World War I, also known as the Great War or the War to End all Wars, coincided with the Woman Suffrage movement, which had evolved into a potent political force in both Great Britain and the United States. To maximize fighting power on the Western Front, American women were recruited into the conflict so, as one poster phrased it, there would be “every girl pulling for victory."

World War I opened a variety of doors for women on the home front, in the workplace, and “Over There.”

Although the United States did not enter the war until 1918, over 30,000 American women ultimately answered the call, serving in the Army and Navy Nurse Corps, the Navy as Yeoman (F), as well as in the Marines, and Coast Guard.  The U.S. military recruited women as translators, telephone operators, drivers, and cryptologists. Overseas and on the home front, the contributions of these groundbreaking women encouraged support for the 19th Amendment, which granted voting rights to adult females.

 

 

World War I was also a turning point for American intelligence activities.  Besides more sophisticated undercover espionage activities, there were notable advancements in communications technology, requiring improved encryption techniques.  With the introduction of state-of-the art radio, telephone, and telegraph networks, intelligence-gathering and relay necessarily advanced into the expanding world of electronics. Breaking new ground, the Army Signal Corps actively recruited women as “Hello Girls,” bilingual telephone switchboard operators, for overseas duty. This marked the first time in the history of warfare that commanders serving on the front lines could communicate directly with the General command.  To help protect these and other military and diplomatic communications networks, the American Black Chamber, America’s first peacetime cryptanalytic organization and a precursor to the National Security Agency, was established under Herbert O. Yardley.