War mobilization drove women’s emancipation in the Ottoman Empire

Evidence

A major factor in the emancipation of women was economic need. Peasant women had from time immemorial been part of the work-force and had, in consequence, enjoyed certain social freedoms denied to their sisters in the cities. Economic modernization brought a need for female labor, which was augmented by mobilization for modern war. This became a significant factor in the Ottoman Empire during the First World War, when much of the male population was in the armed forces. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1147

Categorization

• XREF: Parallels the European and US experience where war labor shortages opened social space for women — cross-regional echo worth noting.