In praise of women in the Great War
Despite its somewhat disruptive narrative, Make Her Praises is a considerable achievement, writes Glyn Harper from Massey University.
This book focuses on the role of New Zealand women in World War I. Rather than concentrate on the New Zealand home front, where most women stayed and worked in many ways to assist the war effort, it examines those who travelled overseas, often at their own expense, to do their bit.
Jane Tolerton is a Wellington-based independent historian and has written six books. Her most well-known publication to date is the acclaimed and award-winning biography of Ettie Rout; the pioneering safe-sex campaigner active during World War I.
In Make Her Praises Heard Afar Tolerton is critical of histories of New Zealand’s participation in the war, claiming that while they are wellresearched and readable ‘‘they are almost all by men and about men’’. She wants to put women back in the picture and to make New Zealand’s history of overseas service in this war as much about women as it is about the soldiers who went to fight.
And Tolerton has succeeded admirably in this task.
A great strength of this book is the sheer range of the women who feature in it. There are the medical personnel: the doctors and nurses as one would expect. But there are so many others. These include hospital directors, ambulance drivers, munition workers, scientists, musicians and even a dancer at the Folies Bergere.
This range and the variety of tasks our women performed during the war reveals many previously untold stories. It also reflects the depth of Tolerton’s research.
The book is heavily illustrated and well-written yet its structure is unusual. Rather than follow the experience and work of the individuals described in it, the book has 10 chapters.
Each deals with a specific time period of the war. So a person might appear in Chapter 1 (April to December, 1914) and then not feature
The book succeeds in putting women at the centre of New Zealand's World War 1 experience and fills a void in this history.
again until Chapter 5 (January to April, 1916) or Chapter 7 (January to December, 1917).
This makes it difficult to follow individual women and, at times, disrupts the flow of the narrative. As a result, readers are likely to dip into the book rather than read it from cover-tocover. Despite this, Make Her Praises is a considerable achievement. The research is impressive and the stories compelling.
The book succeeds in putting women at the centre of New Zealand’s World War 1 experience and fills a void in this history.
For those interested in New Zealand’s efforts in the war or the forces that have shaped a nation, this book will be essential reading.