In 1914 only 2% of girls received a formal education. Many of the 5.9 million that worked in either the domestic service, textile industry or sweated trades were normally from poorer classes. These were the women that left school at twelve and straight away started working to earn a little money. A very small number of educated women worked. Educated women worked in the civil service and telecommunications industry.
By 1914 there were women working in nearly all the professions albeit a very small number of doctors and legal workers. Even though women were able to become doctors since the 1870s, there was “considerable resistance” to their employment. “The First World War was the first real opportunity for career development for many highly qualified women.”
Abdullah Mamaniat 10Q
Assignment One: Objective One: - The Home Front
Question 2
Why did the number of women employed in Britain begin to rise significantly from mid 1915?
With so many young men, as many as 6 million, volunteering to join the army, and with so many casualties, a gap was created in employment and women were called to fill in these gaps. As a result about 1.2 million women went to work for the first time. Although many women had always worked, many of the middle-classed women had never worked before. This was the first time women were employed properly even though most of them received low pay. The Government was forced to change its policy against women on the matter of losing or winning the war.
However these changes did not come about instantaneously. Many women experienced refusals straight away when they wanted to play a more active role in the war effort. Some were rudely told to ‘Go home and sit still’.
A similar denial was given to the members of The First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY), which was set up in 1907. This group like many other similar voluntary groups were more directly concerned with the war than simply going out to a job in the country. This organization, FANY, volunteered to go to the Front line when war broke out in 1914. However it was turned down by the Government. This was mainly due to the fact that the Government didn’t want people to think that the war was going to be serious or last for too long. Despite this, groups like the Women’s Hospital Corps (WHS) and Women’s Emergency Corps (WES), which provided despatch riders, did find themselves helping at the Front Line by 1914.
Other young women volunteered to join the VAD’s (Voluntary Aid Detachment). VAD’s came from a variety of backgrounds- cooks, domestic servants, laundry workers etc. Their medical training was basic but the fact that they went to the war zone meant that they could comfort badly injured soldiers and give them basic medical treatment even if they were originally not allowed to give injections. Furthermore to wounded soldiers, coming in from the mud and horror of the trenches, the sight of the calm, efficient VAD nurse was a great comfort.
By 1915 it was well apparent that the war was not going to be short lived or “over by Christmas”. However the government kept hold of its policy of ‘business as usual’. The president, Herbert Asquith, went on a tour to talk to workers in the spring of 1915. This was done as an attempt to enhance morale on the Home Front as the war advanced its way into the second year. Tickets were fee but had visibly printed on them, ‘This meeting is for men only’. The implication of these words was evident: women were not considered to be part of the war effort.
However the turning point for women to get involved in the war effort was in May 1915, when there was The Great Shell Shortage. The supply of ammunition at the Western Front fell so low that the troops couldn’t even fire their guns. The Minister for Munitions, David Lloyd George, desperately needed to oversee an increase in the shell production. This clearly meant that more workers were needed and the only answer was to employ women. This was the first event that brought women into the war effort in great numbers.
David Lloyd George’s efforts to expand the shell industry also happened to coincide with the Suffragettes march in London scheduled for the July of 1915. It was now a march on “Right to Work” for the outbreak of war instead of their original slogan “Right to Vote.” Their slogan now meant that they wanted to be allowed to serve their country. It was no longer to do with the voting rights.
The shell shortage also ended the policy of “business as usual.” After Asquith had agreed to sign up a coalition government everyone knew that the war was not going to end quickly and more importantly they realised that the war could not be won without recognising the nation. That also meant women!
By the end of 1915, 2.5 million men had volunteered to fight at the Front Line. An army this size needed vast amounts of weapons and most important, munitions. There was only one solution. Women were needed. As the days went by, more and more women were needed to supply them. Women took places of the fighting men in the munitions factories. The women also found work in the new factories that produced planes, weapons and ammunitions. A National Register was set up to record who was doing what job in favour of the country. These jobs included working in munitions factories, working as policewomen, working in the hospitals, working as bus conductors, working as tram drivers, taking on milk and post rounds, and working as part of the Land Army- these were women who helped with farm work. With so many men away fighting, someone had to bring in the harvests and keep the farms going. The Women’s Land Army played a vital part in this and therefore helped to feed the country.
Most women found a new freedom in war work. For several it was the start of a new life. It was much better paid than the textile mills and domestic service at the wage of up to even £5 a week! This allowed them to spend money on whatever they want, not just food to feed the family. The Land Army Girls also wore trousers. This was the first time it was acceptable for women to wear trousers. By the end of the war over 900,000 women were found being employed in the munitions factories.
Despite the relatively high pay, war work was unpleasant and dangerous. Vital work was being done in the munitions factories by the women, whilst the men were away but it was very hazardous. Working with explosive chemicals meant that one explosion in a factory could trigger off many other ones. Also the protective clothing of today did not really exist then. Further the munition girls worked with sulphur. There was no protection from this
dangerous chemical and the women who worked with sulphur found that their exposed skin turned yellow as the chemical impregnated itself into any exposed skin. Therefore, your face and hands could take on a yellow tinge. These women were given the nick-name of “canaries”. Some munition workers experienced lung and skin diseases and infertility. Men were often hostile. They were unfamiliar with the high profile role women were now taking and many felt threatened. There were serious concerns over what would happen to their jobs when they returned from France. Factories even put up posters saying that women would no longer be employed once the war had ended. The Government had to ease fears over lower pay for less skilled workers.
In summary we can see that the number of women employed in Britain began to rise significantly from mid 1915 because men were volunteering to join the army and therefore there was a gap in where they worked. Women were called in to fill these gaps.
Abdullah Mamaniat 10Q
Assignment One: Objective One: - The Home Front
Question 3
In what ways did the First World War change the employment opportunities of women in Britain?
World War One was to give women the opportunity to show a male-dominated society that they could do more than simply bring up children and tend a home. In World War One, women played a vital role in keeping soldiers equipped with ammunition and in many senses they kept the nation moving through their help in manning the transport system.
The withdrawal of about half a million men, most of them who had been in the workforce did not, however, result in their direct replacement by women. Women’s contribution to the workforce rose from 24 per cent of the total in 1914 to 37 per cent in 1918, but the increase tended to be in what were already traditional areas of women’s work- in the clothing and footwear, food and printing sectors. There was also some increase in the clerical, shop assistant and teaching areas. Unions were unwilling to let women join the workforce in greater numbers in traditional male areas as they feared that this would lower wages.
Many women wanted to become more involved in war-related activities- such as cooks, stretcher bearers, motor car drivers, interpreters, munitions workers- but the government did not allow this contribution. However the voluntary organisations did become very active during the war- including VAD’s and FANY nurses.
Before 1914, employed women were accepted in only a narrow range of jobs. The majority- poorer working class girls- were employed as factory workers (in cotton mills or match factories etc), seamstresses, shop assistants and domestic servants. Middle class women found work as nurses, governesses or school mistresses if they had adequate education. A few could become doctors but business and industrial management, the law, the civil service and even secretarial work was off limits.
During the First World War women undertook much of the work abandoned by men- in industry, commerce, services, public administration and even in the armed forces as auxiliaries. One of the most important jobs which the women did, was making shells in the munitions factories. By the time the war ended, sixty per cent of all workers engaged in manufacturing munitions were women. They were happy to work for just over two pounds a week, which in those days was a very good wage. Women did other types of other jobs, too. They drove tramcars, took on milk and post rounds, acted as conductors on buses, volunteered as policewomen and even did heavy work of the sort usually tackled only by men. Various women also went round the streets delivering coal!
The number of women employed in the industry also increased quickly, as did the number of different types of work undertaken by women. “By 1917, one third of all women in employment had replaced a man since the beginning of the war”. Since 1914 women had also taken occupations which included brick makers, tram and bus drivers, conductresses, welders, ticket inspectors, carpenters, porters, van drivers, theatre managers, electricians and foresters. This great list just gives us an idea about the change in employment opportunities. At first in 1914, the most common job was domestic service and there were many women in the textiles industry and sweated trades. However by 1917, 68% of them had changed jobs since the war began in 1914. Not only did they now work in these jobs they had practically ‘taken over’ them.
The great contribution which women made to the war effort was rewarded in 1918. In addition to the fact that women were now seen in a complete different capacity and that their profile had been raised greatly, the government granted the right to vote to women over the age of thirty. This was a right that had been denied to women up to that time.
The great increase in the number of women who went to work by the First World War tells us exactly the changes in employment opportunities. The description above explaining how women were employed before the war and how this changed during the war also tells us the changes in employment opportunities. Comparing the two lists of what type of work women did before, and what type after, we can see that women took over a wide variety of different jobs.
Women were first in actual fact needed in May 1915, when there was The Great Shell Shortage. Supplies of ammunition had fallen low and in order to win the war an increase in shell production was needed. Because of the fact that many of the men had gone to fight, the only real answer was to employ women. This led large numbers of women into the war effort. This was also a clear sign that the war could not be won without recognising the nation and the part that women played in it.
By the end of 1915, 2.5 million men had volunteered to fight at the Front Line. An army this size needed vast amounts of weapons and most important, munitions. With only a few men, again women were need to work in munitions factories, producing planes, weapons and ammunition.
Munitions factories were not the only places in which women found work in 1915. Women also joined the police force. Some of these jobs that have been mentioned were jobs that women wouldn’t have dreamt of taking part in. However the First World War changed their employment opportunities and allowed them to do so.
Many women also began working in the Land Army. With so many men away fighting, someone had to bring in the harvests and keep the farms going. The Women’s Land Army played a vital part in this in helping to feed the country. By working on the land these women helped to ensure that the country was supplied with food. Before 1914 very few women were working on the land but by 1915 about 13,000 women volunteered to work on the land.
In 1916, after the Military Service Acts had been passed, men were being conscripted into the army. This meant that the need for women was greater than ever. The government realised this and thus women began entering many occupations.
Another group of women who played a more direct part in the war were those who volunteered to serve in the first women’s services and actually ‘joined up’ themselves. The Woman’s Army Auxiliary Corps (W.A.A.C) was the first woman’s service of all. It was established in 1917. Its main aim was to employ women as cooks, drivers etc., in order to release men for fighting. By 1918, the ideas had spread and there was now a Women’s Royal Naval Service and a Women’s Royal Air Force.
Two new industries especially like recruiting women. These were industries that expanded very rapidly during the war and were motor car industry and the aircraft sector. These kinds of jobs was generally thought to be ‘men’s jobs’, however we can see that this was no longer true and also that the First World War gave the women the opportunity to work in places they had never done before. In these industries, women worked as car mechanics and also found work in the aeroplane industry.
Professionally there were more doctors, teachers, and women working in the bank and legal professions. Reuters used the first woman messenger in 1917, and the first British woman diplomat was appointed in 1917. Although there had been women doctors since the 1870s the First World War provided the first real opportunity for career development for many highly qualified women.
In conclusion we can see that the First World War really gave women the opportunity to explore new jobs and work in completely different places. It was also a chance to make the people realize that women were not useless and in one sense they helped win the First World War through their efforts at the Home Front. Comparing it to the kinds of jobs they did at the outbreak of war in 1914, we can see that the First World War changed the employment opportunities of women in Britain dramatically. Nevertheless, after the war, there was enormous pressure to remove women workers. But women were now established- the First World War had established them- they could do anything they wanted now. They were now seen in a different capacity and their profile had been raised greatly.