This dissertation is focused on WW1 nurses and especially V.A.D.s. It deals with the beginning of the war, taking an interest in the girls' motivations and the way the recruitment of young nurses took place. It approaches V.A.D. recruits' new life: how they had to adapt to the rhythm of a challenging environment as they watched over injured soldiers and accompanied them through their ordeal, either in their mother country or abroad. Finally, it addresses the issue of new identity: between femininity and militarism, how were these women perceived by a society at war? In the end, this whole essay tries to explore the issue of gender and women's emancipation throughout the Great War, the first cataclysm of the 20th century.