World War I deeply altered the lives of Muslim Ottoman women. The Ottoman Army consisted only of Muslim men and war caused the death of one
and a half million Muslim Ottoman men. The heavy losses of the Ottoman army meant that every day more and more dependants lost their
breadwinners. When the breadwinner had gone to war was wounded or died at the front; the wives daughters sisters and mothers they had left behind
were faced with two options: to find work and make a living or to starve to death...
On 14 August 1916 the Committee of Union and Progress (İttihâd ve Terakkî Cemiyeti) the ruling party of the Ottoman Empire established a new
society under the leadership of one of its leading figures: Vice-Commander and Minister of War Enver Paşa. The Society for the Employment of
Ottoman Muslim Women (Kadınları Çalıştırma Cemiyet-i İslâmiyesi) was a Unionist organization created to find employment for Muslim Ottoman
women who were in urgent economic need. Within a matter of months it received more than 14000 applications and was soon employing 8194
destitute Ottoman women in its braches and in the related state and military institutions. In time it would offer jobs to an aggregate number of 20000
women workers and became the leading employer of Muslim Ottoman women in the Ottoman Empire.
This comprehensive work constitutes both a case study of Muslim Ottoman women during World War I and a detailed analysis of the foundation
organization and activities of the Society for the Employment of Ottoman Muslim Women created to find employment for them.