In the Service of the Fatherland

The term ‘home front’ describes the war work carried out by those ‘back home’ and emphasizes its significance for the war effort. The boundary between the front and home was, then, no part of the reality of war; rather, it existed in the imaginary world of the soldiers and the women who feared for their lives. The wide-scale involvement of women ­– whether as workers in the military-industrial complex or as volunteers in field hospitals – thus mitigates the notion of war as ‘men’s business’.

Women were mobilized in the service of the Fatherland even at the start of the war:

We call on Austria’s women to play their part in the war effort! In this moment, all women must be brought together in the greatest solidarity. Their willingness to work must become a reality, and all voices of opposition must be silent. [...] The family that is suddenly robbed of its breadwinner must be protected from the worst through women’s unity, women’s strength and women’s work.

This appeal was published by Frauenhilfsaktion im Kriege [Women’s War Assistance], which was founded a few days after the outbreak of war. It was, in fact, an umbrella organization which united various women’s organizations, including the Reichsorganisation der Hausfrauen Österreichs [Organization of Austrian Housewives], the Sozialdemokratische Frauenorganisation [Organization of Social-Democratic Women] and the liberal-bourgeois Bund österreichischer Frauenvereine [League of Austrian Women’s Associations] across party lines. The Frauenhilfsaktion called for unity among all women, pointing to the purportedly typical feminine attributes of care and motherliness. It collected donations for the front, helped out-of-work women who were looking for employment and set up sewing and knitting workshops where women made clothing and blankets for the army and hospitals in exchange for a small wage.

Women who were materially better off also volunteered their services, for example by knitting gloves and wrist warmers for the soldiers at the front. Needy working women saw the sewing and knitting of the upper-class and aristocratic women as a threat to their already precarious employment situations.

Women also undertook other voluntary work to help in the war effort, including preparing food and clothing for injured soldiers and making what were known as ‘Liebesgaben’ [alms, literally ‘gifts of love’] – parcels containing refreshments or warm knitted items. These were sent to provide soldiers on the front with emotional support. Newspapers printed precise instructions for making mittens, waist warmers and winter hats. Because the troops were so ill-equipped, the sewing and knitwear produced by the women and girls was declared a necessity of war.

The women who were involved in various forms of war work on the ‘home front’ made a significant contribution to the war effort. But while their activities were now for the first time publicly valued, and were seen as vital for both the state and the national economy, traditional gender rolls remained intact. Ultimately, women were called upon to serve the Fatherland through the supposedly feminine virtues of sacrifice, love and care.

Translation: Aimee Linekar