The Hello Girls by Elizabeth Combs
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Genre: Historical, Non-Fiction
Length: Full Length (400 pgs)
Rating: 4 stars
Reviewed by NymphaeaThis is the story of how America’s first women soldiers helped win World War I, earned the vote, and fought the U.S. Army. In 1918, the U.S. Army Signal Corps sent 223 women to France. They were masters of the latest technology: the telephone switchboard. General John Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary Forces, demanded female “wire experts” when he discovered that inexperienced doughboys were unable to keep him connected with troops under fire. Without communications for even an hour, the army would collapse.
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The army discharged the last Hello Girls in 1920, the same year Congress ratified the Nineteenth Amendment granting the ballot. When the operators sailed home, the army unexpectedly dismissed them without veterans’ benefits. They began a sixty-year battle that a handful of survivors carried to triumph in 1979. With the help of the National Organization for Women, Senator Barry Goldwater, and a crusading Seattle attorney, they triumphed over the U.S. Army.
Gone but not forgotten.
I had no idea how much women did during World War I. I admit, I haven’t done as much reading about WWI, so that’s on me. When I saw this book, I knew I needed to read it. Women in the war? I’m all in. I’m glad I did.
The book is written in an easy manner that flows well. It’s like reading a narrative, but with many facts thrown in. It’s not like a textbook. I got to know the ladies and see what they had to put up with–things like not being recognized as veterans after the conflict, being put down by the male soldiers, but also being absolutely vital to the war effort. They ran the phone lines! The author touches on suffrage and how women’s rights didn’t move much until the 1970s. I learned a lot and enjoyed this book quite a bit.
If you’re interested in a book that’s a lot about history, but a lot like a novel, then this might be the book for you.
