A great number of girls went into clerical jobs because the government departments were expanding. Private companies employed women as clerks to deal with their paper work. In 1908, post offices started paying old age pensions, so the number of clerks needed increased.
Another occupation that provided work for women, were schools. As the Education act doubled in 1870, more schoolteachers were needed and most of them were women.
The demand for civil servants increased as the economic and social life in Britain expanded. Many girls were prepared for Civil Service Examinations.
Even though the upper class women were wealthy, they still did not lead a perfect life. Women were controlled by their husbands and they had few rights. Their job was regarded as looking after their children and managing the servants, even though women’s rights improved in the 19th century, this lifestyle was still seen as the ideal.
Some middle class women chose to stay at home, but others did the same jobs as the working class women. They worked in shops and some trained to be nurses or schoolteachers. Nurses in the past had been portrayed as being ignorant and dirty and as a job, nursing was regarded as a low kind of domestic work. This changed by the outbreak of war due to the efforts of Florence Nightingale. Some middle class women were governesses for wealthy people.
There were few employment opportunities for women at the outbreak of war in 1914. Of the jobs that were available, many were poorly paid especially for the working class and women were paid less than men. Middle and upper class women were still paid less than the men until the family wage was introduced in the 19th century.
Why Did The Number Of Women Employed In Britain Begin To Rise Significantly From
Mid-1915?
There were many reasons why the number of women employed in Britain began to rise significantly from mid-1915. One of those reasons was because of the unexpected length of the war. Most people thought it would be over by Christmas, but it was not and this meant there were more jobs to be filled for a longer time. At the beginning of the war, women were hardly affected. In 1914, a campaign was started by Queen Mary to encourage women to knit socks and scarves for the soldiers, rather than being encouraged to find jobs. Also, a group of women volunteered to go to France and work as nurses, but were turned down by the army.
With the war being longer than expected, more and more men joined the forces, which meant their jobs had to be filled. A further reason to explain why the number of women employed increased in 1915 was because they had to replace the men who volunteered. The men, who volunteered to go to war, left their jobs, so these vacancies had to be filled. Girls now had to work in factories, on farms and docks, buses and railways. Women also became window cleaners, policewomen and blacksmiths. They also did heavy work in gas works. The unexpected length of the war also led to the Great Shell Shortage. The troops in France, found themselves very short of shells of guns because the war was longer than anticipated. Women were needed to work in factories to increase the production of weapons and ammunition.
Another reason why the number of women employed began to rise was because of the appeal of war work to women. The government used propaganda to encourage bosses to employ women and to encourage them to consider factory work. The government issued women with a Registration Act certificate to let them know who was available for work. Women also took part in marches, for example, in July 1915 over three thousand women attended a Right To Work march in London, organized by the Suffragettes. This lead to more women being employed because it inspired other women to work and the government decided to let these women work in places of the men.
One woman, who lived through World War I, wrote in a letter about her change of job due to the Registration Act certificate. She said, “When the war broke out, …I was earning about £2 a month working from 6am to 9pm.” She then said “So when the need came for women ‘war–workers’ my chance came to ‘get out’.” Many women did the same, which increased the number of women employed in Britain.
Britain needed to grow more of its own food and this provided more jobs for women. This increased from 1915 and in 1917, the Women’s Land Army was formed, most women who joined were middle and upper class. Food and clothes also had to be provided for the men at war. Single women were sent away to farms where they usually worked 10 to 12 hours a day, 6 days a week. The number of women working on the land full-time had increased to one hundred and thirteen thousand by 1918. This is another reason why the employment of women increased from 1915.
The number of women employed in Britain began to rise significantly from mid-1915 because of the number of jobs that became available when the men went to war. Britain also needed to support itself with many men fighting in the war and when the government saw that women wanted to work, they decided to let bosses employ them.
In What Ways Did The First World War Change The Employment Opportunities Of Women In Britain?
The First World War changed the employment opportunities of women in Britain in both the short term and the long term.
In the short term, 1914 to 1918, there were both positive and negative changes. One of the positive changes was that women were better paid. Women working in domestic service were now paid £5 a week instead of £2 a month. They also worked fewer hours.
Another positive change was that more women were recruited into the workplace. For example in 1918, the number of women working in transport, Manufacturing Industry and as Civil Servants and teachers was higher than in 1914. As more employment opportunities became available, most women changed their job from domestic service to better paid jobs, such as Civil Servants or teaching.
Some women preferred to work in factories because it gave them freedom and a social life. This also meant that their children were better fed, housed and clothed because the mother was better paid.
As the men went to fight in the war, more and more women stepped in to fill the gaps. This now meant that women gained access to a whole range of jobs. For example women now worked as bus conductors, postal workers and farm labourers. Before the war, this would have been considered as jobs for men. Another example was the extra women that took part in war work. Women became gravediggers, road layers, welders, steel workers and bus drivers.
A further positive change on how the First World War changed employment opportunities for women in Britain in the short term was because women proved they could do complex and dangerous jobs. This meant they could do the same jobs as the men and they could do them just as well as the men. Men’s attitudes towards the women had also changed.
Another positive change was that there were more varied occupations available to women such as transport, factories, doctors, nurses, civil service, factory inspectors, police and the army.
There were also negative changes in the short term, for instance, women suffered even worse working conditions than before the war. They were treated badly by male colleagues, they were paid lower wages than men, they worked longer hours and there was a lack of promotion and also dangers.
One of the dangers was the dope varnish they used to paint the aircraft wings. About twenty per cent of the painters would be lying ill because of the chemicals they were breathing in. Women munitions workers developed toxic jaundice, which was an illness that turned the skin yellow, because they had received prolonged exposure to TNT.
Examples of women working longer hours were the voluntary nurses for the VADs (Voluntary Aid Detachments) and FANYs (First Aid Nursing Yeomanry), who were paid only £20 a year, despite working in intense conditions.
Women were also treated badly by male colleagues. One women said “My drawer was nailed up the men, and oil was poured over everything…”
The First World War also bought about changes in the long term, which was 1918 and onwards. There were both positive and negative changes. For example, one positive change was men’s attitudes towards women had improved. Also women developed greater skills and self confidence.
The Sexual Disqualification Act in 1919, meant that people should not be disqualified by sex or marriage for the exercise of any public function or from entering, assuming or carrying on any civil profession or vocation. This changed the employment opportunities of women in Britain in the long term because it meant that women could feel confident in the work place.
Another positive change in the long term was that professions now accepted more women. During the First World War, there were a vast number of casualties, which meant that more women doctors were needed. It also became commonplace to see women working as teachers in Primary Schools.
A further positive change was that women over thirty were given the vote. This meant that women now had a say in the government. In 1917, the ex-Prime Minister, Asquith, made a speech. He said “Some years ago I used the expression ‘let the women work out their own salvation’ … they worked it out during the war. How could we have carried on the war without them?” Before the war, Asquith disagreed with women having the vote, but during the war women proved that they could be just as hard working as the men. It was because of this, that Asquith and other politicians changed their minds to allow women to have the vote.
Another positive change in the long term was that the war changed social attitudes. Women had more freedom, their clothing became simpler, they were allowed to wear trousers and short skirts and their shirts were allowed to have sleeves. Their hairstyles changed too.
The negative change in the long term was that many women were sacked at the end of the war to make way for the returning soldiers. There was a campaign, which was meant to persuade women to give up their jobs and go back to being housewives. Sometimes women were attacked if they refused to give up their jobs.
In conclusion I think that the First World War changed employment opportunities in Britain in both the long term and the short term. In the short term women had a variety of jobs, they were better paid and they had more freedom. However, many women were sacked at the end of the war because the men wanted their jobs back. In the long term, women had more rights and men’s attitudes towards women had improved.
