[0:00:11] Announcer: Welcome to the How World War One Changed America podcast series, sponsored by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation with host Dr. Libby O'Connell. [0:00:26] Libby O'Connell: Hi everybody. I'm Libby O'Connell and I'm delighted to have as a guest today, Jennifer Keene. She's Dean at Wilkinson College, and professor of history at Chapman University. So welcome Jennifer. I'm so glad you can join us. [0:00:41] Jennifer Keene: Thank you. Thank you for having me. [0:00:43] Libby O'Connell: Today's theme is women in World War One. Could you give us a brief background on the pre World War One…

At the outbreak of World War I, Ella Jane Osborn was a surgical nurse at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. In January 1918, she volunteered to serve with the American Expeditionary Forces as a member of the Red Cross’s nursing service in Europe. Initially, nurses were to work only in hospitals far from the front lines. However, the need to have medical treatment available near the fighting changed these plans, and Osborn was assigned to Evacuation Hospital Number 1 at Sebastopol Barracks in France, just seven miles from the front. Sick and wounded soldiers were sent from the…

Women engaged in World War I in a variety of capacities. They served in support roles for the American and British militaries, worked as nurses and doctors, volunteered for the International Red Cross, drove ambulances, worked in factories, and grew much-needed crops. At the end of World War I, suffrage was expanded to women in both the United States and Great Britain. This activity is designed to help students explore the parallels and divergences in the suffrage movements as well as the way in which service in World War I helped drive home the importance of suffrage as a component…