A Woman's Contribution

Although kept distant from battle by both convention and desire, women were nonetheless vital to the success of the American war effort. They filled non-combat roles in the military; they helped raise the funds needed to wage the war; they went to work so that factories and farms could stay productive; they kept the "home fires" burning so that there would be an America for the soldiers to come home to.

Working Women

Photograph, Women Working on UP Railroad - 1918 (Courtesy Wyoming State Archives) Before the war, most women did not work outside the home: cooking, cleaning and child rearing filled their days instead. Those who did have to work for a living were generally limited to low-paying jobs as maids, seamstresses or factory workers. The war changed all that. With all able-bodied men leaving civilian life and entering the service, thousands of jobs were suddenly available. In addition, new munitions and arms factories provided more high-wage jobs for the only ones left behind to work: women.

Cartoon, From The Magazine Theatre Program - 1920 (Trail End Collection) Many people were shocked. It had long been thought that “a woman’s place was in the home.” The pressure of war, however, soon made outside work an acceptable patriotic duty, sanctioned by the government. Poor women seeking higher wages weren't the only ones taking these jobs. Unmarried spinsters – daughters traditionally expected to live at home and care for their aging parents – were attracted to the chance to get out and see the world. In addition, early feminists saw it as a way to prove that women were equal to men and should therefore be allowed to vote. No matter the motivation, all enjoyed the independence which came with their paycheck. It was an independence that would not be forgotten once the war was over.

The Red Cross

Before war broke out in Europe, the American Red Cross dealt primarily with disaster relief. After the start of hostilities, the British Red Cross asked for more volunteers to help tend wounded soldiers and civilians. Hundreds of Americans – many of them women – went off to assist. Some of the bravest volunteers during the early days in France were American Red Cross ambulance drivers – male and female – and Red Cross hospital nurses.

At President Wilson's urging, the Red Cross changed from an efficient private agency into a powerful branch of the government. At the start of the war, about 500,000 Americans belonged to the Red Cross. By late 1918, there were over 31,000,000 members. One of those was Eula Kendrick, who was active in the Washington DC chapter. During the First World War, Eula wrote to the Cheyenne Daily Leader about the contributions Washington society was making to the war effort:

Nearly every one is contributing his bit, either at home or in clubs, meeting in church parlors, club buildings, or as we, the ladies of the senate, do, at the headquarters of the Red Cross. … It is here the boxes are packed and shipped to the front.

The Sheridan Chapter of the A. R. C. was organized in May 1917. Within two months, it enlisted over 500 members and raised nearly $42,000. By the end of the war local membership exceeded 4,300 while donations amounted to just under $100,000 (national donations topped $400,000,000). Elsewhere in the county, auxiliary chapters were started in Acme, Arvada, Ash Creek, Beckton, Big Horn, Carneyville, Clearmont, Dayton, Dietz, Dietz No. 8, Monarch, Parkman, Soldier Creek, Story, Ucross and Ulm.

Photograph, Red Cross Volunteers in Cheyenne - 1918 (Courtesy Wyoming State Archives) In addition to fundraising, Red Cross projects included rolling bandages, sewing hospital garments and surgical dressings, knitting socks, helping soldiers in transit, assisting widows and orphans, collecting used clothing and, towards the end of the war, nursing influenza victims. As Louise Eberle noted in Needlecraft Magazine in December 1918,

The great Red Cross Mother asks you and me to answer "present" to the Christmas Roll-Call, so that there may be no missing stitch to mar the garment she is weaving to cover the sufferings of the world. … The Red Cross, beginning with the idea of saving wounded soldiers from the terrible lot that once was theirs, has extended its activities to the relief of every distress that is born of the present conflict.

To assist with the relief and recovery effort overseas, the Red Cross asked homemakers to sew or crochet clothing for refugee babies in France and Belgium. Each official Red Cross layette included two flannel dresses, a flannel jacket, crocheted booties, two wool blankets, twelve diapers, three undershirts and a crocheted bonnet. To these was added a “comfort bag” containing safety pins, soap, a washcloth, talcum powder, six needles, white thread and a thimble.

Wartime Fashions

With the war came shortages of fabric and dye; most were needed by the military, so changes had to be made to all manner of clothing. As one fashion designer said, “We have had our time for the dance and the dinner and the pretty frock. But that time is over." The Ladies Home Journal reported in 1918 that the government had "asked the leading dressmakers to use as little wool as possible in their new spring clothes, to save labor, and brilliant colors, which are not in harmony with war times."

Drawing, Wartime Fashions (Trail End Collection) The designers' biggest challenge was to make the new styles attractive to their customers. This was done by appealing to the national sense of patriotism. Washed-out shades such as pale pink, soft green and light blue were called sympathetic hues. Wearing them, the fashion magazines said, demonstrated patriotism because they required less dye.

Military suits were introduced and were worn by women everywhere, providing a sympathetic link to the men in uniform. They also required less fabric, a point that was played up by the manufacturers and designers. Since many women made their own clothes, pattern books such as those offered by Russells Standard Fashions in 1918 offered similar arguments:

Women of America, are you doing all you can for your country? Fashion and Home are the two spheres where you rule without question. Now is the time for each woman to show her true worth. To be patriotically dressed, wear simple clothes and above all wear out the clothes you already have. Since Fashion is in league with our country to win this war, we will eagerly seize this opportunity to remodel our clothes. The designs shown here are typical of what we are offering for the conservation of materials.

Other changes were dictated by women themselves. In 1917, when they went to work in the fields and factories, women wanted comfortable work clothing. Along with loose, dropped-waist dresses, trouserettes were popular and patterns were sold in most women's magazines. There was still a bit of the Victorian Age left over, however: while trouserettes could be worn during work hours, they had to be covered by skirts after the whistle blew!

Women's Suffrage

With independence should come suffrage, the right to vote. Women's suffrage had been a political issue in America even before 1869, when Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton formed the National Woman Suffrage Association. These women and many others campaigned across the country in support of women's rights, speaking out at rallies and parades. Signs and posters asked men – the only ones who could vote – to support their cause.

Poster, Women's Suffrage (Private Collection) Women in Wyoming were luckier than their sisters elsewhere: they had been given the vote by the first Territorial Legislature in 1869. Addressing a Laramie crowd in 1871, Susan B. Anthony said, “Wyoming is the first place on God's green earth which could consistently claim to be the land of the Free!” Even so, Wyoming women could only vote in local and state elections, not national ones. Most took their rights and responsibilities very seriously, including Eula Wulfjen Kendrick and Cecilia Hendricks, who noted in 1917:

We went to a school election yesterday and exercised our right of suffrage. People talk about objecting to women suffrage because it takes the women out of their homes, where they belong. Why, voting here is a regular family affair where both men and women vote. The whole family goes, and it becomes a regular social, where everybody visits and has a nice time.

In a way, the Great War helped win the war for women's rights. It proved that women could do the work of men both in the field and in the office. All men and women were persons living in America, it was argued, and therefore should have the same rights. As one anonymous newspaper columnist put it,

Today the woman suffrage question was to have the floor in the House, but it is a question if the women are suffered to be floored. The political Amazons claim the right to vote under the first section of the fourteenth amendment which says, "All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof are citizens there of" etc. If all "persons" are citizens and all citizens have the right to vote it would seem that the claim of the women to vote is not without some apparent grounds.

Such arguments eventually held sway and Congress passed the Susan B. Anthony Federal Suffrage Amendment in 1919. It was signed into law in 1920. Living up to its billing as The Equality State, the Wyoming legislature held its very first special session in 1920, just to ratify the new amendment.