--- title: Division of Women’s War-Work url: https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/20-division-of-women-s-war-work/ description: Division of Women’s War-Work, from How We Advertised America by George Creel. section: FRAME --- ![Illustration: an interwar radio-and-newsreel intelligence collage with a 1930s map of Europe and propaganda poster proofs.](https://propagandaarchive.org/static/generated/detail/hero-interwar.jpg) [Library](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/) · Book · [How We Advertised America](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/) # Division of Women’s War-Work This text - **Work:** [How We Advertised America](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/) - **Author:** George Creel - **Published:** 1920 Full details - **Rights:** Published in the United States in 1920, more than 95 years ago, so in the public domain in the United States; the Internet Archive lists the scan as not in copyright. Creel died in 1953, so the text is also in the public domain in countries that count the author's life plus 70 years. Chapters 1. [Dedicatory](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/01-dedicatory/) 2. [Foreword](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/02-foreword/) 3. Part I: The Domestic Section 4. [The “Second Lines”](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/03-the-second-lines/) 5. [The “Censorship” Bugbear](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/04-the-censorship-bugbear/) 6. [The “Fourth of July Fake”](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/05-the-fourth-of-july-fake/) 7. [The Committee’s “Aircraft Lies”](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/06-the-committee-s-aircraft-lies/) 8. [Relations with Congress](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/07-relations-with-congress/) 9. [The Division of News](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/08-the-division-of-news/) 10. [The Four Minute Men](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/09-the-four-minute-men/) 11. [The Fight for the Mind of Mankind](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/10-the-fight-for-the-mind-of-mankind/) 12. [The Battle of the Films](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/11-the-battle-of-the-films/) 13. [The “Battle of the Fences”](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/12-the-battle-of-the-fences/) 14. [The War Expositions](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/13-the-war-expositions/) 15. [The Speaking Division](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/14-the-speaking-division/) 16. [The Advertising Division](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/15-the-advertising-division/) 17. [The “Americanizers”](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/16-the-americanizers/) 18. [Work among the Foreign-Born](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/17-work-among-the-foreign-born/) 19. [A Wonderful Fourth of July](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/18-a-wonderful-fourth-of-july/) 20. [The “Official Bulletin”](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/19-the-official-bulletin/) 21. [Division of Women’s War-Work](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/20-division-of-women-s-war-work/) 22. [Other Divisions](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/21-other-divisions/) 23. [Showing America to the Foreign Press](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/22-showing-america-to-the-foreign-press/) 24. Part II: The Foreign Section 25. [The Fight in Foreign Countries](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/23-the-fight-in-foreign-countries/) 26. [America’s World News Service](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/24-america-s-world-news-service/) 27. [The Foreign Mail Service](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/25-the-foreign-mail-service/) 28. [Fighting with Films](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/26-fighting-with-films/) 29. [Breaking through the Enemy Censorship](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/27-breaking-through-the-enemy-censorship/) 30. [France, England, and Italy](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/28-france-england-and-italy/) 31. [The Work in Mexico](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/29-the-work-in-mexico/) 32. [The Work in Switzerland](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/30-the-work-in-switzerland/) 33. [The Work in Holland](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/31-the-work-in-holland/) 34. [The Work in Spain](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/32-the-work-in-spain/) 35. [The Work in Scandinavia](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/33-the-work-in-scandinavia/) 36. [The Work in the Orient](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/34-the-work-in-the-orient/) 37. [The Work in South America](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/35-the-work-in-south-america/) 38. [The Russian Campaign](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/36-the-russian-campaign/) 39. Part III: Demobilization 40. [After the Armistice](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/37-after-the-armistice/) 41. [“Americanizing” Mittel Europa](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/38-americanizing-mittel-europa/) 42. [Confusion and Neglect](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/39-confusion-and-neglect/) 43. Appendix 44. [The American Newspaper Publishers’ Association](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/40-the-american-newspaper-publishers-association/) 45. [“Savagery” vs. Sanity](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/41-savagery-vs-sanity/) 46. [Publications of the Committee on Public Information in the United States](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/42-publications-of-the-committee-on-public-informat/) [← The “Official Bulletin”](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/19-the-official-bulletin/) [Other Divisions →](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/21-other-divisions/) **Content note:** Quotes wartime anti-German language, including "Hun", and period terms for racial and national groups. This object is shown as it was published. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was) EVEN had I not been an ardent suffragist, we could not have ignored the importance of women in connection with the war or failed to see the necessity of reaching them with our activities. There was a Woman's Committee of the Council of National Defense, however, headed by such brilliant personalities as Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, and Miss Ida Tarbell, and it seemed a certainty that it would meet every need. What soon developed, unfortunately, was that the Woman's Committee had no money and was also expected to confine itself to "advising," the business of initiation having been placed in other hands. By way of assistance, and at the request of Miss Tarbell, I attached Mrs. Clara Sears Taylor to the News Division and assigned her to the Woman's Committee as its general reporter. Lack of money and lack of authority joined to slacken effort very materially, and because an important work that had to be done was not being done I fell in with Mrs. Taylor's suggestion to form a Division of Women's War-work in the Committee on Public Information. Not only was Mrs. Taylor a person of tremendous energy and rare ability, but she had the gift of attracting women of similar type, and it was not long until a staff of twenty-two, many of them volunteers, were in full and effective swing. What women were doing to help win the war was the one theme, and not only did they fill the women's pages in the daily press, as well as earning large space in magazine sections, but they fought their way to a place in the sun in the news columns. They went into the colleges where girls studied, into clubs of every kind, into ghettoes and foreign colonies, among the colored women of the country, giving information and arousing enthusiasm. Added to this, the division was a "question and answer" bureau that handled thousands of letters daily from women in every corner of the United States. During the nine months of its existence, 2,305 stories were sent to 19,471 newspapers and women's publications. These releases included a wire and mail service, and were made up of news stories and feature articles. They were sent daily to 2,861 papers in seven columns a week, containing from twelve to twenty stories each. More than 10,000 cards were indexed on women's work, including the personnel of both organizations and individuals, and a collation of material of immense value to magazine and newspaper writers. Two hundred and ninety-two pictures were furnished newspapers, showing women actively engaged in war-work. Weekly columns sent to newspapers and magazines included, first, war-work being done in national organizations; second, in governmental departments; third, in decentralized organizations throughout the United States; fourth, in schools and colleges; fifth, in churches; sixth, foreign co-operation; seventh, work being done by organizations of colored women. Close co-operation was formed with the colleges, through representatives sent out by the collegiate alumni, and with fraternal organizations through representatives co-operating with the governmental departments through their international associations. The news for the foreign col- 15 213 umn was received by means of co-operation with the foreign embassies, legations, high commissions, and committees, and committees in foreign countries at war with Germany. Mrs. Mary Holland Kinkaid, well-known magazine and newspaper editor and writer of New York, edited the columns of news which created an interchange in thought between the women war- workers of the world, culling from letters and other forms of communication the facts, figures, hopes, and ambitions that were woven into "stories." She handled also the copy brought in by trained reporters who had the governmental departments and national organizations in Washington for their "beats." These reporters included women from many states and representing as many points of view. The War Department, with its thousands of women war-workers, was "covered" by Mrs. William A. Mundell (pen name Caroline Singer), a newspaper writer of San Francisco. News of the Woman's Committee of the Council of National Defense, which operated under the War Department, was collected by means of their own machinery, and prepared by them, and then distributed by the Committee on Public Information. The State and Navy Departments' picturesque tales of the yeomanettes, women finger-print experts, etc., were gathered and written into magazine and newspaper stories by Miss Margaret Moses, who came to the division with recommendations from The New York Times, Columbia University, and Barnard College. Miss Mildred Morris, of Denver and Chicago newspaper experience, invaded the Department of Labor, and from its statistical shelves and important war investigations and reports made available for the press much extremely valuable information. The labor-supply, depleted by the cutting off of immigration and by the military draft, necessitated calling into industrial services many women who had never before been wage-earners. The distribution of this information was extremely helpful in aiding to solve the problems which automatically arose from the advent of these women into industrial life. A clever feature- writer of Washington, Miss Helen Randall, assisted in this labor field, writing stories from the Agricultural Department. Miss Dorothy Lewis Kitchen of Kansas City, Mo., a young woman who had been active in settlement and civic work and in the Consumers' League, had charge of the Interior Department, writing articles about teachers, librarians, and the many phases of work done in the Department of the Interior. Miss Kitchen compiled two brochures on "War-work of Women in Colleges." The issuance of these brochures was commenced in February, 1917, when the smaller colleges were more or less at sea as to the nature of the war-work best suited for them, and when the larger colleges were just establishing definite programs for more intensive work. The brochures were sent to colleges, schools, newspapers, magazines, women's organizations, and government officials. The effect was amazing. Every college in the country took advantage of the suggestive reports of every other college, and a vast amount of patriotic energy was utilized in a most effective manner. The news of this activity was immensely stimulating to other war-workers. An edition of twenty-five thousand copies was exhausted in a very short time, and thousands more were sent in response to requests from libraries, college officials, and individuals. There was an appendix to this pamphlet called "Opportunities in War- work for Women," which was used so widely that it was later revised, and was just ready for the printer when the work of the division ceased. It contained a list of the chairmen of the Woman's Committee in each state, a list of civil service commissions, of farmhelp specialists under the Department of Agriculture, and of the fourteen Red Cross divisions, besides definite ideas for war-work for trained and untrained college girls, for educated and uneducated — in fact, for every class of woman. The Department of Agriculture, with all the war bodies associated with it, and with the women's organizations which functioned through it, was combed each day for news of women's war-work by Miss Constance Marguerite McGowan, now Mrs. C. B. Savage of New York. Mrs. Savage came from the Lindenwood College, where she was dean of journalism. The Treasury, with its great Liberty-loan work by women, the Post Office, and the Department of Justice were reported by Mrs. Susan Hunter Walker, an able writer of wide experience. Mrs. Florence Normile of the New York Public Library was given the Department of Commerce, the Fosdick Commission, and the Young Women's Christian Association. This information, having been collected and written, was mimeographed, and "placed on the table" for distribution among the nine hundred and odd correspondents then in Washington. This number, of course, included the correspondents of the big press associations, so that every paper in the United States was reached. When the matter was not "spot" news — that is, when it was not of sufficient news importance to be carried by telegraph— the material was worked up into feature and special stories for news syndicates, or else was sent out in clip sheets. Many of the papers carried these columns in full, showing the interest felt all over the country in what was being done by women. With respect to church news, Miss Elizabeth Gorton, now Mrs. H. A. Adams, Jr., assembled this material into columns that gave information about organizations of every creed. The highly dramatic story of the colored women's work was sent in from the four corners of the United States by their organizations, committees, and branches of national clubs. The Federation of Colored Women's Clubs found this information useful and effective, and the press of both races used the articles. As the work expanded, inquiries poured in from public officials, special writers, speakers, magazine editors, school-teachers, college professors, grange officials, trade-unionists, and every class of woman from the most influential executive of an international activity to the humblest farmworker. The various departments in Washington and many Senators and Congressmen also got in the habit of sending women's letters to the Division of Women's War-work for answer. Thus the division, besides being a centralized medium of communication between writers, publicity bureaus, organization heads, and the government, soon became an important factor in the strengthening of the morale of women in America. Miss Ellen Harvey, and later Mrs. Laura Miller of St. Louis, handled the bulk of this work, although Mrs. Taylor considered it of such great importance in sustaining the high morale of the work of the home that she gave it her personal attention, and insisted on the warm co-operation of every member of the staff in finding definite, accurate answers to the many questions asked. These letters were the expressions of the very heart of American womanhood. The wording of an answer had power to determine whether or not a discontented and unhappy writer should form a center of agitation against the war. Some of these letters were addressed to the President, and many to the Secretary of War. The method employed was to answer the queries, and then to get the writer in touch with the group of women doing war-work in the vicinity of her home. In case of want, home-service workers were interested in the case. Often glowing expressions of patriotism followed a fiery protest against "sending my husband to war," or letters showing a new interest in life followed a suicide threat — "because you took my only son." Always, the idea was to interest these unhappy women in something real and vital. Miss Helen M. Hogue of California, who was one of the assistants in this work, wrote from France, where she was doing war- work after leaving the committee: "The Division of Women's War-work has aroused patriotism, inspired courage, fostered self-sacrifice, and directed the surplus energies of women into sane channels. With a background of news releases, the correspondence was of inestimable importance. I sincerely believe that every letter, whether it goes to the dean of the college, who wants an outline for a thesis, or to the little war widow in Texas, struggling with her big plow and refractory mule, is a distinctly constructive factor in keeping up the morale of women, and through them of the men of America." A report shows that over fifty thousand of these letters were answered. They went to wealthy women, who wanted to know how they or their organizations could be of service in spreading the truth about the war, to young women who wanted to offer their lives for their country as their brothers had, to mothers of soldiers on New England farms, or in mountain valleys cut off from all other government contact, and from wives or sweethearts of soldiers bewildered by the new conditions thrust upon them by the war. To answer the queries successfully necessitated a careful filing and cross-indexing of the material. "Make the files live and breathe" was the slogan of the librarian, Miss Helen Forbes, who left the New York Public Library to take charge of this work. So well did she carry out her program that she could give the names and addresses in Washington of every new-comer in national war-work of any prominence. She had at the ends of her capable fingers the cards that gave the history of virtually every woman war-worker of importance in America, every organization and its war plans, every new campaign among the women. A granddaughter of Abraham Lincoln, by the way, sent news of women's work in Cuba to these files. Pictures were catalogued also, and the files C9ntained a wonderful historical collection of actual scenes among the war-workers — the flying squadron pitching hay, the motor-drivers in action, Chinese women of San Francisco and Indian women of Oklahoma working around their tables, heaped up with Red Cross bandages and baby clothes — women working at strange trades and in strange occupations — logging-camps, machine-shops, etc. These pictures were accessible at all times to the magazine writers and to other seekers of information. Miss Forbes also classified and made digests with indices of government documents pertaining to the war- work of women, reports of organizations, which were coming in from every part of the United States, circulars and other important mail matter, and newspaper clippings, making it possible to gather together everything in the files on a given subject. Miss Sue Schoolfield; Miss Eleanor Clark, who had been affiliated with the Public Education and Child Labor Association of Pittsburgh; Miss Antonio Thornton Jenkins Converse, daughter of Admiral Alexander Jenkins of the United States navy, and a writer of ability; Miss Catherine Connell; Miss Marguerite Jenison; Miss Cathrene H. Peebles, and Miss Gertrude R. Wheeler assisted Miss Forbes in the heavy task of collating the mass of material and making it available for instant use. No small part of the work of the division was the mailing and management of supplies. Miss Loretta Dowling took charge before the dissolution of the division, when the work became so strenuous that Miss Anna Maria Perrott Rose, a graduate of Vassar, joined the staff. Miss Rose, a student of printing and publishing, had taught typography in the night-school of the Pulitzer School of Journalism, had been head of the proof department in a large New York printing and publishing company, had done writing and dummying, and had worked in all of the mechanical departments of the plant to learn the machinery. Miss Rose was planning a series of brochures to follow the successful college booklet when the machinery stopped. The work of the last month was concentrated largely upon the writing of the history of women in war- work. Mrs. Helen S. Wright of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, daughter of Rear-Admiral David Smith, of the United States navy, trained for twenty years in the science of compiling and assembling literary material, placed herself at the disposal of the woman's division. This author of The Great White North, The Valley of Lebanon, and The Seventh Continent worked early and late in the assembling of the events that told the vivid and dramatic history of American women in the war. All this ended suddenly and even tragically. In June, 1918, 1 went before Congress for my appropriation. When it came to the Division of Women's War- work, Congress refused funds on the ground that we were trespassing upon a field "already occupied by the Woman's Committee of the Council of National Defense." Plain proof that this was not the case failed to secure a reversal of the decision, and Mrs. Taylor and her heartbroken associates were compelled to quit a great work that was just coming to the peak of its importance. Strangely enough, the very dailies that were most derisive of the Committee printed columns and even pages in denunciation of the "arbitrary action" that ended an "invaluable agency," all taking care, however, to make it stand out as my personal fault. [← The “Official Bulletin”](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/19-the-official-bulletin/) [Other Divisions →](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/21-other-divisions/) How We Advertised America, George Creel. Published in the United States in 1920, more than 95 years ago, so in the public domain in the United States; the Internet Archive lists the scan as not in copyright. Creel died in 1953, so the text is also in the public domain in countries that count the author's life plus 70 years. [Provenance and rights](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/).