What the women did in the war
When women offered to be actively involved in supporting Australia by serving in the war, their offer was immediately rejected by the government. Having to uphold the time-honoured codes of traditional female roles, the only way that the government permitted women to participate in active service in the war was through nursing. Female doctors were not even allowed to serve in the medical services overseas because it was thought they would not be able to deal with the morbid landscape or the physical demands.
On 1 July 1903 the Australian Army Nursing Service was established. It was a reserve unit comprised the nursing services from each former colony. It was staffed entirely by part-time, volunteer civilian nurses. At this time, however, there was a negative image attached to Australian military nurses. They were perceived as no more qualified or skilled than first aid workers.
During the war women were to be found mostly at the home front while a minority went close to the actual fronts where the war was being fought, some even into combat.
It is not that in this war of men and of principles women have played their part, and more than their part, with staunchness and with valour. It is not that at every point where women can work and help, women of all grades and all social conditions from Royalty downwards have worked and helped. It is not that women, as ever, have shown to peculiar perfection in the great and tender works of mercy; in nursing the sick, in caring for the homeless, in feeding the starving, in comforting the sad and the lonely. It is not merely that they have done these things with the tenderness and thoroughness of their eternal habit, but that they have come into contact with war in a way more intimate and actual than they have ever done before. They have not merely stayed at home to nurse and weep and pray. They have been at the backs of the fighting men, they have urged them on, they have crept up close to the fighting line, into the very fighting line, and sometimes they have fought.
On 1 July 1903 the Australian Army Nursing Service was established. It was a reserve unit comprised the nursing services from each former colony. It was staffed entirely by part-time, volunteer civilian nurses. At this time, however, there was a negative image attached to Australian military nurses. They were perceived as no more qualified or skilled than first aid workers.
During the war women were to be found mostly at the home front while a minority went close to the actual fronts where the war was being fought, some even into combat.
It is not that in this war of men and of principles women have played their part, and more than their part, with staunchness and with valour. It is not that at every point where women can work and help, women of all grades and all social conditions from Royalty downwards have worked and helped. It is not that women, as ever, have shown to peculiar perfection in the great and tender works of mercy; in nursing the sick, in caring for the homeless, in feeding the starving, in comforting the sad and the lonely. It is not merely that they have done these things with the tenderness and thoroughness of their eternal habit, but that they have come into contact with war in a way more intimate and actual than they have ever done before. They have not merely stayed at home to nurse and weep and pray. They have been at the backs of the fighting men, they have urged them on, they have crept up close to the fighting line, into the very fighting line, and sometimes they have fought.