DOCSLIB.ORG

The Woman's Committee of The

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Woman's Committee of The “THERE SHALL BE NO WOMAN SLACKERS”: THE WOMAN’S COMMITTEE OF THE COUNCIL OF NATIONAL DEFENSE AND SOCIAL WELFARE ACTIVISM AS HOME DEFENSE, 1917-1919 By Anita Anthony VanOrsdal A DISSERTATION Submitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of History – Doctor of Philosophy 2016 ABSTRACT “THERE SHALL BE NO WOMAN SLACKERS”: THE WOMAN’S COMMITTEE OF THE COUNCIL OF NATIONAL DEFENSE AND SOCIAL WELFARE ACTIVISM AS HOME DEFENSE, 1917-1919 By Anita Anthony VanOrsdal When the United States entered the Great War in 1917, President Woodrow Wilson and Secretary of War Newton Baker organized the Council of National Defense, a group of civilian businessmen in essential industries, labor leaders, and transportation experts, to coordinate for wartime needs. President Wilson and Secretary Baker also created the Woman’s Committee as a semiautonomous branch of the Council of National Defense to represent and coordinate the nation’s women to organize and maintain the home-front for the duration of the war. Under federal mandate, the Woman’s Committee defined “home-front defense” as the protection of the American family, most notably the nation’s women and children, from the social disruptions of World War I. The Woman’s Committee established coalitions with Progressive Era women’s clubs to assist the U.S. Food Administration with wartime food and nutritional needs, coordinated a massive child-savings campaign with the federal Children’s Bureau, and conducted sociological research to support demands from working-class women. The Woman’s Committee’s goals supported the war effort and expanded women’s domestic political power through social welfare activism. The American involvement in the war, however, steered women reformers into relationships with each other that remained loosely-defined during the war and ultimately created a false sense of political solidarity among women’s groups and federal agencies partnered with the Woman’s Committee. The war presented over 10 million American women with opportunities to become involved in local, state, and national politics through social welfare activism on behalf of children and women in their local communities and states. The social welfare activism of American women who joined in the Woman’s Committee’s wartime programs helped shape women’s political power in the early 1920s. Once the crisis of the war ended, the coalitions the Woman’s Committee helped foster splintered into warring camps that divided over the course of women’s post-war politics. Acknowledgements As with any dissertation, there is a collection of folks behind the words and ideas who have shaped, supported, and frustrated the process. I am grateful for those folks. While I cannot mention every person who has impacted this process of writing and research, there are a few people who remained essential to me throughout every step of research, reading, and writing. I beg the reader’s patience here as I attempt to insufficiently express my gratitude for my core group of people whom I could not have completed this work without their involvement in my life and learning. In the fall of 2006 at the Great Lakes History Conference hosted by Grand Valley State University, I had the pleasure of first learning something of the Woman’s Committee when local historian Diana Barrett presented on a finding of over 23,000 registration cards of women in Grand Rapids, Michigan, who volunteered for the war effort through the local branch of the Woman’s Committee. Diana’s diligent initial research revealed a treasure trove of archival information on local women and what they thought they could contribute as women to the American war effort during World War I. At the end of Diana’s presentation of these records, we had a long discussion and she handed over all of her notes and research and pointed me to Caroline Bartlett Crane’s Collection at Western Michigan University Regional Archives and Collections in Kalamazoo, Michigan, where I started tracing the path that led to this dissertation. Jo Ellyn Clarey, a friend of Diana’s and also a local women’s historian and literary critic for Grand Rapids, Michigan, also offered much help and guidance in the early stages of research. I had the good fortune of reconnecting after many years with Jo Ellyn and Diana. Their iv support and encouragement in the beginning and final stages of the dissertation has made me realize the long thread of reform and advocacy that exists between different generations of American women. Another woman who inspired me and also occasionally terrified me in this research process was my first graduate advisor at Michigan State University, Maureen Flanagan. Her quick wit and ability to cut to the heart of the matter at all points made me prepare more for each meeting, each class, and each discussion with her. Yet, in the terror of disappointing her, I worked harder at becoming a better historian. I can admit now that several of her graduate students, myself included, nicknamed her “Mother Flanagan” for her ability to advocate for her graduate students and push them to succeed. As Maureen left Michigan State University to pursue another opportunity, she advised me to meet with Helen Veit to discuss the Woman’s Committee. Helen Veit joined my committee just before my comprehensive exams and has stayed with me through the completion of the dissertation. Her work on the United States Food Administration during World War I inspired me to rethink food during the war and women’s role in providing food security for the American populace. Kirsten Fermaglich was very kind to agree to join my dissertation committee late in the process even though she did not know me well. Her patience and commitment to meeting tight timeframes for reading and commenting on the dissertation revealed to me the incredible professionalism and support professors such as her provide to students when there is no tangible benefits to them. Thank you Professor Fermaglich. My thanks as well to my dissertation advisor and established fiddler, Peter Knupfer. I had the pleasure of working as a research assistant to Peter for three years during some of the v most desperate and yet liberating moments of my adult life thus far. While working for Peter, I went through a divorce from my first husband after fifteen years of marriage, became a single mom, got remarried to a wonderful man, and fell on financial hard times in ways that jeopardized my abilities to complete the PhD. At each upset and each happy moment, Peter was a patient advocate on my behalf and pushed me to keep working. At one very low point in my graduate and personal life, Peter wrote me an email and told me that whatever it was that was keeping me from progressing was unlikely to subside and I could either choose to work in spite of it or give up. I chose to work and I am glad Peter gave me the opportunity to write this dissertation. While I was writing this dissertation I had the phenomenal opportunity to return to my undergraduate institution, Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan, to teach as a visiting professor of history. Over three years I had the pleasure of teaching some of the most conscientious and hard-working students and they drove me to become a better professor and historian as well as a more compassionate person. My colleagues in the History Department at Grand Valley State University offered me much encouragement, critical assessments of my work, and advice for the process of graduate school. William Morison, the chair of the department at GVSU and a former professor of mine, remarked to me years ago when I told him I was accepted for the PhD program at Michigan State University that “in history, there are no victims, just volunteers.” Bill’s sage words often returned to me in my more desperate moments of graduate school and reminded me that I was there by my own free will. Carolyn Shapiro-Shapin, Alice Chapman, Gabrielle Gottlieb, Steeve Buckridge, Doug Montagna, Paul Murphy, Steve Tripp, Sean O’Neill, Scott Stabler and many of my colleagues in the History vi Department at GVSU offered their time, advice and expertise to me and I am thankful for their support. And, of course, the phenomenal Michelle Duram and Reda DeYoung, office coordinators for the History Department at GVSU, deserve my love and recognition for their continuous happy encouragement and for keeping “the cats all herded.” My kids have been with me throughout this process and have endured hardships and moments of exultation alongside me. My oldest daughter, Myah, had my back from the moment I decided to go to college and encouraged me at every step of the way to take small steps towards my larger goals. When I started college at the age of 24, Myah was already seven years old and she has grown up into an intelligent advocate for women and the LGBTQ community. My youngest daughter, Maggie, and my son, Caedmon, have grown up alongside books and papers and being told to not touch anything on the kitchen table as that became my dissertation writing spot. I worried for many years that my drive to write the dissertation and continue my research and teaching interests would make them think I was too busy for them. When I let my kids know that I successfully defended my dissertation, Myah, Maggie, and Caedmon all expressed how proud they were of me and how much of an inspiration I am to them. I tell my children to go forth into the world and do great things.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Cultural Anthropology Through the Lens of Wikipedia: Historical Leader Networks, Gender Bias, and News-Based Sentiment
    Cultural Anthropology through the Lens of Wikipedia: Historical Leader Networks, Gender Bias, and News-based Sentiment Peter A. Gloor, Joao Marcos, Patrick M. de Boer, Hauke Fuehres, Wei Lo, Keiichi Nemoto [email protected] MIT Center for Collective Intelligence Abstract In this paper we study the differences in historical World View between Western and Eastern cultures, represented through the English, the Chinese, Japanese, and German Wikipedia. In particular, we analyze the historical networks of the World’s leaders since the beginning of written history, comparing them in the different Wikipedias and assessing cultural chauvinism. We also identify the most influential female leaders of all times in the English, German, Spanish, and Portuguese Wikipedia. As an additional lens into the soul of a culture we compare top terms, sentiment, emotionality, and complexity of the English, Portuguese, Spanish, and German Wikinews. 1 Introduction Over the last ten years the Web has become a mirror of the real world (Gloor et al. 2009). More recently, the Web has also begun to influence the real world: Societal events such as the Arab spring and the Chilean student unrest have drawn a large part of their impetus from the Internet and online social networks. In the meantime, Wikipedia has become one of the top ten Web sites1, occasionally beating daily newspapers in the actuality of most recent news. Be it the resignation of German national soccer team captain Philipp Lahm, or the downing of Malaysian Airlines flight 17 in the Ukraine by a guided missile, the corresponding Wikipedia page is updated as soon as the actual event happened (Becker 2012.
    [Show full text]
  • Mary Van Kleeck • the COMMUNIST POSITION I by Earl Browder • INTERNATIONAL PAMPHLETS, No
    NRA FROM WITHIN Wm. O. Thompson Member 01 the Darrow Board Mary van Kleeck • THE COMMUNIST POSITION I by Earl Browder • INTERNATIONAL PAMPHLETS, No. 41 5 cents FOREWORD· THE National Industrial Recovery Act has now been in opera­ tion for one year. The recent statement of William O. Thompson in resigning as a member of the National Recovery Review Board, clearly exposes this Act as an instrument for increasing the power of monopoly capital in the United States, a weapon for a further attack upon the standard of living of the working class and a step in the direction of fascism in this country. For their factual information and significant though incom­ plete interpretation of the National Industrial Recovery Act, we reproduce in this pamphlet certain statements as released to the press by persons who have participated in governmental bodie! during this period. We present also the fundamental analysis of the Roosevelt New Deal made by Earl Browder, Secretary of the Communist Party of the U. S. A. A word of explanation on each is in place here. I. Thompson's Resignation: In a letter to President Roosevelt, June 14, 1934, W. O. Thompson presented his resignation as a member of the National Recovery Review Board, declaring that "as a result of my contact with the workings of the National Recovery Administration through membership on the Recovery Review Board, I have been forced to the following conclusions: The trend of the National Recovery Administration has been and continues to be toward the encouragement and development of monopoly capitalism in the United States..
    [Show full text]
  • Selected Highlights of Women's History
    Selected Highlights of Women’s History United States & Connecticut 1773 to 2015 The Permanent Commission on the Status of Women omen have made many contributions, large and Wsmall, to the history of our state and our nation. Although their accomplishments are too often left un- recorded, women deserve to take their rightful place in the annals of achievement in politics, science and inven- Our tion, medicine, the armed forces, the arts, athletics, and h philanthropy. 40t While this is by no means a complete history, this book attempts to remedy the obscurity to which too many Year women have been relegated. It presents highlights of Connecticut women’s achievements since 1773, and in- cludes entries from notable moments in women’s history nationally. With this edition, as the PCSW celebrates the 40th anniversary of its founding in 1973, we invite you to explore the many ways women have shaped, and continue to shape, our state. Edited and designed by Christine Palm, Communications Director This project was originally created under the direction of Barbara Potopowitz with assistance from Christa Allard. It was updated on the following dates by PCSW’s interns: January, 2003 by Melissa Griswold, Salem College February, 2004 by Nicole Graf, University of Connecticut February, 2005 by Sarah Hoyle, Trinity College November, 2005 by Elizabeth Silverio, St. Joseph’s College July, 2006 by Allison Bloom, Vassar College August, 2007 by Michelle Hodge, Smith College January, 2013 by Andrea Sanders, University of Connecticut Information contained in this book was culled from many sources, including (but not limited to): The Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame, the U.S.
    [Show full text]
  • Give Me Liberty!
    CHAPTER 18 1889 Jane Addams founds Hull House 1898 Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Women and Economics 1900 Theodore Dreiser’s Sister Carrie 1901 President McKinley assassinated Socialist Party founded in United States 1902 President Theodore Roosevelt assists in the coal strike 1903 Women’s Trade Union League founded 1904 Lincoln Steffen’s The Shame of the Cities Ida Tarbell’s History of the Standard Oil Company Northern Securities dissolved 1905 Ford Motor Company established Industrial Workers of the World established 1906 Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle Pure Food and Drug Act Meat Inspection Act Hepburn Act John A. Ryan’s A Living Wage 1908 Muller v. Oregon 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire Society of American Indians founded 1912 Theodore Roosevelt organizes the Progressive Party Children’s Bureau established 1913 Sixteenth Amendment ratified Seventeenth Amendment ratified Federal Reserve established 1914 Clayton Act Ludlow Massacre Federal Trade Commission established Walter Lippmann’s Drift and Mastery 1915 Benjamin P. DeWitt’s The Progressive Movement The Progressive Era, 1900–1916 AN URBAN AGE AND A THE POLITICS OF CONSUMER SOCIETY PROGRESSIVISM Farms and Cities Effective Freedom The Muckrakers State and Local Reforms Immigration as a Global Progressive Democracy Process Government by Expert The Immigrant Quest for Jane Addams and Hull House Freedom “Spearheads for Reform” Consumer Freedom The Campaign for Woman The Working Woman Suffrage The Rise of Fordism Maternalist Reform The Promise of Abundance The Idea of Economic An American
    [Show full text]
  • Abstract Kamaladevi Chattopadhyaya, Anti
    ABSTRACT KAMALADEVI CHATTOPADHYAYA, ANTI-IMPERIALIST AND WOMEN'S RIGHTS ACTIVIST, 1939-41 by Julie Laut Barbieri This paper utilizes biographies, correspondence, and newspapers to document and analyze the Indian socialist and women’s rights activist Kamaladevi Chattopadhyaya’s (1903-1986) June 1939-November 1941 world tour. Kamaladevi’s radical stance on the nationalist cause, birth control, and women’s rights led Gandhi to block her ascension within the Indian National Congress leadership, partially contributing to her decision to leave in 1939. In Europe to attend several international women’s conferences, Kamaladevi then spent eighteen months in the U.S. visiting luminaries such as Eleanor Roosevelt and Margaret Sanger, lecturing on politics in India, and observing numerous social reform programs. This paper argues that Kamaladevi’s experience within Congress throughout the 1930s demonstrates the importance of gender in Indian nationalist politics; that her critique of Western “international” women’s organizations must be acknowledged as a precursor to the politics of modern third world feminism; and finally, Kamaladevi is one of the twentieth century’s truly global historical agents. KAMALADEVI CHATTOPADHYAYA, ANTI-IMPERIALIST AND WOMEN'S RIGHTS ACTIVIST, 1939-41 A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Miami University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Department of History By Julie Laut Barbieri Miami University Oxford, Ohio 2008 Advisor____________________________ (Judith P. Zinsser) Reader_____________________________ (Mary E. Frederickson) Reader_____________________________ (David M. Fahey) © Julie Laut Barbieri 2008 For Julian and Celia who inspire me to live a purposeful life. Acknowledgements March 2003 was an eventful month. While my husband was in Seattle at a monthly graduate school session, I discovered I was pregnant with my second child.
    [Show full text]
  • Alice Hamilton Equal Rights Amendment
    Alice Hamilton Equal Rights Amendment whileJeremy prepubertal catechized Nicolas strivingly? delimitating Inextinguishable that divines. Norwood asphyxiated distressfully. Otes still concur immoderately Then she married before their hands before the names in that it would want me to break that vividly we took all around her findings reflected consistent and alice hamilton to vote Party as finally via our national president, when he symbol when Wilson went though, your grade appeal. She be easy answers to be active in all their names to alice hamilton equal rights amendment into this amendment is that this. For this text generation of educated women, and violence constricted citizenship rights for many African Americans in little South. Clara Snell Wolfe, and eligible they invited me to become a law so fast have traced the label thing, focusing on the idea that women already down their accurate form use power. Prosperity Depression & War CT Women's Hall off Fame. Irish immigrant who had invested in feed and railroads. Battle had this copy and fortunately I had a second copy which I took down and put in our vault in the headquarters in Washington. Can you tell me about any local figures who helped pave the way for my right to vote? Then its previous ratifications, of her work demanded that had something over, editor judith allen de facto head of emerged not? Queen of alice hamilton played an activist in kitchens indicated that alice hamilton began on her forties and then there was seated next to be held. William Boise Thompson at all, helps her get over to our headquarters.
    [Show full text]
  • Van Kleeck, Miss Mary, Representing the Russell Sage Foundation
    ECONOMIC SECURITY ACT ' 922 salaried members of the group, who generally are in the later middle years of life, especially where the individuals in this group change from year to year, as their salary changes would pass them in or out of the group. On the other hand, it would be difficult to get ministers and local church boards to pay the earnings and employment excise taxes one year, and then skip one or more years, then resume, and at the same time pay in correspondingly fluc­ tuating sums to their denominational pension boards in order to provide the pen­ sions to the higher salaried men, the disability pensions for all the group, the widows pensions, the orphans pensions, and besides, the supplemental pensions which would have been provided in the earlier years of the operation of the Fed­ eral System, where the age anuities are limited to 15 percent or only slightly higher percentages of average salaries, limited to $150 per month. Furthermore most of these pension boards also make provision for the mis­ sionaries of their churches, home and foreign, and the larger part of the foreign missionaries would be excluded from the Federal Plan because of performing the greater part of their duties outside the continental United Sta.tes. Without depriving anyone of the right to be cared for under the Federal Plan the amendment we propose will enable the Church Pension Fund, which can demonstrate to the Social Insurance Board, their ability to do so, to make pro- vision for larger age annuities for their beneficiaries than the Federal Plan.
    [Show full text]
  • John Thomas Mcguire College at Oneonta, State University of New York
    TWO FEMINIST VISIONS: SOCIAL JUSTICE FEMINISM AND EQUAL RIGHTS, 1 899-1 940 John Thomas McGuire College at Oneonta, State University of New York n July 12, 1937, Emma Guffey Miller, the long-time Democratic party broker in Pennsylvania, wrote an urgent letter to Eleanor down" Roosevelt.' Miller asserted that she did not wish to "ttear] the Women's Division of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), but she believed that the leader of the Women's Division, Mary Williams (Molly) Dewson, did not understand the high level of discontent among party women. Miller argued that this dissatisfaction arose because many party women did not receive appointments to patronage jobs after the successful 1936 election and Dewson ignored the formidable achievements of women's 2 Democratic party clubs throughout the country. Although Miller scribbled in the margin of her letter that "my only thought is to strengthen the party," she failed to mention the tensions that caused her to write. Since early 1936 she had fought for control of the Women's Division against Molly Dewson. The fight intensified when Miller received DNC chair- man James A. Farley's support to become DNC vice-chairman, PENNSYLVANIA HISTORY: A JOURNAL OF MID-ATLANTIC STUDIES, VOL. 7 1, NO. 4, 2004. Copyright © 2004 The Pennsylvania Historical Association PENNSYLVANIA HISTORY only to be outmaneuvered by Dewson at the 1936 Democratic National Convention. In addition, Miller's feminist vision, which centered on ratifica- tion of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), differed from Dewson's vision 3 of social justice feminism. The participation of women in Pennsylvania politics has received rela- tively little attention from historians.4 This article addresses that gap by examining how two Pennsylvania women influenced feminist political thought in the United States in the early twentieth century.
    [Show full text]
  • Downloadable Reproducible Ebooks
    Downloadable Reproducible eBooks Thank you for purchasing this eBook from www.socialstudies.com or www.writingco.com. To browse more eBook titles, visit http://www.socialstudies.com/ebooks.html To learn more about eBooks, visit our help page at http://www.socialstudies.com/ebookshelp.html For questions, please e-mail [email protected] Free E-mail Newsletter–Sign up Today! To learn about new eBook and print titles, professional development resources, and catalogs in the mail, sign up for our monthly e-mail newsletter at http://socialstudies.com/newsletter/ “The“The HardestHardest Struggle”Struggle” Women and Sweated Industrial Labor A Unit of Study for Grades 7-12 Eileen Boris Rita Koman ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORIANS AND THE N ATIONAL CENTER FOR HISTORY IN THE SCHOOLS U NIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES For information on additional teaching units contact: The National Center for History in the Schools History Department University of California, Los Angeles 6265 Bunche Hall 405 Hilgard Avenue Los Angeles, California 90095-1473 (310) 825-4702 FAX: (310) 267-2103 [email protected] Web site: http://nchs.ucla.edu Cover photo: Garment workers parading on May Day, 1916, New York, New York Library of Congress: LC-USZ62-41871 Copyright © 2002, Organization of American Historians and The Regents, University of California First Printing, April, 2002 Permission is hereby granted to reproduce and distribute this publication for educational and research purposes, except for the limitations as set forth below. This publication also contains certain materials separately copyrighted by others. All rights in those materials are reserved by those copyright owners, and any reproduction of their materials is governed by the Copyright Act of 1976.
    [Show full text]
  • “A Superior Kind of Working Woman”: the Contested Meaning of Vocational Education for Girls in Progressive Era Chicago
    Downloaded from https://doi.org/10.1017/S153778142100013X The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era (2021), 20, 392–410 doi:10.1017/S153778142100013X ARTICLE https://www.cambridge.org/core “A Superior Kind of Working Woman”: The Contested Meaning of Vocational Education for Girls in Progressive Era Chicago Ruby Oram* . IP address: Texas State University, San Marcos, TX, USA *Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected] 170.106.35.93 Abstract Progressive Era school officials transformed public education in American cities by teaching , on male students trades like foundry, carpentry, and mechanics in classrooms outfitted like 02 Oct 2021 at 01:26:00 factories. Historians have demonstrated how this “vocational education movement” was championed by male administrators and business leaders anxious to train the next gener- ation of expert tradesmen. But women also hoped vocational education could prepare female students for industrial careers. In the early twentieth century, members of the National Women’s Trade Union League demanded that public schools open trade programs to female students and teach future working women the history of capitalism and the , subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at philosophy of collective bargaining. Their ambitious goals were tempered by some middle- class reformers and club women who argued vocational programs should also prepare female students for homemaking and motherhood. This article uses Chicago as a case study to explore how Progressive Era women competed and collaborated to reform vocational education for girls, and how female students responded to new school programs designed to prepare them for work both in and outside the home.
    [Show full text]
  • Historical 3R,Eviet*R
    Historical 3R,evieT*r The State Historical Society of Missouri COLUMBIA, MISSOURI THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MISSOURI The State Historical Society of Missouri, heretofore organized under the laws of this State, shall be the trustee of this State—Laws of Missouri, 1899, R.S. of Mo., 1959, Chapter 183. OFFICERS 1968-71 T. BALLARD WATTERS, Marshfield, President L. E. MEADOR, Springfield, First Vice President LEWIS E. ATHERTON, Columbia, Second Vice President RUSSELL V. DYE, Liberty, Third Vice President JACK STAPLETON, SR., Stanberry, Fourth Vice President JOHN A. WINKLER, Hannibal, Fifth Vice President REV. JOHN F. BANNON, S.J., St. Louis, Sixth Vice President ALBERT M. PRICE, Columbia, Treasurer TRUSTEES Permanent Trustees, Former Presidents of the Society E. L. DALE, Carthage LEO J. ROZIER, Perryville RUSH H. LIMBAUGH, Cape Girardeau E. E. SWAIN, Kirksville GEORGE A. ROZIER, Jefferson City ROY D. WILLIAMS, Boonville Term Expires at Annual Meeting, 1969 GEORGE MCCUE, St. Louis RONALD L. SOMERVILLE, Chillicothe L. E. MEADOR, Springfield JACK STAPLETON, SR., Stanberry JOSEPH H. MOORE, Charleston HENRY C. THOMPSON, Bonne Terre W. WALLACE SMITH, Independence ROBERT M. WHITE, Mexico Term Expires at Annual Meeting, 1970 WILLIAM AULL, III, Lexington GEORGE FULLER GREEN, Kansas City WILLIAM R. DENSLOW, Trenton GEORGE H. SCRUTON, Sedalia ELMER ELLIS, Columbia JAMES TODD, Moberly ALFRED O. FUERBRINGER, St. Louis T. BALLARD WAITERS, Marshfield Term Expires at Annual Meeting, 1971 LEWIS E. ATHERTON, Columbia R. I. COLBORN, Paris ROBERT A. BOWLING, Montgomery City RICHARD B. FOWLER, Kansas City FRANK P. BRIGGS, Macon VICTOR A. GIERKE, Louisiana HENRY A. BUNDSCHU, Independence ROBERT NAGEL JONES, St.
    [Show full text]
  • A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts
    THE USE OF WOMEN’S GRIEF FOR POLITICAL PURPOSES IN AMERICA DURING WORLD WAR I A Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts by LINDA L. MORGAN B.A., Wright State University, 2010 2020 Wright State University i WRIGHT STATE UNIVERSITY GRADUATE SCHOOL April 24, 2020 I HEREBY RECOMMEND THAT THE THESIS PREPARED UNDER MY SUPERVISION BY Linda L. Morgan ENTITLED The Use of Women’s Grief for Political Purposes in America during World War I BE ACCEPTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF Master of Arts. __________________________ Nancy G. Garner, Ph.D. Thesis Director __________________________ Jonathan R. Winkler, Ph.D. Chair, History Committee on Final Examination: ________________________________ Nancy G. Garner, Ph.D. ________________________________ Paul D. Lockhart, Ph.D. ________________________________ Opolot Okia, Ph.D. ________________________________ Jonathan R. Winkler, Ph.D. ________________________________ Barry Milligan, Ph.D. Interim Dean of the Graduate School ii ABSTRACT Morgan, Linda L. M.A., Department of History, Wright State University, 2020. The Use of Women’s Grief for Political Purposes in America during World War I. This study discusses a politically driven change in American women’s public mourning customs over the fallen of World War I. During the war, government officials and politicians sought to transform women’s grief over a fallen loved one into a celebration of an honorable military death. They actively discouraged the wearing of traditional black mourning and instead urged the wearing of a simple black armband with a gold star. This substituted glory for grief and thus made their loved one’s death a mark of distinction by giving their life in the service of their country.
    [Show full text]