Without the work of women on the Home Front, Britain could not have won the First World War Use the Sources and your own knowledge to explain whether you agree this view

jobs needed temporary labour while Britain was at war.Source A, a letter written by a woman who worked through the war quotes that ‘need came for women’. This woman, and nine hundred thousand others became munitions factory workers. This involved hand cutting shell fuses and was highly dangerous. Another Source with evidence of women working in munitions factories is Source D. As a photograph it is a primary source and shows more women working to make Britain’s ammunition for the war. Cutting shell fuses was not the only munitions job that was absolutely vital during the war, the women had to actually fill the shells with gunpowder and assembling detonators. They also had to make the explosives from TNT, this was highly dangerous work and the women in these jobs were nicknamed ‘the canaries’. One of the best paid and least stressful jobs for women in the war were the Lady Welfare Supervisors, there were 1000 of these throughout Britain.The stepping in of the women from when the war began was vital. There was nobody else to look after the Home Front and ensure Britain was coping while the men were at war. The need for women workers became even more necessary after The Great Shell Crisis of 1915, when the British army was short of shells during the Battle Of Ypres, the British government acknowledged this and found themselves in desperate circumstances and under pressure to do something to encourage the women into the shell factories. Like many countries at this time, they turned to propaganda. Source E is an example of a poster produced by the British government in 1916 around the time of the Battle Of Ypres. As propaganda tends to do, the poster gives a seemingly false impression of working in a munitions factory as it makes it seem bright and fun. But this poster, and many like it raise the point of how important it was that the women stepped in and pulled Britain through the war. The land army was another job that many women began between 1914 and 1918. Before this time women farming was practically unheard of but when the war began it became vital. The women who wanted to join the land army could chose between three sections, they were agriculture, timber cutting and forage. 100,000 women were soon working in the land army and this was one of the most physically demanding jobs they could do, to save money and fuel everything had to be done by hand. Once the war begun the Germans began sinking American merchant ships that were brining food into Britain, this meant Britain had to fend for themselves and bring in the harvest and work the farms. Britain fully depended on the women to keep them from starving.There were other jobs that the women had to do like the transport workers, the men were gone but Brits still needed to get around. Source F shows us that the amount of Transport Workers increased by 99,000 women between 1914 and 1918, women working in the transport industries had some of the most dramatic increases. Source I also talks about women in transport jobs, this report basically says that whatever source of transport you chose to travel by in 1918 then there would be a woman driving or helping with luggage. ‘If you go by train, women will handle your luggage’. Before the war the women who worked in transport were usually cleaners or attendants, by 1918 most of the women in the transport industry were signal women, conductors or ticket collectors. These jobs were so important because not only were people getting transported but food, resources, munitions and clothing were also using these transport links.The final popular profession that the women chose to do after 1914 was to become a nurse. The amount of injured soldiers that were coming home from the war was phenomenal. Most of the Doctor’s had joined the forces and so the women had to give them basic medical treatment. Most of the nurses were volunteers, they joined the Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) but from 1915 it was no longer a voluntary detachment, the women were paid just £20 a year. Another group women could join were the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY’s) the FANY’s ran the kitchens for the soldiers and washed the patients when they were away from the front line. Source B quotes that there were many other jobs that women could go into. ‘Aircraft works’ are just one example. Obviously Britain did not win the war purely because the women in Britain were helping the war effort, the soldiers who went to war and the allies like France were the main role but when people talk about victory for Britain, the fact that the women were major factors in the success is often over looked. I do believe that without the work of the women on the Home Front Britain could not have won the First World War because Britain would have fallen to pieces while the men were away had the women not stepped in. When Britain ran out of shells in 1915 the women back home turned to the factories in their thousands to support the men fighting in Belgium. Many women were working in highly dangerous situations for very little wages to ensure both the women and children at home and the men at war had food to eat, cloths to wear, medial attention when they were injured and transportation. I think that the soldiers and the power of the allies were the main reason Britain won but if the women had refused to work, the British economy would have bust and Britain would starve and have had to step out of the war. I think that the soldiers were not the only war heroes of World War One.