During World War One the women nursing on the battle fields played a major role in assisting with the care and recovery of Australian soldiers at war. The nurses were faced with many problems such as a lack of supplies, clean water, limited space and the constant flow of wounded, sick or dead soldiers. While people flooded in, nurses were forced to work fast and for long periods of time. The nurses were suffering from exhaustion but would continue to clean, bandage, comfort and warm soldiers to the best of their ability with their limits. Matron Grace Wilson described conditions to be “to awful for words”. Throughout this war all nurses showed tremendous dedication to their job which was made exceptionally hard because even though with little …show more content…
When WWI broke out women were expected to raise children alone, manage a home, join voluntary organisations and help encourage more young men to enlist in the war.

Previous to the war women were only seen to be capable of staying at home and performing domestic jobs but when the war commenced women were allowed out more in replacement of the men who had left for war. They begun taking roles considered as “mens work” although their wages were 54% lower than any man doing the same job. However, due to the high demand of women wanting jobs, unfortunately there was not enough positions available. Many women then turned to velentary organisations such as The Red Cross to help supply clothing for the soldiers facing the hash winters and so they felt like they were apart of the war. Jan Bassett said “ Soon after the war began, women and girls were knitting socks, scarves and balaclavas, for the soldiers. They knitted at home, on trams, in churches. When they ran out of knitting needles, they made new ones from bicycle spokes: when they ran out of dye, they used onion skins and wattle bark; when they ran out of wool, they learnt to spin their own.”Throughout this war women devoted a lot of their time and effort into helping our soldiers to succeed, even if they