Why did the number of women employed in Britain rise significantly from mid 1915?

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Billy Quelcutti 10BR

Why did the number of women employed in Britain rise significantly from mid 1915?

  The employment situation that the women were in was not a good one.  They had very few job opportunities apart from jobs that involved domestic service.  Very few women had the chance to reach a high level of employment status.  Most women around the country were being temporarily left by there husbands because the men were away fighting for their country in world war one. Many men died as they were not trained well enough, by mid 1915 there were hardly any men left to fight in Britain, as they all had to go and fight, this meant they had to leave their jobs behind. At this point most workers were men so there were many jobs that had to be filled by the women.  This was only because no one else was there to do them. This and other important factors help the employment of women to rise significantly. In this essay I aim to look at why more women were going into employment and what professions they were doing once in the job.

  In the early nineteenth century the Women’s Suffrage and Political Union was set up, whose members were commonly known as the Suffragettes. They wanted the better and more rights for woman and they weren’t prepared to sit back and wait for them. They believed in direct action, they disrupted meetings, chained themselves to railings and slashed paintings in the national gallery. Another group were also started these were the National Union of Women’s suffrage Societies (NUWSS).  There main concern was to get the vote for women on the same terms as men.  In other words it was not campaigning for all adults to have the vote, only those owned houses.  The NUWSS was led by Millicent Fawcett and by 1914 had become a large organisation of 53 000 members.  In July 1915 30,000 members took part in a march to demand “The Right to Serve”, so that women could play a full part in the war effort.  The members of the NUWSS were commonly known as Suffragists. They wanted the same things as the Suffragettes but weren’t willing to go to the same lengths, they believed in peaceful protests. They were more interested in training women to take jobs previously held by men, like welding. These two groups are important as they show us how much women wanted better employment opportunities and what they were willing to do in order to get them.

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  By 1916 the number of men volunteering was far less than in the early stages of the war. The large list of casualties being published in newspapers meant that people began to realise that this war did not lead to glory. Therefore, for the first time ever, a British government introduced conscription. Men were ordered to fight in the war. The military service act of January 1916 called up all unmarried men between the ages of 18 and 41. In May this was extended to cover all married men as well. Only workers in essential industries could avoid ...

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