High Heeled Shoes.............Love them............Can't wear them................

When I was younger I loved to wear high heeled shoes, in fact I was wearing them only 2yrs ago without any problem now I am not talking about stilettos but high heeled shoes. The shoes had 3-3 ½ inch wedge heels on them and I loved them.

Now though this last year I have found it difficult to wear the shoes they feel ok on but after 45-60 minutes I feel like my ankle or knee is going to give out on me and I will fall over. In fact I have fallen over a couple of times wearing them, it is like my ankle and knee are not stable enough for me to wear the shoes.

When I wear them I always take a spare pair of shoes that are semi flat meaning they have a slight heel, I can't wear flat shoes they make my legs ache something fierce.

I feel that I may have to accept that my high heel wearing days are over because it is not a nice feeling to feel like your ankle is going to give out on you causing you to fall over.

Anyone else have this problem?

Is it just part of getting older, or is just me?

My mum used to wear heels all the time too but hasn't worn them much in the last 15-20 years, she told me she gave up wearing them altogether after her last fall when she broke her shoulder that was in 98.

I am so like my mum I feel it is bloody lucky that I haven't had more falls and suffered any breaks although unlike my mum I have taken calcium tablets for the last 10 years to help keep my bones strong.

The pictured shoes are not my shoes found the pictures on the internet, but my shoes are the same just different colours.

A long ass bitch about things............sorry.............

Good morning all, how is everyone on this fine Saturday morning I didn't do five things for Friday yesterday because well I forgot.

My Friday was about as busy as always, although I did have to drive Blain to school and then come home and wait for the tow truck to pick up Jessica's car.

Yes My Blain stayed Thursday night his mum said she wouldn't have a car to get him to school and his school is near my house so he stayed here.

Jessica's car well it was backfiring and stalling a lot on Monday night she drove it to her sisters place in the afternoon and when it came time to leave it backfired and stalled three times before she even got out of the street so she decided to drive it back here and stay here the night and Tim booked it into Gaspower to have it looked at.

Now because it was backfiring and stalling all the time and in fact on the 1k trip from Natasha's to here it backfired and stalled 6 times, neither Jessica or myself wanted to drive the car to Gaspower which is about a 3k trip. So we told Tim we didn't want to drive it and he got all pissy over it and thought we were babies.

Anyway I left it said nothing for a day then told him I thought we should have the car towed to Gaspower through the NRMA

(National Roads & Motorists Association) we pay into the NRMA roadside assist so the tow cost nothing. When I brought up having it towed he was like that is a good idea, it may be too dangerous to drive the car.

Yeah Tim what changed, oh I know you want to work bitched about how your wife and daughter were babies for not wanting to drive the car and someone said they thought it might be dangerous to drive it and so you changed your mind I know you my love................lol

So Jessica's car is now running ok and it only cost her $450 all up to get the backfiring to stop and of course this happened at rego time so all up again to get her car registered again it cost her $1,500. This is the third year in a row that she has had to fork out that much money to keep the car on the road.

Tim is off work today and at last going to have his eyesight checked not because anything is wrong but because at our age we should have it checked every 2 years.

Oh yeah my mum is at last on antibiotics and starting to sound a little better but she still has a ways to go before she is well it has been like a week and half that she has been sick and this is not like mum, she doesn't get sick this is the sickest we have seen her in like 6 years I think.

Despite being really sick she has been still getting up and driving grandchildren to school and daycare and going to the shops to get things she needs and then going home and back to bed. I could go mad at her but lets be honest I would do the same.

I could have a bitch about Jessica and how she isn't on top of things happening at Leo's school, like the fact that there is this big school spectacular happening next Thursday night and when I asked her if Leo was in it and if so what did he have to wear.

Well she had no idea, yes he is in it and has to dress up like a bikie in black jeans, back shirt, back shoes or boats, sunglasses and a bandana for his head. So now I have to find him the right clothes and shoes his school shoes are black so he can wear them and I have jeans in his drawer and I should be able to find him a black shirt. I did tell Jessica to look for his black boots and all she could say is I don't know where they are and in the end she made me so frustrated just talking to her about this. I feel like she is the mother she is the one who should be all over this but no it falls to me, just like his homework is all up to me. I love her but at times she makes me want to scream and yes Jessica I know you don't like me talking about you on my blog but it is my blog and I will if I want to............so there............

Sorry this has ended up a long ass post, with a lot of bitching from me. 

Wulstan Tempest

Ok now I will tell you a little about Wulstan Tempest yeah I know you are thinking who the hell was Wulstan Tempest well he was the guy who shot down Heinrich Mathy during the First World War.

He received the DSO for his actions, I will tell you more about what the DSO is in a later post.

At about 11.45 pm on the 2^nd January 1916 Second Lieutenant Wulstan J. Tempest was approximately two hours into his patrol. A large portion of this time had been spent in climbing to bring his BE2c plane to its patrolling height of about 14,500 feet - over two and a half miles high. From this height he saw several of the searchlights to the North of London - about fifteen miles away - converge upon one distant, silvery, cigar-shaped object.

Tempest, of course, knew exactly what he was looking at, and headed towards the Zeppelin at top speed. He was not the only part of London's air-defence to have been jolted into action that night - by the time he got closer to the Zeppelin he found himself flying through large amounts of anti-aircraft fire as more and more batteries began firing at the airship.

Tempest closed with the airship and dived at it, firing a burst from his machine-gun as he approached, and another burst into the underside of the L31 as he passed below. His gun was loaded with a mixture of tracer, incendiary and ordinary ammunition, so he could see that he was hitting his target, but nothing happened.

Tempest got into position under the tail of the ship and fired a long burst as he flew along its length. He saw the envelope begin to glow from the inside like "a giant chinese-lantern" and then flames began to spurt out of the forward end and almost at once, it seemed, the Zeppelin began to fall.

He was soon promoted to Major and served with 100 Squadron, Royal Flying Corps, operating night-bombers on the Western Front, eventually commanding the unit until June 1918. He left the RAF in 1921 and died in 1966.

First World War Airships and Bombers

The first world war was also a war of firsts during the war we saw the first tanks, the first WMD's, the first Submarines and the first airplanes used in war.

I will talk about all of these over the next week or two I will start with the first “Blitz” when we hear the word “Blitz” we think of the bombing of London in 1940 but the first Blitz took place in 1915 when Germany bombed England to try and get them to quit the war.

The Germans didn't use airplanes they had airships called Zeppelins they were invented by a man named Zeppelin, in fact his name was Count Ferdinand Von Zeppelin.

The most famous German airship commander was Heinrich Mathy who was born in 1883 and died in an attack during the first blitz on the 2^nd January 1916, his death had a serious affect on other German airship personal.

In fact he was one of the very few Germans whose name was known in not only Germany households but in Britain households as well. He was feared as the most daring and audacious of all the Zeppelin raiders.

During the airship attacks 557 people died and there was like 1,300 people injured. However the demise of the airships didn't mean the end of bombing attacks on Britain.

After the Zeppelin came the Gotha bomber it was a heavy bomber used by the Germans it faster and bigger it came along 6 months after the last Zeppelin raid and the results were deadly they targeted only civilians in the raids.

On the 13^th June 1917 14 German planes attack London it was the deadliest bombing attack on London they dropped bombs on homes causing hundreds of casualties then they dropped bombs onto a primary school. A 110pound bomb landed on classroom of 5yr olds, 18 children are killed and 30 more injured, in total 162 were killed and 426 injured by 10,000 pounds of bombs being dropped.

Germany thought the air raids would break the British people but they were wrong and the British people accepted the bombing and moved on.

I know you maybe wondering why I haven't mentioned Manfred Albrecht Freiherr Von Richthofen aka the Red Barron who was a German Fighter Pilot with the Imperial German Army Air Service during the First World War he was considered the to ace of the war, being officially credited with 80 air combat victories but he was not involved with the Blitz as far as I could find out.

The war would only last another 6 months.

Good Morning a little about Jessica's Car and my Mum's Health

Good morning all what a day I had yesterday I spent it doing nothing much at all I read some blogs in the morning then I spent the rest of the day just watching telly and doing nothing much at all. It was nice Tim is in Sydney working he left at 3am yesterday (Saturday) morning and will be back this afternoon sometime or maybe it is sometime tonight.

Today I have Kathy and the girls and Jessica and Leo here for lunch, why well because on Friday Tim had taken Jessica's car to work so he could take it to the mechanic that cost $302 anyway he didn't get home from work till after 6pm so Jessica wanted me to take her home, why she couldn't take her work car home I don't know but for some reason she didn't want to.

Oh yeah and her car is still back firing and not just when you accelerator but as you drive along it was so bad that I don't want to drive it it. Tim said that it needs leads and something replaced and may a coil whatever that is.

So on Friday when I drop her off at home she asks me if I would drive her car down so she can have her car to get her back here tomorrow so she can go to work. So since I don't want to drive her car I have asked Kathy if she would go down and pick her and Leo up and bring them back here.

I told Kathy that is she did this for me I would make crumbed steak and chips for lunch as like her dad and me she loves her crumbed steak, I also offered to give her fuel money but she said she didn't need anything for fuel. I am very happy that I don't have to drive Jessica's car. So thank you Kathy-Lee my precious first born daughter for going and getting her.

Other news my mum who never gets sick has been very sick since last Wednesday but did it stop her going to do some shopping on Friday morning no she went and did her shopping and then went home back to bed, and mum has to be really sick for her to go back to bed but she has been spending a lot of time in bed since last Wednesday or she has been laying on the lounge watching telly as she gets tired and sore laying in bed too much.

Oh yeah Sydney-May has at long last moved into another car seat she was in the same car seat from birth and she is now 4 ½ years old.

Well that is it for this post

Five Things Friday...............this week we have a theme

Here we are at Friday again, hell it comes around fast doesn't it or is it just me........................anyway here is my five things for this Friday

Dress for your age

Dress for your size

Leggings/tights are not pants, wear a long top or skirt/dress over them please

Make up should not need a hammer and chisel to be removed.

Bra's were invented for a reason, wear one...........

A Family Update

Damn it is cold again today, I am so over all this cold weather I think the cold weather is part of the reason that my back is hurting so much.

Jessica is much better still not 100% but she is out of bed and sitting in the loungeroom playing with her phone and complaining about how loud I have the telly.

Didn't go to see nanna today as mum is not well and that is rare, it is not often that my mum is unwell.

This morning Leo slept in we had to wake him up at 8am to get ready for school, we leave the house by 8.30 although today it was nearly 8.40am when we left the house. After taking Leo to school I had to go and get fresh bread and nasal spray for Kathy and take it out to her, she is at work today and was having trouble breathing.

Speaking of Kathy she is not happy with herself at the moment I got a text from her the other day complaining about her weight she said her work pants don't fit and she has no idea how to stop eating the foods she likes as she has no self control I told her she is like her mum and nanna we all battle without weight from our late 20's.

Jessica said she will be going back to her place tonight she has been here since Sunday night and it will be good to have room in my bed again. Tim was saying that Leo was a right bed hog last night, usually it is me that Leo is sleeping close to and hugging during the night but last night it was Tim. I don't know if I will feel like have Leo Friday night or not I guess I will decide on Friday.

Yesterday Natasha rang me and asked if I would go over and stay with Blain while she went to the shops, he was sent home sick from school and she needed to get him some medicine and then later in the afternoon she rings and wants to know if I have $10 I can give her for food. I say give her as there is no way I would get it back and to be honest I wouldn't ask for it back that is just not me.

Kelli is doing better she is putting pressure on her toes now when she fell over she had Daemon in her arms so when she fell she made sure she fell in a way that he wouldn't hit his head which is why she damaged the tendons in her ankle. She says that Jono has been amazing helping with cooking, cleaning and taking care of Daemon and her.

My niece Kirsty and nephew Vaughan turn 24 today so a big happy birthday to them. 

Some People Make Me Mad Then.............. I Think

Good morning all, it is another cold and wet day here and I have Jessica asleep in the spare room again why this time you wonder well she is sick has been since Sunday night. She has a rotten headache and no voice and all over feeling like death warmed up, she is here so I can help her with Leo and she can sleep a lot and not worry about what he is getting into.

Now on last Friday while I was out shopping I overheard a couple of people talking behind me in the checkout line nothing new there but what they where saying at first got me mad as but when I came home I was watching a show about WW11 it is about Hitler's Henchmen and I thought in some ways these people I overheard where right.

What did these people say, well I will tell you they were saying how suicide was the cowards way out this made me mad because well because suicide is not the cowards way out it is sad and terrible when someone takes their own life.

However, all those Nazi's who topped themselves at the end of WW11 instead of sticking around and answering for their crimes they were indeed cowards.

What do others think?

Pain, Pain and a bit more Pain

Another day another lot of pain, yes I am still in pain a lot of pain, although yesterday I was ok at times as I took one of Jessica's strong anti-inflammatory pain relief tablets and that helped a lot thankfully Jessica gave me a second tablet which I took last night before going to bed which meant the first half of the night I slept ok but from about 3am I was in pain again and the second part of the night I didn't sleep that well at all. I have rubbed some deep heat into my back as I am out of Voltaren.

This morning Jessica rang and wanted me to go and pick Leo up as she is sick but I don't feel up to it, I am still in a bloody lot of pain so had to tell her no I didn't feel up to doing it. She may not have been happy with me for saying no but I know she will get over it.

Yesterday I was out shopping at Kmart and if it wasn't for the anti-inflammatory pain relief I wouldn't have coped as well as I did but what sucked was that it was a wasted trip they didn't have what I was looking for. I am trying to find some knee length bike pants or leggings to wear under a dress, of course they had them but not in my size.

Also yesterday I took Leo to the shops before I drove him home to get a toy as I had promised him I would get a toy for him and forgot on Friday but as it turned out for some reason the store I went to had the toy he wanted reduced by 50% so he got two of them instead and that made him happy.

Now a little about my sweetheart “Kelli” on Friday she had a fall while picking Blain up from school and had to be taken to hospital via ambulance. She was in so much pain that she had to have to shots of morphine at the school it was thought that she might had broken her ankle but as it turned out she hadn't. She just had tendon damage and was told she would be in pain for a few weeks and to go home to rest the foot not easy to do when you have a two year old to look after.

Jono thankfully dropped everything and asked his boss for time off work to go to her side, he had to borrow a car and head out to the school were she was and then he went to the hospital with her after arranging for his mum to watch Blain and Sue to watch Daemon.

Now when she fell my sister Sandra rang me to tell me she had fallen, she had received a phone call from her step-son Zac's mother (Sara) telling her that her niece had fallen over and was in a lot of pain and that an ambulance had been called. Sara stayed with Kelli along with a teacher and a couple of other people till she was taken to hospital via the ambulance. I can't thank these people enough for all their kindness.

Five Things Friday

A quick five things Friday this week as I am in so much pain it hurts to move and I am so tired due to the strong pain relief I have taken. 

Falling over but not hurt.................me

Falling over and going to the hospital in an ambulance........Kelli 

Morphine

Housework can wait, I'm in too much pain

Bifocals hard to get used to 

First Australian Women Elected To Parliament

Anyone know who this woman is...................

No ok I will tell you, she is Edith Cowan she was the first women in Australia to be elected to parliament this happened in 1921 she was in office till 1924.

She was born Edith Brown and was from Geraldton in Western Australia' on the 2^nd August 1861, she was born into an influential and respected family. At the age of seven after the death of her mother she was sent to a Perth boarding school run by the Cowan sisters whose brother James she would later marry.

When Edith was fifteen, her father shot and killed his second wife, and was subsequently hanged for the crime.

She was to become concerned with social issues and injustices in the legal system, especially with respect of women and children. In 1894 she helped found the Karrakatta club a group where women could educate themselves for the kind of life they wanted. In time she became the club's president. The Karrakatta Club was involved in the women's suffrage movement successfully gaining the vote for women in 1899.

In the new century she would turn her eye to welfare issues, she was really concerned with the health and welfare of disadvantaged groups such as childes and prostitutes. She would serve on numerous committees, she was largely responsible for the building of Perth's King Edward Memorial Hospital for Women in 1916.

She helped form the Women's Service Guilds in 1909 and was co-founder of the Western Australia's National Council of Women and served as president from 1913-1921 then as vice-president till her death.

She was a Freemason, admitted to the Australian federation of Droit Humain .

It was because she felt that children should not be tried as adults that she founded the Children's Protection Society, the society had a major role in the subsequent introduction of the children's courts in 1915, she was appointed to the bench of the new court and continued in this position for 18 years.

She also was one of the first female Justice of the Peace. In 1920 she was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire, (MBE).

In her final years she was an Australian delegate to the 1925 International Conference of Women held in the Untied States, she also helped found the Royal Western Australian Historical Society in 1926.

She passed away in 1932 and two years after her death the Edith Cowan Memorial Clock was unveiled at the entrance to Perth's Kings Park, this is believed to be the first civic monument to an Australian woman. There was a lot of opposition to the monument with many saying it was not appropriate form of memorial for a woman, and that she was not important enough to merit a monument in such a prominent location.

She has appeared on a Australian postage stamp in 1975, and in 1984 the federal Division of Cowan was created and and named after her and in January 1991 the Western Australian College of Advanced Education was renamed the Edith Cowan University.

She appears on the Australian $50 note which was first issued in October 1995.

Refrigerate after opening

Refrigerate after opening...............I am sure we have all seen that written on different jars but here is the question do you in fact refrigerate after opening.

I thought of this when I was making myself a bacon and egg roll, I was spreading cream cheese spread on the bread roll and thought about it as I looked at the jar that has been sitting on the bench since it was opened a week ago, the jar also says to use within 14 days.

How often do we see something written and just don't take any notice of it, is it because we think we know better or is because it seems like a silly instruction so we just take no notice.

I know with the cream cheese if I was to put it in the fridge it would go hard and would be difficult if not impossible to spread, hence the reason I don't refrigerate it during these cold winter months.

Also I have notice that it says to refrigerate after opening the tomato sauce and the BBQ sauce like who does that. Years ago the refrigerate after opening was also on the Vegemite and Peanut Butter but not any more and I can tell you I have never put the Vegemite or Peanut Butter in the fridge.

Of course you expect to see refrigerate after opening on your margarine and butter but I can tell you I don't put them in the fridge either during the colder months hell I don't often refrigerate during summer as well.

So what do you do, do you follow the instructions and place your jars in the fridge or are you more like me and just stick them in the cupboard, after all it isn't like you have ever got sick by said product not being in the fridge. 

A woman's right we now take for granted

"A woman's opinions are useless to her, she may suffer unjustly, she may be wronged, but she has no power to weightily petitions against man's laws, no representatives to urge her views, her only method to produce release, redress, or change, is to ceaselessly agitate."
Louisa Lawson, speech to the inaugural meeting of the Dawn Club. Published in July 1889.



How many people know about the suffragette movement from back in the late 1800's and early 1900's?

I think many of young women nowadays would have no idea about the movement and that I think is a sad thing, these women work hard for women's rights.

The term suffragette refers to the mobilisation of the suffrage movement in America, England, Australia and New Zealand between the 1880s and the 1920s.

There was a number of organisations that were instrumental in the struggle for women to be granted the right to vote. The Australian Women's Suffrage Society was formed in 1889, its aims was to obtain the same rights for women as were possessed by male voters.

They argued for equal justice and equal privileges in marriage and divorce, rights to property and the custody of their children in divorce. So not just for the right for all women to be able to vote in all elections which I think is what most people associate the suffragettes with.

New Zealand women had first in the world to be granted the right to vote in the national election on the 19^th September 1893.

In Australia it was South Australian women who were granted the right to vote first in 1894, followed by women in Western Australia in 1899, my state New South Wales granted women the right to vote in 1902, Victorian women were last to get the right to vote in 1908.
Australian women first voted in the second federal election in 1903, except for Aboriginal women. It wasn't till 1962 that Aboriginal women were granted the right to vote in federal elections.

However, Aboriginal males had the right to vote from as early as the 1850's although most people would tell you they didn't get the right to vote till 1967 when there was a referendum to have the constitution changed to allow the Commonwealth to make laws for Aboriginals and to include them in the census.

However, as I said Aboriginals already had the right to vote although most of them didn't know it. Legally their rights date back to the colonial times. When New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia wrote their constitutions in the 1850's the gave the right to vote to all male British subjects over the age of 21 which included Aboriginal males.

In 1895 when South Australia gave women the right to vote and sit in parliament Aboriginal women were included it was in fact only Queensland and Western Australia that barred Aborigines from voting.

Very few Aborigines knew their rights so very few voted. But some eventually did. Point McLeay, a mission station near the mouth of the Murray, got a polling station in the 1890s. Aboriginal men and women voted there in South Australian elections and voted for the first Commonwealth Parliament in 1901.

Most states did not allow women to be elected to the state parliaments until the end of the First World War.

Another key association in the struggle for equal voting rights was the Women's Christian Temperance Union formed on the 16^th November 1887, the society sought social reforms which included establishing equal moral standards for both sexes.

My Special Girl is in so my Pain

Good morning, I am up nice and early today after a night of broken sleep. The reason well my special girl........aka.........Jessica rang me and I didn't answer so she rang her dad and he didn't answer so than she rang her sister Natasha and she answered the phone at 2.30am.

Yeah I know you are wondering what was wrong as people do not ring around trying to get someone to answer a phone at 2.30am for no reason.

So I will tell you she was in pain, two or three times a year she gets this back pain and the pain is so severe that all she does is cry, she is unable to move and it is terrible just listening to her cry. Anyway the pain was that bad that she just wanted her mummy, so I got my long pj's on and went to her place.

I took with me Ibuprofen and Voltaren Emulgel I gave her two Ibuprofen and rubbed the Voltaren into her back and then decided to get Leo up and bring them both back here.

She has had very little sleep and I was woken to her crying again at 5am I got up rubbed some heat rub into her back this time and gave her more Ibuprofen at 6.30am I said to her to give me a number for someone at work so I could ring them and let them know she is unable to go today and I also gave her a moonshine tablet I had here for my back pain, my mum gave it to me and I gave it to Jessica.

I have also made a doctor's appointment for her after I take Leo to school. Speaking of Leo he is so concerned about his mum and has asked me a number of times why can't I give his mum pain medication to make her pain go away. He is very concerned about his mum and gets upset when he hears her crying in pain.

So after a couple of attempts I managed to get onto someone and let them know she was unable to drive this morning, have to say the guy I spoke to was a cranky sounding man and hard to understand also but I managed to get him to understand that she is unable to do her school run this morning. I hope this doesn't go against her as it is not something she can help and I am talking her to the doctors at 9.45am this morning, thankfully I can book appointments online so was able to find her an appointment at 6.30am.

Wakefield School..............is a godsend for students like Dawson

Good morning all what to write about on this nice warmish Saturday morning, well I could tell you a bit about Dawson's school presentation day which was last Thursday and I of course went, I always go.

This year his father came and his stepmother although we don't like the term stepmother very much in this family, his mother didn't turn up she said she had to stay home as people from “docs” were suppose to be turning up even though she had told them she wouldn't be home but for some reason they said she had to be there so she didn't come.

Although I can say she usually comes, anyway his pop on his mums side came, he always goes and he took Landon who is Dawson's little brother on his mums side.

This time Dawson didn't get any awards but all the teachers had nice things to say about him, especially his woodwork teacher. He want on a bit about how Dawson was very talented and how he would be an asset to any employer as he has a good memory and would be great working in a warehouse as he would remember where things are without any problem.

When we went to his classroom his teacher said that Dawson is pretty good at most things and is quite good at things he does with his hands, as in putting stuff together which we all know as he loves to do Lego’s really complicated Lego at that.

He has spent most of the year working on a coffee table in wood work and everyone wanted to know what he would do with it when it is finished, of course he is giving it to his nanna because he is very much a nanna's boy.

For those who do not know Dawson attends Wakefield school which is a behavioural school it was established in 2002 and is located in a rural setting which is why it is bloody cold there.

It has up to only 28 students usually from years 5 to 8 who are identified as having emotional and behavioural problems in their mainstream school. Usually students are still enrolled in their home school and attend Wakefield for 2 or 3 days a week for up to a year till they are able to successful return to their home school full time.

Dawson however is one of a few students who now attend Wakefield full time and 5 days a week which is good as Dawson likes going there and only has a day off when he is sick, when he had to go to his home school he was always trying to get out of going. So fingers crossed he will be able to continue to attend Wakefield next year as well, as he does not do well in mainstream schools.

The school's mission statement is to:

“ Provide a safe, healing, educational environment where students can maximise their learning potential and develop appropriate problem solving and conflict resolution skills.”

Five Things Friday.........................Again.................

It's five things Friday again.

Bloody cold weather

Dawson's presentation day.............yesterday and it was bloody cold at his school needed a really warm jacket

Being Fat and having no one to blame but myself

A long day, needed an hours shut eye to get through

Pillows behind my back to stop back pain...........a must...........

World War 1 and Women

Family life and structure was completely changed by the First World War, many married women found themselves forced to work by the death of their husbands. Women were also drafted to work in industries because the men were off fighting in the war. In fact around 200,000 women took up jobs in governmental departments for the first time and something like 500,000 found themselves working in clerical postilions in private offices and then there were all the women who too working in agricultural type jobs but most women found themselves working in munitions factories which was of course dangerous work. In fact many more women did hard heavy work work the type of work that no woman would be seen doing prior to the war.

In some way the war gave so many women more independence for the first time in their lives. Also the fact that the women could do the jobs thought of as male only jobs and do the job well lead to change in attitudes about what women could do and could not do.

After the war ended over 8 million women were granted the right to vote and in November 1918 the Eligibility of Women Act was passed which meant women could now be elected as members of parliament. So there is no doubt that World War 1 was the catalyst for women to be given the vote, although it took another 10 years for women to be granted the vote on equal terms with British men.

Of course the were all the women who took a more active role in the war by becoming cooks, stretcher bearers, motor car drivers and interpreters, however governments did not allow this but it didn't stop them doing those jobs anyway. A number of women's organisations did become very active during the war, including the Australian Women's National League, The Australian Red Cross and the Country Women's Association just to name a few.

Nursing was almost the only area of female contribution that involved the women being at the front and experiencing the war. In Britain the Queen Alexandra Royal Army Nursing Corps, First Aid Nursing Yeomanry and the Voluntary Aid Detachment were all started before the war. The Voluntary Aid Detachment were not allowed in the front line until 1915.

ore than 12,000 women enlisted in the United States Navy and Marine Corps during the First World War around 400 of which died during the war.

There was close to 3,000 women in the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps during the war and it was during the war that the role of Canadian women in the military first extended beyond nursing. Women were trained in small arms, first aid and vehicle maintenance. Only 43 women in the Canadian military died during the war.

However, things were different if you were a Russian woman as there were a few Women's Battalions during 1917, these women fought well but failed to provide the propaganda value and were disbanded at the end of the year.

This woman can't imagine being on the front line of war and feel that these women must have been very brave.