American Red Cross posters and the cultural politics of motherhood in World War I

Abstract

Scholars have long held that World War I markedly impacted women's participation in the public sphere as questions of appropriate wartime participation for women arose. Posters were an important tool for communicating notions of feminine citizenship and patriotism during the US involvement in the war. In this article, I explore the influence of the US involvement in World War I on social constructions of white femininity and citizenship through their portrayal in American Red Cross posters produced between 1914 and 1919. These posters offer a distinct visual documentation of the cultural shift in the portrayal of, and the insistence on, white women's – particularly nurses’ – responsibilities during wartime. I argue that the sentiments and language of the newly splintered women's movements were co-opted into the service of the war and were further emboldened with religious sentiments. American Red Cross posters called upon women to enact their presumed innate nurturing tendencies, and by extension, their feminine citizenship, at both the home and warfronts. In this way, the labor of the private sphere was drawn into the service of the war but without fully admitting women into the public sphere.

Los afiches de la Cruz Roja estadounidense y la política cultural de la maternidad en la Primera Guerra Mundial

Lxs investigadorxs han sostenido por mucho tiempo que la Primera Guerra Mundial tuvo un fuerte impacto sobre la participación de las mujeres en la esfera pública a medida que surgían las cuestiones sobre su adecuada participación. Los afiches fueron una importante herramienta para comunicar nociones de ciudadanía y patriotismo femeninos durante la participación de los EE.UU. en la guerra. En este artículo exploro la influencia de la participación de los EE.UU. en la Primera Guerra Mundial sobre las construcciones sociales de la feminidad y la ciudadanía blancas a través de su representación en los afiches de la Cruz Roja estadounidense producidos entre 1914 y 1919. Estos afiches ofrecen una documentación visual clara del cambio cultural en la representación de las responsabilidades de las mujeres blancas – particularmente las enfermeras – durante la guerra, y la insistencia sobre éstas. Sostengo que los sentimientos y el lenguaje de los movimientos de mujeres recientemente divididos fueron cooptados al servicio de la guerra y alentados aún más con sentimientos religiosos. Los afiches de la Cruz Roja estadounidense llamaban a las mujeres a ejercer su presuntamente innata tendencia al cuidado, y por extensión, su ciudadanía femenina, tanto en el frente doméstico como en el de la guerra. De esta manera, el trabajo de la esfera privada es llevado al servicio de la guerra pero sin admitir a las mujeres completamente en la esfera pública.

第一次世界大战期间，美国红十字会的海报与母职的文化政治

学者们长久以来认为，第一世界大战中，随着女性在战争期间的适当参与之问题的兴起，对女性的公共领域参与，产生显着的影响。在美国参战期间，海报是沟通女性公民权与爱国主义概念的重要工具。我在本文中，透过美国红十字会在1914年至1919年间所生产的海报中对女性的描绘，探讨美国在一战中的参与，对白人女性特质及公民权的社会建构之影响。这些海报，对于描绘和强调白人女性——特别是护士——在战争期间的责任之文化变迁，提供了特殊的视觉纪录。我主张，新分裂出的女性运动中的情绪及语言，被吸纳进对战争的服务中，并进一步受到宗教信仰的情绪所助长。美国红十字会的海报，召唤女性扮演其所预设的与生俱来的养育倾向，并扩张至她们同时在家中与在战争前线的女性公民权。私人层面的劳动，以此被纳入战争服务中，但却未能全面认可女性参与公共场域。

Keywords::

• gender
• World War I
• nurses
• American Red Cross posters
• patriotism
• citizenship

Palabras claves::

• género
• Primera Guerra Mundial
• enfermeras
• afiches de la Cruz Roja estadounidense
• patriotismo
• ciudadanía

关键词::

• 性别；第一次世界大战；护士；美国红十字会海报；爱国主义；公民身份

Acknowledgements

I must thank the very generous anonymous reviewers and Lynda Johnston and Jenny Lloyd for their kind comments, suggestions, and patience. I owe a great debt of gratitude to Kim England for her encouragement and to Kathryn A. Gillespie and Jason D. MacLeod for several read-throughs and notes.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

^1. An estimated 10 million women were already in the workforce before the US entry into the War (Blair 1990).

^2. There are a number of posters that do not depict nurses, but I am specifically interested in the changing figure of the female nurse.

^3. It may also bear acknowledging that artists brought to the posters their own personal interpretations of what makes the ARC nurse. I have not addressed the process by which the subjects were chosen or crafted, as I imagine that is an article in and of itself.

^4. The original photo used as a model for this poster was featured in an article highlighting the ‘Service Uniforms of Red Cross Workers’ in a 1918 photo spread.

^5. The Nightingale Pledge is the nurse's equivalent of the Hippocratic Oath for doctors. It is still recited at some pinning ceremonies, today.

^6. The number is unknown as these brochures were printed and distributed locally.

^7. Compare this to the foreign service nurses uniform in the Red Cross Magazine issue from 1918.

^8. See Revelations 6:1-8 for the striking description.

^9. For reference of Jesus and the Holy Spirit in the Bible as ‘the comforter,’ see John, Chapters 14–16; in Catholicism the Virgin Mary is known as ‘the Comforter of the Afflicted.’

Additional information

Notes on contributors

P.J. Lopez

Patricia J. Lopez received her Ph.D. in Geography from the University of Washington. Currently, she is a postdoctoral fellow at Dartmouth College with the Department of Geography. Her work centers on the intersections of war, humanitarianism, health, race, and citizenship. She is currently working on a project that explores the role of racism in disease etiology with a specific focus on the racialization of treponematoses during the first occupation of Haiti by the USA.