Word: war
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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Just after World War II broke, several socialite groups sought the patronage of Mme Gamelin, wife of the French Generalissimo, and one, reputedly, received this characteristic note: "My wife excuses herself for being too busy to reply personally to your request that she be honorary president of your organization, and asks me to present her regrets. (Signed) Maurice Gamelin...
...Today almost every French woman has her own personal family war work to do because she has a brother, fiance, husband, father or uncle in the Army who needs cigarets, socks, a sweater, favorite articles of food, regular letters of affectionate encouragement and such efforts as she can make toward attending to his neglected affairs. Thousands of French women are holding their husbands' jobs today as bus conductors, mail carriers, taxi drivers, and in stores and factories...
Defense Passive. Such general war work as French women have time for, after doing their own, is attended to by thousands of small committees organized in cities and towns, with no coordinating or super-organization. They do a specific job in a specific place, and their general attitude, emphasized by Eve Curie, is "No publicity and no showing off!" In Paris, for example, the war has thrown many musicians and writers out of work. So there is a small committee, Dejeuners de Lettres et de la Musique, one of whose presidents happens to be Mme Lebrun. It serves an ample...
Another specific job is to warn of thi approach of war gas, so there is a committee called the Union Feminine Civique et Sociale which trains women sniffers (flaireuses) to detect nearly odorless gasses by smell without getting killed by taking too deep a whiff...
Only other World War II women's organization in France with a uniform-none was uniformed in World War I-is the Section Automobile Feminine Française. This is composed of about 1,200 definitely wealthy women, each owning her own car, for only the rich have cars in France. During the evacuation of Paris by thousands of civilians, most of whom left by train, they dashed about carrying blankets, rood and mail to évacués in their new country homes...