We had forgotten the pioneer women who struck across frontiers with a
hardihood that matched that of their mates. And now the modern woman
emerges from her protected home, and pushes forward, careless and
curious.
"What are women going to do about this war?" That question my wife and I
asked each other at the outbreak of the present conflict. There were
several attitudes that they might take. They could deplore war, because
it destroyed their own best products. They could form peace leagues and
pass resolutions against war. They could return to their ancient job of
humble service, and resume their familiar location in the background.
They did all these things and did them fervently; but they did something
else in this war--they stepped out into the foreground, where the air
was thick with danger, and demonstrated their courage. The mother no
longer says: "Return, my gallant one, with your shield or on it," and
goes back to her baking. She packs her kit and jumps into a motor
ambulance headed for the dressing station.
We have had an excellent chance to watch women in this war. Our corps
have had access to every line from Nieuport on the sea, down for twenty
miles. We were able to run out to skirmishes, to reach the wounded where
they had fallen. We have gone where the fighting had been at such close
range that in one barnyard in Ramscappelle lay thirteen dead--Germans,
French and Belgians.
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