The First World War wasn't just fought in the fields of France and Belgium.

There were lesser battles fought on the home fronts of the nations which were fighting.

In the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth countries,

this battle was fought on the streets of cities and towns between men who didn't wear

uniform and women who tried to shame them into joining the military.

These street conflicts got so bad that the government actually had to take action.

Learn more about the White Feather Girls and how they shape World War I

on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. The Before the outbreak of the First World War a social movement was underway in the United

Kingdom similar to that in other Western countries at the time. Women suffrage. In Britain women were

restricted from voting and the suffrage movement was an organized effort to change

the laws to grant women the right to vote. When the war started, partisan politics in theory were put on hold, as was the suffrage

movement. While the external expression of political movements were put on hold, the underlying

desires and policies were not. They were just shifted into war-related activities.

The women's suffrage movement split into two camps. There was a smaller camp of pacifists who were against the war.

Then there was a larger group of pro-war nationalists

who tried to use the war to advance their goal of having the vote extended to women.

As men were sent to Continental Europe to fight,

women took up roles in factories and other jobs that were traditionally

held by men. The theory was that when the war was over, their patriotism and support of the war

would make it hard to continue to deny them the right to vote.

Taking up factory jobs and other roles traditionally held by men were important, but also really

not that controversial.

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