She had applied to be a soldier but this letter implies that women were not just needed, but not wanted either. The recruitment officer is not rude towards this enquiry in the letter as this extract shows;
“I am in receipt of your letter of the 17th inst: and regret to inform
you that unfortunately there are no arrangements being made for women to
train for home defence, nor as far as I know are there likely to be.”
He takes this tone as not to alienate her, as he knows that she could be a useful asset if he kept her on the government’s side she could try and persuade men to join up using other methods. Making sure her keenness is not wasted.
“If you wish to assist, I would suggest that you should persuade any man who
is eligible, to do his duty and enlist immediately, if all women would act like a
recruitment officer in this manner no doubt we should soon obtain all the men
we required and there would be no worry of invasion of this country.”
This sort of duty was expected of women, they were supposed to encourage their man to do their bit for the country. Women would do this by giving a feather of cowardice, white feather, to men who were not soldiers and they would also not date men who were not in service.
I think that the letter contains evidence that the idea of not letting women into the army was not that one of the recruiting officer. Traditionally women were not allowed to fight and I think that the orders had come from the government not to allow any women to sign up. I believe this because if it was the recruitment officers view that women shouldn’t be allowed to fight he would not have been so polite throughout his letter and discouraged her completely from helping.
This source also raises the question of why she wrote the letter in the first
place. She must have known that she was going to be rejected but still she sent the letter of application. She must have been trying to highlight the point that women were still being blatantly blocked from entering the army, and being discriminated against. This puts her in her place, showing her that the role of women was still to stay at home, cook clean and look after the children.
William Pearson