USA HISTORY

AMERICAN IMPERIALISM(1890 1919)

THE UNITED STATES IN WORLD WAR I

[SOURCES]
What important role did the Hello Girls play in WWI?

(A) ** They kept communication open between the front lines and the headquarters of the American forces.

(B) They gathered families in the US to meet and swap information about family members at the front.

(C) They worked in canteens, meeting the troops and helping them keep up their spirits.

(D) They worked as nurses on the front line.

EXPLANATIONS BELOW

Concept note-1: -During WWI, General Pershing enlisted French-speaking ‘Hello Girls’ to improve wartime communication, relaying messages about troop movements and supplies. The ‘Hello Girls’ not only proved to be an integral part in telecommunications at home, but they also played a vital role in military operations.

Concept note-2: -The female operators returned home after the war with little recognition and no veterans’ benefits. Only decades later, in 1978, did legislation award the operators veterans’ status.

Concept note-3: -During WWI, on the Western Front, telephones were used to communicate between the front line Marines and Soldiers and their commanders. The U.S. Army Signal Corps constructed 2, 000 miles of telegraph and telephone pole lines using 28, 000 miles of wire, and 32, 000 miles of French communication poles.

Concept note-4: -When America entered the Great War, the number of women in the workforce increased. Their employment opportunities expanded beyond traditional women’s professions, such as teaching and domestic work, and women were now employed in clerical positions, sales, and garment and textile factories.

Concept note-5: -The term, “Hello Girls”, was used for women who first greeted callers with the word “hello”. The corps was formed due to a call by General John J. Pershing in 1917 to improve communications on the Western front. With this call, over 7, 000 women applied and 223 women were accepted into the unit.