World War I, A Devastating Clash Between The Central...

World War I, a catastrophic clash between the Central Powers and the Allied powers played a significant role in the social shift across Western countries. Lasting from 1914 to 1918, the war had social consequences that greatly affected gender roles in Europe. Women replaced men in the workforce as hordes of men left the country for war, while men faced harsh gender expectations in the battlefield. Gender roles had existed long before the Great War, which began with the Separation of Spheres, an ideology that emerged in the Industrial revolution, prescribed distinct roles to males and females after 1850. The separation created two spheres or divisions of labor: the public sphere, roles assigned to males that included wage earning and†¦show more content†¦Although women experienced short-term changes in gender roles in the workforce, they received lower wages than men and expected to return to their roles in the domestic sector. In addition, the war emasculated soldiers throug h the traumatic experiences of shell shock, creating harsher male gender expectations in the medical community. The war, imposing brutal war myths, enforced the standards of masculinity and encouraged men to blindingly fight in the war, believing war was a rite of passage to manhood. Although women transitioned to traditionally male occupations in the short term, women received lower wages than men and were expected to return to their lower status effeminate roles after the war. Even during, many women served as nurses and medical personnel tending to the sick and wounded soldiers. In a World War I poster called We Need You, the illustrator depicts a nurse beckoning a women to assist in the war and tend to the injured soldier. The poster is an example of war propaganda that perpetuated the â€Å"nurturing stereotype† of women. They were denied the opportunity to fight in combat and forced to fit into the stereotypical effeminate mold. Women were financially disadvantaged and according to Gail Braybon, â€Å"All wages were low, but women were far lower than men’s, and those who campaigned for workers’ rights risked imprisonment or exile.† Women, especially in Russia experienced extreme