While the national “sacred union” drew women into the war effort, some decided to fight for peace. Despite being declared “defeatists”, 1,136 women from 12 countries met in The Hague in May 1915 to conceive a peaceful solution to the conflict. Their thinking would inspire President Wilson’s peace plans.
The mobilization of women in factories contributed to renewing militant labour organizing. Protests spread in 1917, and 10,000 Parisian sewing workers, or cousettes, went on strike for two months over their pay, which was lower than that of the munitionettes. They earned an extra day of paid holiday, a pay raise and bonuses. Later, women’s committees emerged to pass on pay demands.
Trade unionism and pacifism combined in desire to put an end to the war. On 23 May 1918, in Saint-Chamond, women lay across the train tracks to stop convoys of mobilized young soldiers. However, the scale of the human sacrifice led part of the population not to flinch until final victory, pushing their demands onto a back burner.
The war, a wave of hatred rising ever higher that diverts workers’ energies from their right purpose.
Marie Guillot, letter dated 15 October 1914
Rosa Luxemburg (1871-1919)
Rosa Luxemburg, from Poland, founded the Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania before forging ties with its German counterpart, the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). Her calls for the workers of all countries to unite against nationalism earned her a year in prison in 1915. She then formed the Spartacus League alongside Karl Liebknecht and feminist Clara Zetkin. The League was on the front line in the German revolution of 1919 and Rosa, released in November 1918, took part through her writing and actions with workers. During the ensuing repression, she was arrested and shot in the head by a soldier, along with her comrade Karl Liebknecht.
Hélène Brion (1882-1962)
Hélène Brion was a member of the schoolmasters and schoolmistresses union (Syndicat des Instituteurs and Institutrices) and several feminist organizations. During the war, she worked in a soup kitchen in Pantin, near Paris, and was struck by the poverty of the local people, strengthening her pacifist convictions. In November 1917, she was arrested for distributing pacifist brochures. She was tried by the War Council in March 1918 for “defeatism”, where she proclaimed her feminist commitment to peace. She was sentenced to three years in prison, and reinstated in the education system only in 1925.
Whatever the era and the place, war sends women far from the fighting, but the Great War saw women appear at the front to play roles other than that of nurses.
Some went so far as to dress up as men to fight. Dorothy Lawrence, for example, fought in the Somme until she was discovered, arrested and sent back to the United Kingdom. Eastern European countries seem to have been easier with the idea. Maria Bochkareva was authorized by the Czar to join the Tomsk reserve battalion, and when Milunka Savić’s superior discovered her true identity, he decided to keep her because of her bravery and exploits. In Serbia, women played a major role in armed defence, and their image of bravery was used in propaganda.
Female units emerged. The four Russian battalions, including Bochkareva’s, were the only ones formed to fight. In England, the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps sent cooks and secretaries to France, while in the United States, women joined the Naval Reserve and, while they remained restricted to support roles (office work, communications and mechanics), they were treated equally to men in terms of pay and veteran status.
Maria Bochkareva (1889-1919)
Maria Bochkareva was born into a peasant family. She signed up as soon as Russia entered the war. She was not alone, in a country where women were less associated with lives of leisure than in Western Europe. As an opponent of the revolutionaries, she was tasked with leading one of the four women’s battalions which were, through their bravery and dedication, to remind the men of their duty. The “Battalion of Death” only saw action once, but proved its worth. “Yashka” stayed faithful to the Czarist regime, fleeing to the United States before returning to Russia where she would be arrested and shot as a counter-revolutionary.
Milunka Savić (1888-1973)
In 1913, during the Second Balkan War, Milunka Savić cut her hair and took her brother’s place in the Serbian army when he was called up. She proved brave and a good shot, earning her a first medal and the rank of corporal. Her true identity was revealed when she was wounded, but she continued to fight and stood out on many occasions for her exploits, such as in the capture of Bulgarian soldiers in 1916. She was largely forgotten when she returned to civilian life, despite being the most decorated woman soldier in history.
Not all the men came home: 1.4 million French soldiers died. The return of the lost provinces of Alsace and Moselle was not enough to fill the gap.
Those who did come back married, and there were 500,000 weddings in 1919, then 600,000 in 2020. The wedding boom was followed by a birth boom, encouraged by the authorities for whom the demographic deficit was a key issue throughout the 1920s, as demonstrated by the creation of the National Alliance Against Depopulation and the National Council of Fertility in 1920. For women, that meant resuming the traditional role of mother and wife, echoing the demobilization and the men’s return to work. The “natalist” policy involved a crackdown on abortion, with acts like that of 1920 that criminalized any advertising for abortion or contraception.
The post-war period was also one of reconstruction. The country had been devastated. Eleven départements were on their knees. Towns and villages in the occupied French territories had suffered the effects of military operations and were largely ruined, even razed to the ground. The reconstruction effort was one for the whole country, including through “peace bonds” which followed the financial campaigns of wartime.
Women came out of the war with a stronger taste for independence, and men with a greater desire for authority. Will it be any easier to bring peace to the household than to Europe?
Femina magazine, May 1919