As the need for recruits increased, many arguments became important to persuade everyone to do their part. In order to convince women to encourage men to go overseas, there were stories circulated about the mistreatment of women and children in areas occupied by German troops.
Women were asked to consider “the dropping of bombs on defenceless towns in England and the sinking of the Lusitania, causing the death of many innocent women and children” or the happy Belgian or French homes destroyed or invaded by German insult and outrage. Canadian soldiers were said to be going to Europe to defend the honour of women and daughters in France and Europe. The German soldiers who allegedly threatened their honour were drunks and not taught to respect women in the way that Canadian men were. Canadian women had to convince soldiers to go to Europe to stop “German domination of the world” and “world-wide white slavery” (i.e. sexual enslavement of white women).
(“Women and Recruiting,” Berlin Daily Telegraph, 26 July 1915.
Visual: Picture courtesy of Queen’s University Archives http://archives.queensu.ca/Exhibits/archres/wwi-intro/women/CalltoWomen.jpg
With Permission)
