As soon as the war started (1914) many women were put out of there jobs, women who worked as Fish gutters lost there jobs because the fishermen stopped fishing. They stopped fishing because a) Trawlers stopped going out because of patrolling German warships and b) The men were all going to war so there was no were no men to man the trawlers.
In September 1914 nearly half of all women workers were unemployed. But this soon changed as the army became bigger women found work making uniforms for the soldiers who were in even more demand and medical dressings for the injured soldiers. Women soon found work taking over the jobs of there Husbands, Fathers and brothers who had joined the army because the generals required more men. So women decided to go and work in munitions factory’s The result of this was a)more ammo and b) more men. After this the Government made and agreement with the trade union. The agreement was that for as long as the war lasted semi-skilled or unskilled women could do industrial jobs instead of women. This was called “dilution”. This resulted in a sharp rise in the number of women from 4.83 million before the war to 6.19 in 1916. Shortly after this Conscription came into the picture. Conscription is compulsory enrolment of persons especially for military service. So this resulted in a huge decrease in male workers and this in turn resulted in another huge increase in women workers. By 1917 every 1 in 3 women worked this was a huge increase from the amount before the war.
But did war work help women in the long term. From 1915-1918 the government produced propaganda women to do war work (see source 2) Phrases like “do your bit” proved a very effective way of getting women to work. It portrayed women as brave, patriotic and important. The government newspaper “dilution bulletin” showed how women could earn good wages in good conditions and rent low charged accommodation. Also it offered organised entertainment (see source 3) as it reinforces this notion but what you have to remember is, is that this is still propaganda. Was war really like this (see source 4) it says how Barbra Drake is forced to live in awful conditions whilst doing war work.
Many women during the war did munitions work. The main munitions work consisted of filling shells with highly corrosive acids. For the first time women broke out of the traditional dress pattern that generations before them had worn. They had to wear trousers and shirts due the work in the munitions factory. But one thing they lacked when they were in the factories they lacked one essential piece of equipment…gas masks. Due to the every day work that the munitions women did the acids started to affect them. Even thou the factories offered heath packages many of the women’s conditions were very similar the symptoms were a)A bright ginger fringe b)and the other main visible thing was the legendary bright yellow faces. The women with these conditions were known as “canaries”. Other jobs that were very dangerous that the women had were things like painting the outsides of plain wing (see source 5) Sylvia Pankhurst writes of an experience like this where she tells how they were made to paint aircraft wings with hazardous liquids, with no regards thanks and even worse no regard given to there life. The women who did have the visible symptoms from these horrendous jobs were looked down on by the men who were still in Britain. Source 6 says how men look down on the canaries even thou they know there work was essential to the survival to the nation. I think this shows that men were very set in there pre-war ways. Women who did work during the war were not paid as much as pre war munitions workers. They were at most on 1/3 of there pay. During the war it was made quite clear to the women that as soon as the men came back the women would lose there jobs as Source 7 shows.
But why did women work if there were so poor conditions and such a disheartening work place? Source 8 shows how before the war women had poor earnings and long hours. Whereas during the war it was…well still long hours and poor working conditions but there was a lot more money and more benefits such as accommodation. The government recommended £1 a week for war working females, nearly twice as much as pre-war working females. Many women felt that war work was a way out of poverty. Many women earned as much as £5 a week and sometimes more. Women became “rich” buying such things as new clothes silk stockings and white fox fur. They also started buying unessential items such as pianos and Paintings Source 9 backs this up. Many Factory owners started to realise that women were benefiting from the war work. The kinds of things that women were benefiting from were the things like organised entertainment and Working with other women. Also the factory owners also realised that the women’s children were benefiting from it, the women were getting more money so they had more money to feed their children source 10 backs this up. In conclusion it looks as thou women have benefited in many ways from factory work in the area of money and working hours but there working conditions had gone down hill like for example the canneries.
Industrial work was not the only work that women did during the war there were also “women in uniform”. During the war many women joined sections of the army from the army to the air force to the navy but the majority of women worked as nurses in fact over 100,000 worked as nurses and even more jobs were given to women farmers. But men did not always agree towards women in uniform. There were many reasons for this one being that women’s self esteem went up and many men felt that this would affect the way women acted after the war. Also women confidence went up. Many men did not like women’s services.
Why did men and women have such different attitudes towards women in uniform? Source 11 tells how there were jobs for every women even if they were “slow” or “un-fit”. Women who were not necessarily skilled at being nurses or in the navy or army or air force could go and do labouring jobs such as farming or munitions work so evidently there was jobs for all women. Sometimes women lied to get into certain jobs. Despite the willingness of women to work in hard conditions some men did not like it especially farmers. When girls did work for farmers they were treated with much disrespect In Source 12 Mary-lees describes her first day at her new job on a farm. She describes how on her first day on her job she is disrespected by the main farmer. He tells her to do a ridiculous job which she does and gains his respect by doing. I think this shows that women had a great determination to work during the war. So in Conclusion I think that men and women’s attitudes were so different because women were determined to get out of the rut they were stuck in before the war.
British women get the vote!!! The issue of voting and politics is the last major issue I will look into whilst writing this essay. By 1914 women had been campaigning for 50 years to get the women’s right to vote. But it had been in vain. No government or political party supported there ideas. It was like this until 1918 when parliament passed a law stating that all women who were 30 or over and were householders or were married to householders could vote. The reason women had not been allowed to vote before was because men felt that women were irrational and would vote on the basis of how they felt not on what was “right”.
In 1903 Mrs Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters Christabel, Sylvia and Adela set up a movement called The Social and Political union (WSPU) There aim was to put pressure on the government by using militant protest. They were given the name of suffragettes by the public. Many were sent to prison because of there actions. But this did not dishearten the suffragettes as they kept protesting even when in jail. They went on hunger strike. Shortly after this happened the government ordered that all women on hunger strike should be force fed. But this was a huge mistake by the government as it helped the women get even more popularity. Many newspapers started drawing images of violence towards women. Source 13 shows how a women I grabbed and forced fed by a lot of men and women. Many of the militant actions the women did were very wrong. They destroyed normal people’s homes. Some of the other things they did were vandalising expensive pieces of art and smashing shop windows. Also one of there most popular bit militancy was setting fire to post boxes. By doing all of these things they hoped that the government would give in and give them the vote so they would simply stop the militancy this was all happening around 1911.
In 1914 Great Britain entered World War 1 the government promptly released over 1,000 suffragettes from prison. As soon as the war started the WSPU announced an end to the violence, for the duration of the war so they could focus there help on the war effort. During the war there was hardly any militancy anywhere over Britain.
The General election at the end of the war cause great stir once again. The law at the time of the election said that you had to of had a registered place of residence for 1 year to be able to vote> Due to the fact that many of the men had been away at war there was not many men to vote. As a result the suffragettes rose up again and demanded the right to vote. By this time the women felt that they deserved the right to vote due to the fact they had been doing the jobs of men for a long time and this in turn had changed public opinion. Now even the majority of men felt that women deserved the right to vote. This was a very different attitude than before the war. The war work had given women a tremendous argument for letting them vote, But the memory of the women’s militancy and claims that it may happen again if they did not get the vote was a much stronger factor.
But not all women agreed with the violence, one of these women was a former WSPU leader Mrs Pethwick Lawrence she was kicked out of WSPU in 1914 because of her beliefs. She later rote Source 14 I think she tries to say that violence was a good way to get publicity but not a good way to get women portrayed.
Women and Politics. In 1918 the representation of the people act which gave women over the age of 30 and were householders or married to householders the right to vote, was quickly followed by another change in electoral laws. The eligibility of women act in 1918 gave women the right to be elected as members of parliament. Later the Equal Franchise act reduced the voting age of women from 30 to 21 and scrapped the householders rule.
But did getting the vote change opportunities for women? Source 15 shows that since the Eligibility of Women act more and more women have become MP’s so I think that the laws have definitely given women more opportunities.
But again did the government do anything to improve the lives of women? Source 16 shows the acts of parliaments introduced during the first years after the women were given the vote. I think this shows that women’ status has definitely gone up since the start of the war.
So in conclusion I find that The war has been a huge influence on women’ lives to this day without women’s war work they would not have got he vote and without the vote women may still be seen the same way. So I find that in my opinion the war has definitely influenced every aspect of women’ life to this day.