ABSTRACT
Concern over the spread of venereal diseases, among other factors, led to more open public discussions of sexuality, including women’s sexuality. Women’s war experiences varied enormously, but, with few exceptions, they remained different from those of the majority of men conscripted into military service. No nation was willing to break this barrier and draft women to serve in its army. Even as the nature of warfare itself began to change, with women directly and indirectly under fire, the fact of their exclusion from combatant status made women seemingly easy to ignore. Women’s exclusion from military service empowered a feisty minority of women to protest vigorously against the war and militarism in general. Some women, like Vera Brittain, transformed their grief into activism, condemning war and fighting for justice for men and women in public arenas.
