Women of Warcraft

And I'm back, now with more action-packed excitement! As promised, this week I'm going to be discussing the more traditional roles of women in war. Instead of the ones that broke the rules, the women of this week were those who did what they could while wearing a skirt. I'll start with the American Civil War and then go to World War 1.

A Civil War nurse, a profession that will be discussed to death.

Get it??

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The American Civil War (referred to just as the Civil War throughout this) was fought from 1861-1865. As it was very close to home for all those involved (considering it was a civil war), I figured women must have had some important part in it. I completely forgot, however, what large roles women played. As with any war, the role of a nurse is a given, and is self-explanatory. The Southern Confederate Army also used women as spies. Women could go places that men couldn't, and were often overlooked. Women were also used as vivandières (I tried to plug the word into Google translate, but alas, it was stumped). These women were attached to a unit, often one including someone they loved, and worked as basically the honorary mother/wife figure for the men. Nearly 20,000 women worked directly for the war effort, and 3,000 worked as nurses, including writer Louisa May Alcott. Also, as this site from which the previous statistics originated states, "More than 400 women disguised themselves as men and fought in the Union and Confederate armies during the Civil War."

It's funny because the picture of the girl is in black and white.

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You can read about one in Ann Rinaldi's Girl in Blue. While the main character dresses up as a man, she does so to become a nurse (which she totally could have done as a female, although possibly not at her age as the famous Dorothea Dix wanted her nurses "past 30 years of age, healthy, plain almost to repulsion in dress and devoid of personal attractions." Source.) The Civil War changed American women, taking them out of the Victorian ways of the past and pushing them to do more.

See, there's a uniform that's actually blue.

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World War 1 was the next to shake up the world of women. Before WW1, women were expected to stay at home or were limited to traditional "women's work," such as the clothing industry in Great Britain. Women at home were called to take previously male jobs as the men all went off to fight. Women were also nurses. 13,000 American women were also enlisted in the armed forces, mostly in clerical positions. Canadian women were also used as nurses, but they were also given some military training in order to protect the home front. Russia (somehow unsurprisingly) had numerous female combatants. There were still more examples of women who disguised themselves as men, such as England's Dorothy Lawrence and Russia's Olga Krasilnikov and Natalie Tychmini. Milunka Savic of Serbia, the most decorated female fighter in history, also started off disguised as a man and apparently had one of the best one-liners in history. If you have nothing better to do, you should definitely read about this incredible woman, who single-handedly captured 23 Bulgarians.

The face of the most decorated woman in combat ever, of all time.

So much awesome, the color of the uniform doesn't even matter.

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A less badass woman in literature from this time period would be Hemingway's Catherine Barkley from A Farewell to Arms (even if you read the book, you probably didn't remember her name because she was so boring). She was a military nurse, he was a soldier boy, it was bound to happen. If you like your books with a plot, I suggest you find something else to read. However, it does give a bit of insight to WW1 nurses in Barkley's life and SPOILER ALERT death. Although, apparently Hemingway's use of the word cocksucker had to be edited out of most versions, so at least it's got that going for it (teehee). 

Don't click. Just say farewell to it and don't look back, ever.

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Well, that turned out longer than I expected. I'll save World War 2 and the present state of things for a future post. Next week (read, tomorrow) I'll hopefully post about either Tamora Pierce or if I'm ready to open my favorite can of worms, video games.