Patriotism & Labor
Following the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, Europe’s two distinctive alliances exploded into war in the summer of 1914, starting the First World War.
The U.S. increasingly questioned their stance on neutrality and by the spring of 1917, the nation entered one of the bloodiest wars in history.1 Many American men left home to fight in Europe, leaving their wives at home. World War I marked the beginning of the end of the Progressive Era, but it nevertheless had a deep impact on middle class women’s understanding of their role in the home. The federal government promoted food conservation programs to women by issuing propaganda that was rich in patriotic sentiments. The war also meant that women had to fulfill the jobs men left when they went to Europe. Women took job openings generally held by men, such as government positions and clerical jobs.2 The promotion of nationalism and patriotism during the war changed middle class white women’s role from wife and mother to laborer and citizen.
1Robert Zieger, America’s Great War: World War I and the American Experience (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2000), 7.
2Tae Kim, “Where Women Worked During World War 1,” Seattle General Strike Project, Accessed April 21, 2016, http://depts.washington.edu/labhist/strike/kim.shtml