At that period of history the state ceased to pay for public education when children reached 12. So this meant that only children who had extremely rich parents stayed on to receive higher education. Out of all the girls in the country at that age, only 2% went on to receive higher education so with 98% of girls leaving at 12 there would be limited opportunities in the professional sector so the lack of education was a big anomaly.
Women and men are different when it comes to stature and because of this the jobs that require a significant amount of strength like coal mining (where at this point of time it was illegal to let women work in a coal mine) or steel works were not suitable for women because men are physically stronger than women.
There are a number of significant events that happened to increase the number of women in employment in Britain. Six days into the war the defence of the realm act (DORA) was introduced which gave the government special powers to control aspects of the home front which at peace time they would not be able to. An example of this was that they had the power to override union objectors who were opposed of the employment of women, but this power was only really used when David Lloyd George replaced Asquith as Prime Minister.
In May 1915 it was recognised that the war needed much more organisation on the home front. So with the British public in mind a coalition government (which was called a national government) was formed with politicians from all parties to control the home front. In July 1915 the British army on the western front were facing a severe shortage of shells and ammunition. This is where Davis Lloyd George was introduced onto the “big stage” to help out with the war effort. After the shell shortage the government created the Ministry of Munitions which was fronted by Lloyd George. His main aim was to reorganise Britain’s and to do this he worked very closely with a number of people, one of whom was Mrs Pankhurst( a suffragette leader) to organise a “women’s march for jobs” to recruit women to work in factories and to persuade factory owners to employ women for the war effort.
After the great shell shortage and the formation of the national government, it was obvious that all was not right on the home front. From this point of the war onwards, it was the end of “business as usual” and from then on it became a “total war” with all effort focused on the war.
When the war began the government relied on volunteers to fight. In the first month of the war alone half a million men joined the army as recruits to fight with the existing 350,000 BEF servicemen, but as the war went on news reached Britain of the horrendous conditions in the trenches and the masses of casualties. A result of this was that volunteers began to become scarce. Two reasons for this were that men did not want to die and with more men serving on the front, this had forced wages up and this was acting as deterrence from fighting. This forced the government to introduce the first military service bill on the 25th January 1916. This bill conscripted all single men aged 18-40. The second military service bill was passed on the 16th May 1916 and conscripted all married men aged 18-40. With more men fighting on the front it meant that women needed to fill these posts which meant that this gave more women the chance to work for the first time. On the 1st July 1916 the Battle of the Somme began. In this battle more British soldiers were killed in this battle than any other previously in history (a record that stands infamously to this day). With the casualties list growing longer every day it meant that more men were needed to fight it meant that more women were needed to fill the vacant posts.
Throughout 1916 the Germans began their unrestricted U-boat campaign against the merchant ships delivering food supplies from the United States of America. During this time Britain became very close to surrender (at one point 6 weeks!); because of this the women’s land army was formed to grow food to feed the population. With the power of DORA the government took over 2 and a half million acres of farmland to grow enough food to feed the population.
When the war began and Asquith was using his “business as usual”. He did not want social change all over Britain and this included the armed forces, but as 1916 grew older the armed forces opened up there doors to women and number of divisions were created, these are: the Women’s Auxiliary Arms Corps (WAAC), the Voluntary Aid Detachments (VAD), the Women’s Royal Naval Service (WRNS) and the Women’s Royal Air Force (WRAF).
Statistical wise, there was an overall increase in the following industries which employed women: In 1914 there were 2,178,600 in the manufacturing industry but by the end of the war there were 2,970,600 which is a 36.4% increase. There is an even greater increase in civil servants and teachers where in 1914 there were 262,000 but in 1918 there were 460,000 which is roughly a 40% rise.
In conclusion there are a number of factors that all contributed to the increase of women in employment from mid 1915 onwards.
