Women
The image of women during the war —especially Parisiennes— alternated between the frivolity often tied to non-combatants and the sort of devotion associated with nurses or fairy godmothers. Mothers, wives and fiancées were deeply affected by soldiers’ departures and anxious for news from the front or the return of loved ones on home leave. Many Parisian women ultimately became familiar with the agony of widowhood. The lack of men in the city also contributed to the economic difficulties of women who, deprived of finances and impacted by an economic slowdown that fueled unemployment early in the conflict, remained responsible for meeting their families’ needs. Efforts were made to provide assistance or work to women as they gradually replaced the men at the front in the factories and fields. Society was forced to adapt by offering new services like public cafeterias and day-care facilities. Mobilized behind the front, women’s contributions to the war effort varied according to their social position and means, some in factories and others through charitable work and patriotic organizations. Although women’s massive entry into the workplace at the time is often seen as temporary, later feminist movements demanding more rights for women had roots in these developments, and the war was an important milestone in the history of the struggle for women’s rights.
