Overall, I think that Source C does Support the evidence in Source A about women’s work during the First World War as the women in Source A writes that she were in domestic service before going to work in a factory and ‘hated every minute of it.’ The quote from source C to support her view is that the factory owner writes that ‘observations show that women prefer factory life.’ These quotes support each other because if the women hated ‘every minute’ of domestic service, she could not possibly dislike factory life more even if she wanted to, therefore, she liked factory life more.
I also think that the evidence in Source C does not support the evidence in Source B as the factory owner in source C stated that ‘observations show that women prefer factory life,’ but in Source B it states that ‘It was common… to find up to 6 of the 30 dope painters to be lying ill.’ These two sources contradict each other as the one is saying that women is enjoying factory life, but you cannot enjoy factory life if you are constantly going to be ill according to Source B.
- Source D can be useful in helping me understand the importance of the work of women in industry during the First World War, as it shows us that women did work in the munitions factories to help their country win the war. We can also see that there is a chalk board positioned behind the women workers, which says ‘When the boys come back we are not going to keep you any longer – girls.’ This sentence makes us believe that the factory owners and other male workers in the factory disliked the idea of women working in their factory after only having male workers for a couple of generations. From this we can also conclude that the factory owners really needed the women as employers if they wanted they factory to stay in business, as any person with a view like that would not employ women unless it was essential. It is also useful as it shows me that many factory owners agreed with the trade unions when they said that all the women must give up their jobs as soon as the men come back even if they have been doing the work better than the men that were there before them. This photograph can also be useful as it can give us an idea of what the conditions was like in the factory. However, since the origin and purpose of this photograph is not mentioned in the caption and all we know is that it was taken in a munitions factory, there can be a few possibilities. These are that it could have been taken by suffragettes to show the people of England that the women are working very hard for their country even though they might have a tough time fitting in with the male workers. You can see that these women are having a hard time, as they are not looking happy at all. If one looks closely at the picture you can also see that the women are working with hammer, which is usually considered a man’s job, therefore the suffragettes could use it to show people that women can do the same job as a man, so why can she not get the same rights? It could also have been taken to send off to the front to ensure men that they now have people working in munitions factories and that the munitions crisis will soon be solved and that they can be assured to get their jobs back after the war as the chalkboard is included in the picture.
However Source D is not useful as it could have been staged by the factory owners so that they can show the people that the women are not happy in the factories. They might say that this is because factory chores are to difficult for them and that it is now obvious to then that it is a man job and that their job is at home or working in domestic service. However, the suffragettes for the reasons mentioned above might also stage it. There is also no date mentioned in the caption, therefore it is very likely to have been staged.
Source E can be useful in helping me understand the importance of the work of women in industries during the First World War, as it is a propaganda poster recruiting women to work in munitions factories. The reason why the government made this poster is because of the munitions crisis in 1915 that is still not solved completely and to be able to solve this problem the government needed more women to work in the munitions factories. In the poster they do this by positioning a soldier in the background looking very happy and waving his wife goodbye as she is putting on her coat to go to the factory. The reason why the man is shown is because conscription was introduced to all men in 1916 and therefore the husband had to go and is happy to see that his wife is going to do something to help him on the front (help him survive) as she is making munitions. The women in the poster also looks very pleased with herself, this will show the women of England that if they also go to work in a munitions factory they are helping all the men at the front win the war for their home country. The reason why we know that the women is working in a munitions factory is because the caption reads ‘learn to make munitions.’
However, I think that Source E is not useful as it is a propaganda poster,
therefore only contain a small element of truth. E.g. It is true that the husband had to go to war in 1916 when conscription was introduced and it is also true that many women went to work in the munitions factories, but I also know that there were some men like conscientious objectors that were forced to go to the war, therefore, they would not be smiling about it. I also know from my own knowledge that many women suffered in the factories as they were looked down upon by the remainder of the men that were either to old to go to war or they had to say because they did a skilled job, therefore, if they were given a difficult time they would not be smiling on their way to work.
Therefore, overall I think that Source D is useful to us as it shows us what factories were like during the First World War and what conditions and hard work women had to put up with. It also help us understand the way that they felt about being frowned upon by the male work force as we can see that their facial expressions are not very pleasant.
However, overall I also think that Source E is not that useful as it is a propaganda poster and do not really portray the true feeling of the people in England during the war. It also does not give us an idea about how women were treated at the factories and how long they had to work for and travel to reach these factories.
- From Source G and my own knowledge, we can see that some men opposed the employment of women in industries during the First World War. Source G, which is an account of a women’s experience working during the war and was written in 1919. I think that it is reliable as it is written a year after married women or female property owners has been given the vote therefore it could not have been used by suffragettes as propaganda to get the vote for these women by showing the country how hard they had worked during the war and that they deserved to be acknowledged for it! However, I think that the purpose of this source was to show the country how badly the women were treated by male workers whilst they worked without complains for their country when they were needed most. The women writes that ‘none of the men spoke to me for a long time, and would give me no help…where to find things.’ This shows us that women must have had a difficult time settling in as were unable to socialise with the male employees, who at that time made up the majority of the workforce. I also know from my own knowledge that this was the way in which they treated women to show them that they disapprove of them being there and taking the jobs of other men that volunteered to fight at the front. They also played practical jokes on these women or gave them confusing instructions so that they will have more work to do, this is also written in the source. An example in the source of a practical joke (from a man’s point of view) is ‘My drawer was nailed up by the men, and oil was poured over everything in it through a crack.’ The reason why the men might of done this is to leave the women with no equipment for their jobs and therefore give them the risk of getting into trouble by the manager for not working. The women also informed us in her account that ‘Over and over again the foremen gave me the wrong or incomplete direction…to give me hours more work.’ This tells us that it was not only the male employees that worked on the same ranks as the women, but also the male managers over the workers that disapproved of women working in factories and gave them a difficult time settling in, as it could have been a mistake if the foreman gave her the wrong directions once or maybe twice but he did it many times therefore it was definitely deliberate. I also know from my own knowledge that there were several strikes by male employees against women workers in factories during 1915 and the government was forced to sign an agreement with unions, which stated that women would not keep their jobs at the end of the war. In some factories the hatred towards women were so strong that notices were displayed warning women that the will be dismissed after the war. There were also many complaints amongst male factory workers against ‘dilution.’ The men were afraid that the employment of unskilled women would lead to lower wages because the women would be doing the same work as skilled men, therefore the factory owners would employ mostly women as they will then be able to employ more female workers for the same sum of money paid to the skilled male workers working in the factories prier to the war. Therefore, the government also signed agreements with the unions that all women has to be paid the same wages as skilled male workers employed in the same profession. There is also an example of this in the source as the women writes ‘Two shop stewards…had no objection to my working there provided I received the full men’s rate of pay.’ ‘Shop Stewards’ are people representing the trade unions, therefore this source is showing us that the trade unions did spot checks on the owners of the factories to make sure that they pay the newly employed unskilled women the pay that was agreed on by them and the government (the same pay as what the male employees received).
-
Disagree – I disagree with the view, that without women Britain could not have won the First World War, by using the sources and by own knowledge. By using Source F and H, I can concluded that women did not change a great deal to the war. Source F is a table of ‘Numbers of women employed in British industries in 1914 and 1918.’ From this table we can see that the number of the women employed in the ‘Manufacturing industries’ did not change a great deal. It had a change from ‘2,178,600’ in1914 to ‘2,970,600’ in 1918, this is only a change by 792,000 women out of the whole of England. You can compare this to the amount of women that left domestic service during the war. In 1914 there were ‘1,658,000’ women employed, however, that only fell to ‘1,258,000’ women in 1918. Therefore, only 400,00 women when out of their domestic service job, which was quite useless as far as the war was concerned. Source H is part of a article in the Engineer, published in August 1915. It states that ‘Women can satisfactorily handle…heavier pieces of metal.’ The word ‘satisfactorily’ suggests that the women can do the job, but the skilled male workers that have now gone of to war better did it. It also suggests that the women had to attend a crash course on how to do the job and this took up precious time that could not really be wasted. I also know from my own knowledge that in 1915 when David Lloyd George wanted to employ women, 30,000 women registered for the work in industries, yet only 5,000 were given jobs. This suggests that Britain were not desperate for many more workers and therefore they would not employ more than were necessary. I also know that if Britain needed more workers they would not allow so many nurses to go to the front with the Voluntary Aid Detachments or the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry, which alone contained 45,000 nurses. The reason why they would not allow so many women to go if they needed them is because then their jobs at home in hospitals would have to be filled, therefore taking even more women away from factory work. I also know that even though America did not join the war until 1917, they did help Britain by sending supplies and food on merchant ships. Most important of all the war was to be determined by the battles that were fought in France against the Triple Alliance. Agree - Overall, I agree with the view, that without women Britain could not have won the First World War, by using my own knowledge and looking at the sources. I know from my own knowledge that the event that brought women into the war was the munitions crisis in 1915. Supplies of munitions on the western front were so low that the soldiers of the British army were unable to fire their guns. After David Lloyd George became Minister of Munitions, he immediately introduced a range of measure to ‘deliver the goods.’ This meant that many more workers were needed and the only answer was to employ women as many men volunteered to go to the war on the Western Front and fight against Germany and her allies and the skilled male workers that were left in the country were a minority and mainly moved where they could get the best pay. Therefore, we can conclude that if women did not go to work in the industries, the munitions crisis would have continued and the Triple Alliances could have won the war. Lloyd George’s efforts to expand the industry coincided with the ‘Right to Work’ march organised by the Suffragettes in London during July 1915. A total of 30, 000 women took part in this event. By the end of 1915 about 2.5 million men had volunteered for the war and a army this big needed large supplies of munitions, therefore more and more women were employed in government munitions factories as well as local owned munitions factories. Women that were employed by the government mostly worked in newly built munitions factories as the government increased their factories by a large amount to be able to set an example to other factory owners, but women that were employed by local factory owners were mainly taking the place of other men that went off to fight the war. During the war, hundreds of thousands of women worked in munitions factories, and the majority of these women had given up their previous job of domestic service to join in the war effort. By the end of the war there were 900,000 women employed in munitions factories all over the country. This is supported by source F where we can see the number of women employed in some industries in 1914 and 1918. Here we can see that in 1914 there were ‘2,178,600’ women employed in ‘Manufacturing industries,’ but in 1918 there were ‘2,970,600’ women employed. From this we can conclude that there was a large increase of 792,000 women employees during the war in ‘Manufacturing industries.’ Source J supports this, which is a painting painted in 1917 by E.F. Skinner, as it shows a munitions factory employed mostly by women as only one man can be seen. We can also see that the job of the foreman was taken over by a women as she is the only one dressed in blue, the other female workers are all dressed in beige. Source F also shows us that there were only a slight decrease in the employment in ‘domestic service,’ it falls from ‘1,658,000’ employees in 1914 to ‘1,258,000’ employees in 1918. The reason for this is probably that since many of the women in Britain are now working in factories, they have to leave their children at home. If these children are not old enough to look after themselves, the family will have to employ someone to look after them while the mother is working and the father is fighting the war at the front, therefore domestic servants are employed. Quite a few sources show us that women did change their jobs so that they will be able to help win the war my working in factories. Source A is a letter written by a woman who lived though the First World War. She writes that ‘I was in domestic serves…So when the need came for women ‘war workers’ my chance game to ‘get out.’ I started on hand cutting shell fuses.’ This supports the idea that Britain was in great need of more women workers to work in industries as she explains how she changes jobs from working in a house for someone else to working in a factory doing something to help her country win the war. This source might not be totally reliable as it was only written in 1976 and the women might have forgot all of the details and just filled them in by things that she heard from other people’s memories. However, I think that the quote from the source that I am using is reliable as it is supported by Sources B, D and E, which is a quote out of a book written by Sylvia Pankhurst in 1932.’ She writes that ‘In 1916…women working at a London aircraft works.’ Even though the women in this source is not working in a munitions factory they are still working in a factory that helps the war effort as planes were used to spy of bomb enemy trenches. In source D we can see two women working in a ‘munitions factory during the first world war.’ On the board behind them, we can read ‘When the boys come back we are not going to keep you any longer – girls.’ This shows us that Factory owners needed women employees to keep their factories running during the war as most of the previous workers were male and has now gone off to the war. It shows us this as the message suggests that the owner was not too happy to employ women, but he had no other choice. I know from my own knowledge that this was the feelings shared by many factory owners, this therefore shows us that if owners did not employ women many factories would have closed down and the munitions crisis would not have been solved, and therefore Britain could have lost the war. Source E is ‘a poster produced by the British government in 1916.’ The poster is showing a women getting ready for work. In the background, we can see her husband going off to war and some other women working in a munitions factory. This is a form of propaganda by letting women that read the poster feel that their husbands would be proud of them if they work in the munitions factory, just as the husband of the women in the poster. It would also make a women that read the poster feel uneasy if she is not working for the war effort as the poster states ‘learn to make munitions,’ it will also allow her to feel that she also wants to help her country like the women in the poster. Therefore, these sources show us that they were women employed in most industries that contributed to the war effort. Source G shows us that even though women were not always treated very well, they stuck it out and kept on helping the men of their country win the war by staying in the war effort. This source is part of an account by a women working during the First World War and was written in 1919. She writes that ‘Over and over again the foreman gave me the wrong or incomplete directions…to give hours more work.’ She then continues ‘ none of the man spoke to me…gave me no help…my drawer was nailed up by the men and oil was poured over everything.’ This shows us that the women working in some industries during the war had to put up with much sexist behaviour towards them and had a difficult time to settle down in their new job, but they had enough own will to keep themselves committed to the war effort unlike other men at home that objected to the war. These men were often call ‘consciences objectors.’ From Source, C and I we can see that women were the majority of employers towards the end of the war and that most people were pleased with the effort they showed towards the war and that the war could not have been won without this effort. Source I is a ‘report on ‘women’s work in wartime’ published in 1918. It describes how most of the work previously done by men had now become a woman’s job and that the country has now accepted this. ‘If you chose a bus or tram, the conductress in her smart uniform has long been a familiar figure.’ In source, C is a book written in 1917 by a factory owner. It states that ‘ personal observations show that women prefer factory life.’ This agrees with the statement as I know from my own knowledge that you can only enjoy a job when you are good at it. I also know from my own knowledge that under DORA the government had power to take over large amounts of lad to grow food. They turned parks and tennis courts into vegetable plots. The amount of land used for farming increased from 11 millions acres in 1914 to 14 million acres in 1918. However, many farm workers had joined the army, and so much of the work on the extra land was carried out by the new Women’s Land Army. Women were asked to sign up for the Women’s land army and 30,000 responded immediately. Therefore, the source indicates that the women were good at their jobs and therefore helped their country to win the war and in may respects Britain could not have won the war without this as the factories would have been forced to close down if they had no workers if the women did not take the men’s jobs and therefore there would have been no munitions for the soldiers. As we all know, no country can win a war without any weapons and no country can be fit to fight a war it they are under fed!