Gender Roles and Proganda in WWI

Throughout WWI, the gender roles between men and women were slowly being defined through the use of propaganda. Men and women were both assigned specific roles in these images. Men were given the role of the soldier, the leader, and the one responsible for fighting. Men were always shown as strong, high up, and solely responsible for taking an active role in the war effort. Men were the worker and the father who would provide for the family and in this case, the war. The women, on the other hand, were depicted very differently. Women were given jobs that would support the efforts of their fighting soldiers. Women were depicted as nurses, factory workers, cooks, mechanics, and other secondary jobs that although were imperative to the successes of the effort, took place back at home or off the battle field in Europe. The armies of twentieth-century total war depended on women in new ways, not only within the army but in the civilian workforce. In 1914, feminist Carrie Chapman Catt warned that “war falls on the women most heavily, and more so now than ever before.” Both Britain and the United States mobilized substantial numbers of women into war-related industries, and into the workplace generally to make male workers available for military use. These arrangements, although effective in boosting the war effort, almost everywhere were cast as temporary. They used, rather than challenged, existing gender stereotypes. During WWI, the over 25,000 US women who served in Europe, did so on an entrepreneurial basis. The roles that women served in were restricted to a standard of social acceptance, which men would provide for the family and women would stay home a care for the house and children.


At the beginning and throughout WWI, gender roles continued to become defined through propaganda. Men and women were not only depicted in certain ways in these images, but would also fill those roles in the war effort. This mass propaganda also began to pressure society into taking part into the war. Men especially were pressured because of the mass need for soldiers to enlist in the military. Posters would show brave men and catchy slogans that would force the reader to reconsider their participation towards the war effort. Slogans reading, “We want you” and “More men” could be found anywhere and put the burden of conscience onto the reader. Young men were pressured by their friends and peers to join the service and would later discover the horror of war. As the war continued, propaganda posters were continuing to be produced. Men were a valuable resource to the military and the more men they had, the better chance to win the war. Young and old alike saw the call for more troops through the use of propaganda. Men were imposed a responsibility to fight in battle and defeat the enemy. Many people, however, do not understand the devastating effects war had on people. Like in All Quiet on the Western Front, the pressure from society forced men to enlist. In this poster, a brave and strong soldier is sounding the trumpet for more troops. He is calling for only men and is speaking in a relentless tone. The effects that posters like this had towards specific gender roles, was profound. The posters changed the brutality of war into a social burden, where one must make the decision to go to war, or suffer the ridicule of your peers who may be serving.


Throughout the Great War, gender roles were very distinguished and apparent all around Europe. A typical day for a woman in Europe was very restricted and women had little freedom in society. In the picture below, we can identify a woman with a cloth draped over her while covering three children close to her body. By the looks on their faces, the children seem scared of something taking them away from the warmth of their guardian. The guardian, the tall woman, is looking off into the distance and is shielding the children from what is to come. However, the most powerful people in the picture are the two little girls, who appear to be very close, whether they are sisters or just good friends. They express the most of what a woman feels they are asked to do in a time of crisis, and the boy on the left seems like is not necessarily sad but waiting to be called upon. This really shows the true gender roles during the Great War. A man’s role was to wait for his call to arms, as the young boy in the picture is doing in my mind, or to step forward and join the army by choice or by influence, as Paul and his friends did in All Quiet on the Western Front. On the other hand, a woman through the Great War’s role is to protect and treat their families and the hurt of the war. For example, over 25,000 women in the US took up jobs in nursing the wounded and treating the sick during the war.[1] Even in this picture, the women’s knack for caring for people and nourishing their families is apparent. The fact that the women is wearing a red cross symbol further shows the care she is willing and called upon to apply. This picture seems also to articulate Paul’s childhood. In his early years he and his friends did not want to be in the army and go to war. They were the little boy in the picture under their mother’s cloth, but then they met Kantorek, a schoolteacher who was very adamant about the war. He forced them out of their childhood shells and forced Paul and his friends to enlist and join the army. To society, they became manlier by joining the army and despite them not wanting to be there, the fact that they were manly was very important to the morale of a soldier like Paul and his friends in All Quiet on the Western Front.


Throughout the book All Quiet on the Western Front, the theme of patriotism and manhood was expressed through every person Paul and his friends seemed to come across. That was also one of the overriding themes of the Great War. In the picture below, there is indecision in the tall man with a suit on whether or not to enlist. He understands the meaning and reasoning behind going to war, but he can’t seem to commit to going or staying behind. This was the situation Paul was in before he met Kantorek. Paul was the tall man in the suit knowing that he is supposed to enlist but fears what will happen at the front. In All Quiet on the Western Front, Paul vividly explains trench life and other duties at the front, for he said,
“Three guns open fire close behind us. The burst of flame shoots across the fog, the guns roar and boom. We shiver and are glad to think that we shall be back in the huts early in the morning.”[2]
In this quote, we see Paul’s desire to be out of danger and back in the “safety” of the hut. The hut is just their place where Paul and his friends are not under consistent and persistent gunfire. Also, that fear of the front and dying is the “BUT!!!” in the phrase, “I Should go BUT!!!”, going through the man in the picture’s mind. Most people knew during the Great War that their governments wanted them to enlist. The phrase, “You are no exception.”, is trying to manipulate people into thinking that joining the army was obligatory and that if you did not join, you would be seen as a coward and less of a man. In All Quiet on the Western Front, the poster is represented by Kantorek, an adamant patriot, who is unrelentless in pushing Paul and his friends to join the army. They are indecisive as the man in the picture, however, Kantorek does not quit in his attempts to make them volunteer soldiers. As most propaganda in the twentieth century, this poster is encouraging patriotism. Kantorek played on patriotism as well telling the boys that volunteering for the army would make them more of a patriot. He was also nonstop with the persuasion, and the boys gave in after some time. This is exactly what the picture is portraying the government to be doing. They are trying to imply that joining the army is obligatory and that no one is exempt from their duty as a citizen.


Gender roles have been changing throughout the course of history. During WWI, these roles between men and women were depicted in propaganda in order to raise the soldier count in the war. The posters showed many different scenes, but generally stayed to one over-arching theme that could be found in another. These scenes would generally describe the need for soldiers, roles of woman, and instill a strong sense of patriotism and nationalism into the reader. Propaganda shaped the roles of men and woman alike during the war. The responsibilities and pressures of war were expressed through the use of propaganda and forced young and old alike, to reconsider their views of the war and their participation in it. The burden of war was put onto the shoulders of the men and women who stayed home and defined social responsibility among people and the soldiers fighting.


Kyle Brennan, Morgan Pearson, Charles Yakimischak


[1] http://www.warandgender.com/wgwomwwi.htm
[2] All Quiet on the Western Front p 53-54