Note these figures. On the first of February,
1916, the civil establishments of war, the munition plants, and the
Marine workshops employed 127,792 women. The number has increased, and
on the first of March, 1917, they numbered 375,582 women. On the first
of January, 1918, the women working in the factories manufacturing war
material amounted to 475,000; that is to say, in round numbers, a half
million.
Others, in the hospitals, ambulance and dispensaries have devoted
themselves to the wounded, the mutilated, the sick and the suffering,
to the sacrifice of their health, their youth, and sometimes their
life itself. Here again the figures are eloquent--they speak for
themselves. Three great societies, constituting the French Red Cross,
have carried on this work of charity and devotion--the Societe de
Secours aux Blesses Militaires, the Union des Dames de France, and The
Association des Dames Francaises. At the war's outbreak the Societe de
Secours aux Blesses had 375 hospitals with 17,939 beds; today it has
796 hospitals with 67,000 beds and 15,510 graduated nurses, three
thousand of whom are employed in military hospitals. On the
thirty-first of December, 1916, the Union des Dames de France had 363
hospitals with 30,000 beds and more than 20,000 graduate or volunteer
nurses.
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