In those times, women wanted to play a more active role in the war effort. A group which was led by Dr Elise Ingis, volunteered to go to France and work as nurses, but the war office had an answer to that “my good lady go home and sit still”. This meant to Elise, to go home and set up her own organisation, the Scottish Women’s hospital. According to the war office speech women were treated like housemaids.
A comparable negative response was given to members of the first aid nursing yeomanry, which had been set up in 1907. They called themselves the first anywhere’s, but sooner or later became known as FANY. In 1914, offers of help from FANY were turned down by the government, as part of Asqith’s business as usual policy. Many women would have suggested that war was not going to be over quickly.
By 1914, women were working in almost all professions. Women had been able to become doctors since the 1870s and could qualify for degrees at some universities. However, there was considerable resistance to their employment. The First World War was to provide the first real chance for career development for many highly qualified women.
- Why did the number of women employed in Britain begin to rise significantly from mid-1915?
The Great Shell Shortage was generally known as “shell scandal”. The shortage of munitions was led by the British offensive at Neuve Chapelle in March 1915. The British Army was experiencing a shell shortage, it was noted that the British munitions production was not operating at full efficiency. David Lloyd George, the liberal chancellor, eagerly believed that an extreme improvement to the munitions industry was not only possible but also thoroughly necessary if the British were to complete with Germany in a long war. He did not however believe that the war secretary, Lord kitchener under whom responsibility for munitions production fell, was up to the task of delivering the required production overhaul.
The Great Shell shortage of May 1915 is what brought women into the war effort in large numbers. Supplies of munitions for troops on the western front fell very low until they were unable to fire their guns. David Lloyd George became minister for munitions and this attempted to increase the production of weapons and ammunition. This suggested that many more workers were needed and these workers were “WOMEN”.
At the end of 1915, 2.5 million men had volunteered for service in the army. Women were needed to supply munitions to the army. They took the places in munitions factories of the men who fought abroad. They also worked in new factories that produced planes, weapons and ammunition. A national register was set up to collect the names of women who were ready to take on the war work. Working in the munitions factories could be or was very dangerous and nasty. Women would catch lung diseases and explosive powder, which made the skin turn yellow. Most women were nicknamed “canaries” or “munitionnettes. Safety precautions were only basic and many women inhaled poisonous chemicals. As an effect some women became unable to have children.
Regardless of the risks, hundreds of thousands of women worked in munitions factories for the comparatively high wages the work received £3 a week. Many women gave up on their jobs as domestic servants for the freedom that came with the wages.
The employment of women was not always popular. In 1915 there were strikes against women workers and the government was forced to sign agreements with unions, which assured that women would not keep their jobs at the end of the war. Dilution was one grievance of male workers. They were afraid that employment of unskilled men would lead to lower wages because the women would be doing the same work as skilled men. Most factories notices were displayed warning women that they would be dismissed when the war came to an end. Male workers refused to help women workers. They also played practical jokes on them or gave them confusing instructions.
Munitions factories were not the only places in which women would find a job in 1915. Women joined the police force and the land army, taking place of male farm workers. Land girls was a nickname given to women, began to wear trouser, which became acceptable in public for the first time. Since women were working on land they helped to ensure that the country was supplied with food. In total about 13.000 women volunteered to work on the land.
In 1916 the need of women workers became even greater as men were now conscripted into the army. The government finally realised the importance of the payment that women could make to the war effort and they began to enter many occupations.
Numbers of women working in the industry rose quickly as did the number of different types of work undertaken by women. In 1917 one third of all women in employment had replaced a man since the beginning of the war. That same year the government published a list of all the processes and occupations that women had taken over since 1914. This included brick makers, tram and bus drivers, conductresses, ticket inspectors, carpenters, van drivers and many more. Industries like motorcar manufacturing and aeroplane construction expanded very rapidly during the war. Both companies made use of large numbers of female workers. Women began to work as car mechanics or drivers.
- In what ways did the First World War change the employment opportunities of women in Britain?
Women could get a wider range of jobs during world war one. Women also began to be accepted into the professions. A lot of women had worked as primary school teachers before 1914 but in 1919 they occupied more than half of all posts. Most women were accepted in the legal professions, for example banks began to use women to collect money from branches in the city. In 1917 the British government appointed the first woman diplomat. In the nineteenth century that’s when women had many opportunities to work in clerical work. Most women office workers were from the middle class. The work was clean, ladylike and not as tiring as teaching or nursing. However, male clerk were paid twice as much as women.
Women were still barred from many professions. They could not be lawyers or architects or even serve on a jury. In almost all jobs done by both men and women, women were still paid less than men; reasons were men were well experienced in the clerical work. The middle-class households women were not expected to have a job, the middle-class man had to earn enough money to keep his wife and children in comfort. The return of middle-class woman was expected to look after her husband and family. Special laws supported relationship between men and women. When a woman married, all her possessions became her husband’s property. She became his property. He was not even committing a crime if he hit her.
Women over 30 were allowed to vote while the younger women had to work for their very best. This led a growing of suffragettes who campaigned to vote for women. In 1903 the WSPU (women’s social and political union) was set up, it was a non-violent organisation. After the general election of 1906, the suffragettes as members of the WSPU began campaign to try to force the government to give women the vote.
In 1917, the government became aware of the need to call an election. The problem was that, according to the law, only men who had been resident in the country for 12 months prior to the election were entitled to vote. At this point, the arguments of Millicent fawcett and the National union of women’s suffrage drewed attention to the work of women during the war, it persuaded the liberal leader asquith, to allow women to vote.
In 1928 women over the age of 21 were finally allowed to vote.
Bibliography
GCSE coursework by Samuel Waigwa, 2004-01-13
Britain since 1914-18 by Malcolm Chandner
Information on women in Britain before 1914-18
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