---
title: 'Four Years in the Fight: The Women of France. We Owe Them Houses of Cheer'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/four-years-in-the-fight-women-of-france-1918/
description: Two French women in work clothes handle glowing metal in a foundry while a third carries a steaming vat, under a red-and-blue YWCA triangle emblem.
section: Collection
---

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3. Four Years in the Fight: The Women of France. We Owe Them Houses

[![Four Years in the Fight: The Women of France. We Owe Them Houses of Cheer, 1918 US poster: Two French women in work clothes](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/four-years-in-the-fight-women-of-france-1918.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/four-years-in-the-fight-women-of-france-1918.jpg)

# Four Years in the Fight: The Women of France. We Owe Them Houses of Cheer

Two French women in work clothes handle glowing metal in a foundry while a third carries a steaming vat, under a red-and-blue YWCA triangle emblem. The headline asks Americans to repay the women of France with 'houses of cheer', the YWCA's recreation huts, as part of the United War Work Campaign. The tell is transfer: the viewer's regard for the women's wartime labour is attached to a request for donations, with no sum or budget stated.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/) [Glittering generalities](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/glittering-generalities/)

## Text on the object

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
FOUR YEARS IN THE FIGHT
The Women of France
We Owe Them Houses of Cheer

[YWCA triangle emblem lettered Y.W.C.A., twice, at the top]
[sign on the building seen through the window:] FOYER des ALLIÉS [with triangle emblem]
[artist's signature at lower right of the picture: illegible]

UNITED WAR WORK CAMPAIGN
```

The YWCA emblems are graphics lettered Y.W.C.A.; the window sign is read as 'Foyer des Alliés' (French, 'Allies' Hostel'). The artist's signature is illegible.

[← Foremost! The Engineers Need Skilled Mechanics and Tradesmen](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/foremost-the-engineers-need-skilled-mechanics-1918/) [Vive la France! (F. A. Crepaux) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/france-vive-la-france-1918/)

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