Make Her Praises Heard Afar - New Zealand Women Overseas in World War One
The history books tell us that about 550 New Zealand nurses went to World War One while other women stayed home, knitting, fundraising and looking after families and farms while the men were away. But many women went too - as doctors and ambulance drivers, munitions workers and mathematicians, civil servants and servicewomen in British units, and in many other roles. They mainly paid their own fares and worked for very little. Some provided amenities for soldiers and others, and these have often been attributed to the military or men's groups. Make her Praises Heard Afar introduces women whose contribution to the war effort has been overlooked, telling an astonishing story with extraordinary range and depth of research. The title's use of a phrase from the national anthem invites New Zealand women to recognise that they were us - 100 years ago. New Zealand women who have read World War One books by men and about men are ready to appreciate that women were there too.