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The Hello Girls : America's first women soldiers

Author

Cobbs, Elizabeth author.

Title

The Hello Girls : America's first women soldiers / Elizabeth Cobbs.

Format

Book

Published

Cambridge, Massachusetts : Harvard University Press, 2017. ©2017

Description

370 pages, 14 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 22 cm

Portion of title

America's first women soldiers

Notes

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents

• America's last citizens
• Neutrality defeated, and the telephone in war and peace
• Looking for soldiers and finding women
• We're going over: recruiting the Hello Girls
• Pack your kit: selection and training
• Wilson adopts suffrage and the Signal Corps embarks
• Americans find their way, over there
• Better late than never on the Marne
• Wilson fights for democracy at home
• Together in the crisis of Meuse-Argonne
• Peace without their victory medals
• Soldiering forward in the twentieth century.

Summary

"In World War I, telephones linked commanding generals with soldiers in muddy trenches. A woman in uniform connected almost every one of their calls, speeding the orders that won the war. Like other soldiers, the "Hello Girls" swore the Army oath and stayed for the duration. A few were graduates of elite colleges. Most were ordinary, enterprising young women motivated by patriotism and adventure, eager to test their mettle and save the world. The first contingent arrived in France just as the German Army trained "Big Bertha" on Paris, bombarding the frightened city as the new women of the U.S. Army struggled through unlit streets to find their billets. A handful followed General Pershing to the gates of Verdun and the battlefields of Meuse-Argonne. When the switchboard operators sailed home a year later, the Army dismissed them without veterans' benefits or victory medals. The women commenced a sixty-year fight that a handful of survivors carried to triumph in 1979. This book shows how technological developments encouraged an unusual band to volunteer for military service at the precise moment that feminists back home championed a federal suffrage amendment. The same desire to participate fully in the life of their country animated both groups, and both struggled after 1920 to reap the rewards of victory. Their experiences illuminate ways in which sex-role change was embraced and resisted throughout the twentieth century, and the ways that men and women struggled together for gender justice."--Provided by publisher. "This is the story of how America's first women soldiers helped win World War I, earned the vote, and fought the U.S. Army. In 1918, the U.S. Army Signal Corps sent 223 women to France. They were masters of the latest technology: the telephone switchboard. General John Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary Forces, demanded female 'wire experts' when he discovered that inexperienced doughboys were unable to keep him connected with troops under fire. Without communications for even an hour, the army would collapse. While suffragettes picketed the White House and President Woodrow Wilson struggled to persuade a segregationist Congress to give women of all races the vote, these competent and courageous young women swore the Army oath. Elizabeth Cobbs reveals the challenges they faced in a war zone where male soldiers welcomed, resented, wooed, mocked, saluted, and ultimately celebrated them. They received a baptism by fire when German troops pounded Paris with heavy artillery. Some followed 'Black Jack' Pershing to battlefields where they served through shelling and bombardment. Grace Banker, their 25-year-old leader, won the Distinguished Service Medal. The army discharged the last Hello Girls in 1920, the same year Congress ratified the Nineteenth Amendment granting the ballot. When the operators sailed home, the army unexpectedly dismissed them without veterans' benefits. They began a sixty-year battle that a handful of survivors carried to triumph in 1979. With the help of the National Organization for Women, Senator Barry Goldwater, and a crusading Seattle attorney, they triumphed over the U.S. Army."--Jacket.

Subject headings

United States. Army. Signal Corps--History--20th century. United States. Army--Women--History. World War, 1914-1918--Communications. Telephone operators--United States--History--20th century. World War, 1914-1918--Participation, Female. Women soldiers--United States--History--20th century. Women veterans--United States--History--20th century. Women soldiers--Legal status, laws, etc.--United States. Sex discrimination against women--United States--History--20th century. World War, 1914-1918--Regimental histories--United States. Women--Suffrage--United States--History--20th century.

Genre heading

History.

ISBN

9780674971479 (hard cover alkaline paper) 0674971477 (hard cover alkaline paper) 0674971477