Short Synopsis
In 1918 the U.S. Army Signal Corps sent 223 women to France to help win World War I. Elizabeth Cobbs reveals the challenges these patriotic young women faced in a war zone where male soldiers resented, wooed, mocked, saluted, and ultimately celebrated them. Back on the home front, they fought the army for veterans' benefits and medals, and won.

Full Synopsis
This is the story of how America's first women soldiers helped win World War I, earned the vote, and fought the U.S. Army. In 1918, the U.S. Army Signal Corps sent 223 women to France. They were masters of the latest technology: the telephone switchboard. General John Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary Forces, demanded female "wire experts" when he discovered that inexperienced doughboys were unable to keep him connected with troops under fire. Without communications for even an hour, the army would collapse.

While suffragettes picketed the White House and President Woodrow Wilson struggled to persuade a segregationist Congress to give women of all races the vote, these competent and courageous young women swore the Army oath. Elizabeth Cobbs reveals the challenges they faced in a war zone where male soldiers welcomed, resented, wooed, mocked, saluted, and ultimately celebrated them.

The army discharged the last Hello Girls in 1920. When the operators sailed home, the army unexpectedly dismissed them without veterans' benefits. They began a sixty-year battle that a handful of survivors carried to triumph in 1979. With the help of the National Organization for Women, Senator Barry Goldwater, and a crusading Seattle attorney, they triumphed over the U.S. Army.

"In the crisply written The Hello Girls: America's First Women Soldiers, Elizabeth Cobbs details exactly what was asked of these women during the war, and reveals, with an authoritative, dispassionate, this-was-some-self-evident-nonsense lucidity, the dismaying extent to which their country failed them when it was over." ---NPR

"[A] groundbreaking work . . . Clearly well-researched and well-written in a tone that both scholars and armchair historians alike will find engaging, this book is highly recommended to readers seeking new material on World War I, American history, military history, women's history, and gender studies." ---Library Journal Starred Review

"A fresh, well-researched contribution to military and gender history." ---Kirkus

"[Cobbs’s] fine study enriches our understanding of America’s participation in its first major European war by focusing on important historical actors who are typically sidelined in military accounts." ---Publishers Weekly

"Cobbs shines a spotlight on the unique contributions of a group of remarkable American women, in the spirit of Hidden Figures (2016), in a book that belongs in every American-history collection." ---Booklist

"Narrator Susan Ericksen is the perfect choice for this gem of overlooked history, which tells the story of America's first female soldiers." ---AudioFile

Library Journal Review