Describe the employment opportunities of women in Britain between 1914 and 1918.

        Around 900,000 women became involved in making shells, guns and aircraft in factories for the British forces. These women were generally from a working class background as it was dangerous work. The shells had to be filled with TNT a substance (trinitrotoluene) which was used to make explosives. Although there were simple safety precautions taken like respirators and veils there were often cases of hair and skin turning yellow. And there was always the risk of the ammunitions going off which would result in a big explosion which would be fatal. Women working in this area were given much more freedom to wear trousers as they were easier to work in. They were given use of all kinds of facilities, like canteens, rest rooms as well as a crèche because many women had children and had nowhere to keep them while they were at work. The major change in their lifestyle would have been in the introduction of the Lady Welfare Officer who was a upper-middle class lady employed to sort out the workers housing problems, to keep discipline at the work place and how to dress or behave. They also helped organise dancing and football clubs and other similar activities. At the beginning of the war they worked for as long as 12 hours a day but this was stopped in most factories as it became counter productive. The pay varied in some places they got paid as much as £5 a week and as little as 30 shillings a week, its is hardly surprising then that women went to work in factories considering that in most other areas they got paid as little as 11 shilling and 7 pence.

        Transport was there area that saw the mast dramatic increase in women workers. Before 1914 18,200 women were employed in transport and in 1918 117,200 people worked in the public service. They took up jobs such as clerks, ticket collectors, porters and even guards. A first women had to accept lower pay, but when they were accepted to work in the bus or tram services a policy of ‘equal pay for equal work’ was agreed upon meaning the same pay for everyone for the same amount of work. But when in the August of 1918 a special war bonus was granted to the men and in response to this women bus and tram conductresses went on strike demanding the same bonus. Soon the strike spread to places like Bath, Brighton and Weston-super Mare. Some trade unionist refused to support such action as they argued that women did not need the money. Eventually the women won the strike after bringing London and other towns almost to a standstill. As in munitions most of the menial work was done by those in the working class and the jobs with more responsibility were given to those of a higher class.

        In 1914 there were around 100,000 women working on farms full-time and the same amount part-time. Despite the large numbers of women working on the land there were still many areas that were considered only suitable for males. They thought that women were not strong enough to perform the heavy manual labour that was necessary for a farm to run smoothly. But when the war started not only did Britain need more food but the men who worked on the farms were leaving their work to go and fight. This soon created a need for women to go and work on the farms. Local women could not be found as they had all gone of to work at the factories where there were higher wages than the 18-20 shillings a week being paid in agriculture. So in 1917 the Woman’s Land Army was created with the help of the  government. The majority of woman who joined were from the upper or middle classes.