|
|
 |
Title: For Every Fighter A Woman Worker |
|
Description: Backing up the women who were backing up the men: that was the mission of the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) during World War I (1914-1918.) By the end of the war, close to two million women had filled jobs left empty when men went overseas to fight. The YWCA provided numerous services for these women workers, including workplace counseling, housing for those relocating for jobs, and establishing “hostess houses,” where family members or close friends could stay while visiting loved ones before they shipped out. This poster uses the positive image of YWCA workers to raise funds for the United War Work Campaign, which President Woodrow Wilson created to raise at least $107,500,000 during the week of November 11-18, 1918. Dressed in a generic but typical factory uniform, a women, presumably a YWCA employee, stands in front of the YWCA’s symbol, an inverted blue triangle. She holds two key products of the war industry in the United States: a Curtiss JN-series airplane (the famous “Jenny”) and an artillery shell. |
|
Like the images of “Lady Liberty” common on contemporary posters, she has her arms uplifted and wears a firm, steady expression. Yet the text reminds the viewer that she cannot do her job alone; she must have support to continue her task, so that the men at the front may continue theirs. Artist Adolf Treidler (1886-1981) juxtaposes the vertical element of the woman’s form with the dark blue diagonals and horizontal of the YWCA triangle. The triangle symbol derives from the inverted red triangle symbol of the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) founded in England in 1844. The YMCA transcended boundaries of class and united members of differing religious creeds in service to the care of young men. As formulated in the 1890s, the YMCA mission supported the development of “spirit, mind and body,” the triangle representing those three aspects of the human person. The YWCA, founded in England in 1855, adopted a similar mission and symbol as the YMCA. The artist’s signature also lent another, although subtle, level of credibility to the poster’s message. In 1918, Treidler, who had trained in San Francisco and New York, was a well-known magazine illustrator. From 1908, his work regularly appeared in widely-read and well-respected magazines such as the Saturday Evening Post, Collier’s and Harper’s. These publications had the reputation for selecting and displaying the work of the U.S.’s best artists. World War I’s hostilities ended at 11 AM on November 11, 1918, the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, on the first day of the United War Work Campaign. However, much remained to be done to assist returning troops, to care for the sick and wounded, and to prepare America for a transition to peacetime. YWCA workers continued their work in the post-war period, but also used their war-work as leverage to promote their civil rights. Women’s voting-rights groups lobbied President Wilson, arguing that women deserved to be rewarded for their contributions to the war effort with the right to vote. Less than a year after the war ended, on August 6, 1920, Congress made into law the Nineteenth Amendment which stated that the “right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.” |
|
  |
|