Page 186 - Le donne nel primo conflitto mondiale - Dalle linee avanzate al fronte interno: La grande guerra delle italiane - Atti 25-26 novembre 2015

LE DONNE NEL PRIMO CONFLITTO MONDIALE 186

in such cases were they released
soldiers for frontline service. 13
The salaries which hitherto dif-
fered in accordance with local
conditions and qualification le-
vels became standardized in
March 1917 when the Supre-
me Command issued a standar-
dized table of salaries, which
prescribed wages for all kinds
of tasks performed by female
auxiliaries. Going beyond that
measure, on 25 April 1917 the
Supreme Command issued a de-
cree which laid down mandatory
Salari delle ausiliarie femminili dell’ I.R. Esercito Austro-Ungarico
‘General guidelines’ for hiring
female auxiliaries. These guide-
lines stated precisely for which tasks it was permitted to em
ploy female staff – assistants or technical aids in medical laboratories and ambula-
tories, household servants, auxiliary clerks, telephone operators, cooks, scissors and
workers in military run enterprises and workshops. The applicants were evaluated in
respect of their professional qualifications and were expected to be aged between 16
and 40 years. To assure their physical suitability the applicants had to provide a me-
dical certificate. But even in these cases the employment of females had to serve the
purpose to release soldiers suitable as replacements in the fighting troops. The recru-
itment initiative seems to have been quite successful despite rather low wages in some
branches, since in mid September1917 the number of female auxiliaries in the ‘army
in the field’ amounted to 28,000. As a primary aim the ‘head of replacement affairs’
14
envisioned to arrive at a share of roughly one percent of the whole strength of the
armed forces at the end of 1917 and at two percent in the spring of 1918. 15
Regarding the quality of the assigned female auxiliaries, it might be concluded from

13 OeStA/KA/FA/AOK/GZNB, Nr. 3750, Abt. D.R. 4605 aus 1917.
14 OeStA/KA/AhOB/ChdE, 18-1/18 1917, ‘Verwendung weiblicher Hilfskräfte bei der Armee im
Felde’.
15 OeStA/KA/FA/AOK/GZNB Nr. 3750, Abt. D.R. 4605 aus 1917.

II-sessione.indd 186 05/05/16 10:32