American Women's Activism in World War I

“Building A Great Organization for War”: The Associational State and Woman’s War Work in North Carolina, 1917–1919

“…124 As the men of the national and state councils primarily saw the woman's committees as a way to usefully channel women's work, the performance of women in these areas were also seen by them as a success. 125 However, in areas that overlapped with concerns of men, the Woman's Committee had to negotiate their ability to mobilize and organize the women of the state through the building relationships and coalitions with men. 126 Most emblematic of these areas are those that contested political or economic power, such as child welfare, financing the war, and women in industry.…”

“…There is a robust historiography regarding women's clubs, groups, and associations in the Progressive Era and their impact on work, political development, and the First World War. 12 Most recent and pertinent to the role of the North Carolina Council of Defense and the state's Woman's Committee is Glenda Gilmore's Gender and Jim Crow. Gilmore analyzes southern politics from the perspective of middle-class Black women, including Black club women, concluding that, despite the significant obstacles of Jim Crow and the disenfranchisement of Black men, they were able to develop strategies for action that circumvented a segregation that was "as natural as the sunrise," particularly when it came to the inclusion of Black women in mobilization activities.…”