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1917

America

 ..... President Wilson spoke in support of equal suffrage to the New York State Woman Suffrage Party in the White House

..... Prohibition ..... the war against Germany created wider support for the prohibition movement which in 1917 had succeeded in establishing it in 19 states. The Women's Christian Temperance Union, established in 1874, spurred the founding in 1893 of the Anti-Saloon League which along with spectacular crusaders like the hatchet wielding Mrs Carrie A Nation (1846-1911) had long been agitating for a national prohibition amendment. With the involvement of America in the war they argued that along with the moral and social needs there was also the need to conserve food and the patriotic condemnation of individuals of German extraction prominent in the brewing and distillery industry. On the 18th December Congress adopted and submitted to the states an amendment to the constitution prohibiting the manufacture, sale and transportation of alcoholic liquor. This, the 18th Amendment, was ratified in 1919 and went into effect in 1920. The outcome was the growth of bootlegging on a vast scale during the 1920s when criminal elements became involved. It was repealed in 1933

..... during the First World War women were employed in war plants and auxiliary units, or alternatively, as pacifists, declined to support the war

United Kingdom

..... the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Company appointed its first station mistress at Irlams O'Th' Height, Salford, and it became the first station with the network to be staffed entirely by women

..... the first breach in the battle for women to be allowed to participate fully in the work of the Christian Church began when the Congregational Church ordained its first woman Constance Coltman and Maude Royden, an active Anglican campaigner for women's ordination, was appointed to preach in the Congregational City Temple

Around The World

 ..... Russia .....  Mariva Bochkareva became a much decorated heroine in front line battles and was famous for rescuing comrades in the face of machine gun fire. In 1917 she suggested the formation of a Women’s Battalion of Death, a shock force which would challenge prevailing defeatist feeling. Her appeal to recruits was so emotional that 1500 women enlisted on the same night, 500 the next day and so 2 battalions were formed. Her rule however, was so autocratic that many withdrew. Her battalions were applauded by prominent feminists such as Emmeline Pankhurst who took their salute and similar units were organised all over Russia. They saw action in 1917 and there were many casualties. In 1918 she was sentenced to death by the Bolshevik government but escaped and fled to the USA ..... and  ..... women gained equal voting rights

..... Margaret Sanger and Marie Stopes wrote on birth control

Dated items

March 13th ..... UNITED KINGDOM ..... women were allowed to drive taxis in London

October 15th ..... FRANCE ..... Mata Hari was executed as a spy