(William Morris Hughes said "In this war women are as much involved as men, they have as much at stake, they suffer its horrors in no less degree." Agree or disagree)
Australian women's lives were greatly affected by World War 1. Women had sent their sons and husbands overseas to fight and anxiously waited for news of their wellbeing. Women had financial problems in supporting the family alone. Women went to join in hospitals as nurses and they knitted clothes for the men and baked food. Moreover, women looked after those who returned from war injured both physically and mentally. However, it was men who endured the actual battle and who braved the threat of death. Therefore William Morris Hughes is exaggerating when he said "In this war women are as much involved as men, they have as much at stake, they suffer its horrors in no less degree."
An Australian military veteran on ANZAC Day 2007.
The Australian Women's Weekly, 26 October 1935
The Australian Women's Weekly, 9 June 1951When the twenty-thousand Australian men went to fight overseas in World War 1, it is their mothers, sisters or wives who waved them goodbye and who fearfully waited for news of their death or injuries. The Australian women are filled with as much national pride as the men and because they are not allowed to go to battle, they encouraged their boys to enlist and fight for Australia and mother Britain although they knew they may not return. One Melbourne mother summaries the feeling of the majority of mothers sending their sons to war when she said "It is easier to die than to send a son to death." After sending their men to war, the women anxiously waited for each letter to see if they are well. When the news arrived that ten-thousand men were killed at Gallipoli, the women pored over the newspapers hoping that their beloved men...