembled 18 mobile surgical units to examine soldiers. Cars were equipped with X-ray equipment and were dubbed “Little Curies”. Young women were trained in radiology at the Curie Institute and carried out pre-operative examinations of millions of men.
Margarett Scott
Margarett Scott, from Alton (Hampshire, UK) joined the British Red Cross in 1913 at the age of 22, before passing the nursing examination a year later. She served at the Red Cross hospital in Alton throughout the conflict. She joined the Voluntary Aid Detachment Committee on 18 January 1917, and remained a member until 1 January 1919. She was awarded a medal distinguishing her for her exemplary service throughout the four years of war.