The Portrayal of Women as A Hidden Weapon in World War One Graphic Art Propaganda

Abstract

The war propaganda campaign during the First World War from 1914- 1918 is known as the first war in history, in which both the allies and the axis have devoted massive resources to producing propaganda systematically, in which mass media and propaganda have played a significant role in sustaining military campaign. Numerous print media, such as postcards, posters, comics, cartoons, Flyers, Newspapers, Paintings and magazines were published to keep the civilians informed about the occurring in the battlefield, while maintaining their morale and generating interest in war savings, loans and bonds while recruiting soldiers to the military. The role of women changed dramatically with the starting of the war, by recruiting them in to the jobs vacated by the men. With this Transformation of roles, women were used in war propaganda as victims of rape, torture and violence, as homemakers, as national allegories and as active participants of war applying moral and sexual pressure on men to be recruited in to the regiments. The Objective of this research is to examine the motifs of both allies and axis behind the portrayal of women in the graphic art war propaganda of the world war one. This research is based on selected war posters from both the allies and axis and on comparing how women were used in posters by each nation to achieve their military goals. According to the findings of the research, it was evident, that the propaganda campaign was subjected to a specific audience of the society. Therefore, the role of the women used in posters and the slogans were selected carefully, to appall the conscience of the audience with numerous subject matters, in which the most common were exploiting the mistakes made by the enemy, justifying war to the civilians, recruitment to the army forces, rewarding the sacrifices of the soldiers and conjuring up the feelings of required patriotism.