Women At Work in 1917
For International Women’s Day 2017, I dug through the archives for a glimpse of what the workplace was like for women a century ago, in 1917. Large numbers of women were involved in the war effort during World War I, volunteering, working as nurses or support, or working in traditionally male jobs back home. But women were also making strides in 1917, assuming government roles (the first woman ever elected to the U.S. Congress), marching for the right to vote, even risking jail to teach others about safe birth control methods. This photo essay is paired with another: Women At Work in 2017, for a more global look at what the workplace is like for a woman today.
Original caption: "Women are shown preparing to deliver various government packages. They are members of the National League for Women' Service, which is proving of great assistance to Uncle Sam in carrying on the Great War. Women are employed as drivers, ambulance drivers, messengers, etc. Captain A.B. Bayle is shown cranking the car, prior to making her rounds in New York." #
Library of Congress / Bettmann / Getty
Women from various backgrounds and experiences offering their services in support of World War I at the office of the New York City Women's Suffrage Party on 34th Street on March 30, 1917. #
Original caption: "Springfield, Massachusetts - The Vassar College girls demonstrated their skill as farmers at the Eastern States Exposition and Dairy Show, which opened recently in Springfield, on October 16, 1917. One of the Vassar farmerettes is shown driving a heavy farm tractor." #
British women carpenters near the front, during World War I, ca. 1915. #
Library of Congress
A female street car conductor on a trolley line in Washington, DC, on December 8, 1917. #
Women making flags at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, Brooklyn, New York, on July 7, 1917. #
Library of Congress
Helen Campbell, the first wireless operator of National League for Women's Service. at work on May 8, 1917. #
Library of Congress
Women of West Side Branch of New York County Chapter of the Red Cross working in Schwab Home. In the Billiard room. #
Bettmann / Getty
Photojournalist Helen Johns Kirtland in a trench during World War I. She is wearing a helmet and great coat, and has a gas mask hanging around her neck. As a war correspondent, she covered many battles, photographing and reporting for a publication named Leslie’s Illustrated Weekly. #
Library of Congress
Original Caption: "Cowgirls of Pasadena, California." #
Original Caption: "Suffragettes who 'did their bit' in prison for picketing the White House pose in workhouse garb...Left to right, Miss Doris Stevens, Mrs. J.A. Hopkins, New Jersey Chairman of the National Women's Party, and Mrs. John W. Branna of New York, Chairman of the National Women's Party, wearing the rough clothing they wore while serving their sentence in the workhouse at Occuquan. The coarse uniform consists of underwear made of ticking, thick cotton socks, man's size shoes, with thick soles, and a wrapper and apron made of gingham, a string tied around the waist served as a corset. In the pocket of the apron were carried a comb and tooth brush." #
Bettmann / Getty
Original Caption: "Dorothy Webb and Rene Davis working on aeroplanes." March 24, 1917. #
Bettmann / Getty
Women railroad workers in the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad shops during World War I in Lorain, Ohio. May 14, 1917. #
Library of Congress
Original Caption: " September 14, 1917 - Miss Marie Breslin, first class 'Yoeman' assistant to Commander G.G. Mitchell in charge of the Charlestown Navy Yard." #
Bettmann / Getty
British motor ambulance drivers with their vehicles, Étaples, France, on June 27, 1917, during World War I. #
Library of Congress
Original Caption: "Maine's Only Woman Machinist Wears Overalls. in Portland, Maine: Miss Lillian Johnson has the distinction of being the only woman machinist in the state of Maine. Not satisfied with this distinction, she is likewise known as the only woman in the state who wears overalls at her work. She was born in Guttenberg, Sweden, 20 years ago. After studying bookkeeping for a time, she finally discovered her talents led her to machinery and now is considered one of the best in Portland. She is 5 feet, 4 inches in height, 39 bust, 39 hips, 20 waist and can lift 400 pounds. She is employed by the Raymond Machine Company at the Customs Wharf, Portland, Maine." #
Bettmann / Getty
Representative Jeanette Rankin, the first woman elected to the United States Congress, photographed while in office, on February 28, 1917. Rankin ran for a House seat in Montana in 1916, won, and served as a member of the 65th Congress from 1917 to 1919. She later ran and won again, and served as a member of the 77th Congress from 1941 to 1943. #
Bettmann / Getty
Original caption: "British women took up jobs as carpenters to help their country during World War I." #
Bain News Service / Library of Congress
Mrs. Amos Pinchot and other women outside the Court of Special Sessions, in Brooklyn, during the trial of Margaret Sanger, indicted for her teachings on birth control. Sanger was instrumental in organizing groups that would later become what we know today as Planned Parenthood. #
Bettmann / Getty
Original caption: "Suffragettes Aid Recruiters To Enlist Men for the Navy. Miss Frances E. Fitch one of the pretty suffragettes who aided in enlisting men for the Navy by placing Navy Posters in store windows." #
Bettmann / Getty
Women in the motor corps of the National League of Women's Service taking the oath of allegiance at the 71st Regiment Armory, New York City, on May 29, 1917 during World War I. #
Library of Congress
American artist Mary Foote painting a portrait on January 17, 1917. #
Bettmann / Getty
Original caption: "British women's auxiliary force which may be used for many things behind the firing line, lined up for parade just before their departure for France, on August 26, 1917." #
Bettmann / Getty
Women pull farm equipment in a field during World War I, in Oise, France, in 1917. #
Library of Congress
Original caption: "Girls loop stockings at Ipswich Mills, Boston. Massachusetts." #
Lewis Wickes Hine / Library of Congress
Women's Mounted Emergency Corps, ca. 1917. #
Library of Congress
Original Caption: "The first of twenty-six American girls who have been selected for the hazardous work of driving one of the American ambulances in Russia. Miss Natalie Camp will soon start for her task at the front. She is anxious to go and has been soliciting funds for the ambulance service from the seat of the auto ambulance that is pictured with her. It is the one she intends to take to Russia with her." #
George Rinhart / Corbis via Getty
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