Australian women in World War I, were involved in militaries, and auxiliary organisations of the Allied forces abroad, and in administration, fundraising, campaigning, and other war time efforts on home front in Australia. They also played a role in the anti-war movement, protesting conscription, as well as food shortages driven by war activities. The role of women in Australian society was already shifting when the war broke out, yet their participation on all fronts during the Great War escalated these changes significantly.
The Australian Imperial Force (AIF) restricted women's enlistment to participation in the Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS), accepting only single women with professional nursing degrees, as well as a group of trained masseuses, 14 ward assistants and one bacteriologist. Initially the union of the AANS into the AIF was unclear and disorganized, with the nurses having no official rank. Tensions between the organisations resulted in principal matron Jane Bell of the AANS, and Lieutenant-Colonel William Ramsay Smith of the AIF being recalled from duty. A subsequent enquiry into the feud resulted in the AANS receiving official recognition and officer rankings, with Evelyn Conyers leading the AANS as Matron-in-Chief for the duration of the war. Many nurses were decorated with military honours such as the Royal Red Cross, and seven nurses received the Military Medal for demonstrating bravery under fire.
Women doctors were told they would not be accepted into the Australian, or British militaries, and likewise there were no roles for women as cooks, orderlies, ambulance drivers, or any other role. However, many women who were determined to serve found their own way abroad, and participated through auxiliary organisations such as Red Cross organisations, and the Scottish Women's Hospitals for Foreign Service, or simply created their own opportunities by establishing hospital units, such as Rachel Ward's, Australian Voluntary Hospital, and Helen Sexton's Hôpital Australien de Paris, or by establishing canteens for soldiers in Cairo as Alice Chisholm did. Some Australian women were also able to enlist in the French and eventually the British militaries. The most senior Australian woman in military service during the war was Maud McCarthy, the British Expeditionary Force Matron-in-Chief for France and Flanders.
Australian women also played a significant role on the Australian home front. Led by Lady Helen Munro Ferguson, Australian women played a fundamental role in establishing the Australian branch of the British Red Cross, just a few days after the outbreak of the war. This organisation became the Australian Red Cross. Women undertook fundraising and recruiting activities as well as organising comfort packages for soldiers serving overseas. Other women also filled jobs made vacant by men joining the armed forces.
Anti-war movements and campaigns were established by Australian women including the Women's Peace Army led by Vida Goldstein. Women were actively involved in campaigning on both sides of the debate on conscription, leading to events such as the Conscription disturbance at the Brisbane School of Arts which saw public conflict between the Women's Compulsory Service Petition League and the Brisbane branch of the Women's Peace army, led by Margaret Thorp. Anti-war protests led to some women, such as Adela Pankhurst being arrested for public disturbance.
Nevertheless, despite this involvement, women have never occupied a central position in the Australian version of the Anzac legend, although since the 1970s their role has been examined in more detail as a result of the emergence of feminist historiography, and specialist histories such as the history of nursing.
Australian societal context With the British colonisation, Australian society became firmly patriarchal. Men held dominant positions in society, professional professions, and politics, as well as in families, having legal right of ownership over all household income, property, and children. Women were expected to marry young, as being a mother and wife was the only accepted career for women.
However, in the decades leading up to World War I, Australian society had been changing, with women fighting for, and gaining more rights. So, while Australian women were still subjected to segregation in public life, with limited freedom and autonomy, they had gained the right to inherit property, earn wages, and vote, and were increasingly making their way into professions previously reserved for men.
The war brought further changes to women’s place in society. While there were limited options for women who wished to take part in the war effort directly, with so many men joining the overseas taking part in the war effort, women were provided the opportunities to step into roles that were previously reserved for men both in the home, and in wider society. Women filled employment roles, including as doctors, journalists, and architects. However, while there were limits to direct military participation in the war effort, there were some roles for professional nurses in the military. Additionally, there were other women who either did not meet the eligibility for joining the military as a nurse, or who wished to participate as doctors, administrators, ambulance drivers, orderlies, or cooks, who funded their own travel to Europe and found alternative opportunities to take part.
The outbreak of war When the war broke out between Britain and Germany in August 1914, Australia, as a dominion of Britain, was also at war and pledged full support. The government began recruiting for their military, and had strict enlistment requirements, only accepting the fittest men of military age (19 to 38 years of age). Australia's first significant contribution to the war at this time was to disrupt the German outposts in the Pacific with a small, quickly assembled military unit called the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force. They focussed first on disrupting wireless communication lines for Germany’s most powerful fleet in the region, the East Asiatic Squadron. Australia's first hospital ship, HMAS Grantala, departed Sydney on 30 August 1914, and supported the expeditions in Rabaul, and later in Suva. On board were 60 medical staff including Matron Sarah Melanie De Mestre, who was in command of six nursing sisters, Florence Elizabeth McMillan, Stella Lillian Colless, Rachel Clouston, Constance Margaret Neale, Bertha Ellen Burtinshaw, and Rosa Angela Kirkcaldie, all of whom were recruited from the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. These seven nurses were the first women enlisted in the Royal Australian Navy. The ship returned to Australian on 22 December 1914 and the staff were demobilised. The first of the Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS) had already been deployed by this time, and it was not yet clear whether more AANS nurses would be deployed. So, impatient to rejoin the war effort, Kirkcaldie travelled to England at her own expense to join the Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service (QAIMNS). Burtinshaw would not return to military service as she married, making her ineligible for enlisting with the military. The five other nurses, De Mestre, McMillan, Colless, Clouston, and Neale all eventually enlisted with the Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS).
In the meantime, Australian women at home and abroad who wished to support the war effort began to get involved in other ways.
The Australian Voluntary Hospital
In August 1914 Rachel Ward, Countess of Dudley, the estranged wife of the former Governor-General of Australia, the Lord Dudley, decided to create a hospital from Australian doctors and nurses who were in the United Kingdom. There were relatively large numbers of Australian doctors and nurses because advanced qualifications required a trip overseas.
Lady Dudley discussed her proposal with King George V, and then with the Secretary of State for War, Lord Kitchener, and the British Army's Director General Army Medical Services, Sir Arthur Sloggett, who authorised the hospital. The hospital was formally offered to the British government by the Australian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Sir George Reid on 15 August 1914.The History of the Australian Voluntary Hospital, manuscript, pp. 1–7, Australian War Memorial: 1 DRL 667 12/11/1147 Volunteers responded to advertisements that Lady Dudley placed in English newspapers on 17 August 1914. Women doctors were not accepted, but women nurses were welcomed. Ida Greaves, from Royal Newcastle Hospital, was appointed matron. The hospital soon reached a strength of 120 staff, of whom 36 were nurses.
Military service
Women doctors At the time war broke out, there were 129 women doctors registered to practice in Australia, and over 1000 women were registered to practice in Britain. However, the primary roles for Australian women during the war was through nursing. No other official military roles were available to Australian women when World War I broke out. Nearly three decades earlier Australian universities started lifting their bans on women enrolling in medicine. In 1891 Laura Hope was the first woman to graduate with a medical degree in Australia, and in 1892 Helen Sexton was the third. Along with surgeon Lilian Cooper who earned her degree in London in 1890, these three doctors each had over 20 years of experience, and yet were not eligible to enlist with the AIF. Agnes Bennett, an Australian doctor living in New Zealand had 15 years' experience as a doctor in Australia, New Zealand and Europe, yet when she applied to Australian and New Zealand militaries and was told by a recruitment officer to "Stay home and knit for the war effort!" In May 1915, a notice was posted in the Sydney Morning Herald under the headline "NO WOMEN DOCTORS", which stated: The Minister for Defence is in receipt of a cable message from the High Commissioner, Sir George Reid, stating that the War Office regrets that it cannot utilise the service of women doctors.Doctors, such as Katie Ardill, Eleanor Elizabeth Bourne, and Phoebe Chapple, after being rejected by the Australian military, travelled at their own expense to enlist in other associated organisations taking part in the war effort. There were at least 26 known Australian women doctors who served in the war.
Nursing in the Australian military
The Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS) comprised more than 3,000 nurses during the war, over 2,200 of whom served outside Australia. Initially the AANS had no military ranks, and the organisation, and the AIF, were unclear about how the AANS might fit in with the AIF. At the time, the military's senior medical staff were reluctant to enlist women in nursing roles, preferring to train male soldiers as nursing orderlies. Major General Neville Howse, the director of the medical services in the AIF stated:The female nurse (as a substitute for the fully trained male nursing orderly) did little toward the actual saving of life in war... although she might promote a more rapid and complete recoveryPrincipal Matron of the 1st Australian General Hospital (1AGH), Jane Bell departed Australia in December 1914 and put pressure on the Army Medical Service to clarify the roles of the AANS staff, and allow the AANS autonomy. She had a number of serious disagreements regarding these matters with, Lieutenant-Colonel William Ramsay Smith, and the Registrar, James Barrett, an ophthalmologist from Melbourne. Due to the conflict, both Bell and Smith were recalled to Australia in August 1915. A subsequent inquiry into the matter found that clearer roles and greater AANS autonomy was required.