Volunteers, Auxiliaries, and Women’s Mobilization: The First World War and Beyond (1914–1939)

Abstract

The period of the First World War and interwar years was both a watershed for women and a period of backlash against women’s achievements. This chapter examines the possibilities, paradoxes, and challenges of military women’s lives and activities in the First World War and interwar years. It addresses the service of women physicians, nurses, and women workers with the military and voluntary organizations. The chapter assesses the activities of women in revolutionary, nationalist struggles and civil war beyond the First World War years. It analyzes the roles of women in the military in the interwar years and as veterans of military institutions. In France the Service de sante militaire worked with the Red Cross and Catholic nursing orders prior to the war and so plans were in place to mobilize nurses at the start of the conflict. Keywords:first world war; military; nurses; voluntary organizations; women auxiliaries; women physicians; women’s mobilization