Women in World War One - Describe the employment opportunities of women in Britainat the outbreak of the war?

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Women in World War One

  1. Describe the employment opportunities of women in Britain at the outbreak of the war?

At the outbreak of the war in 1914 women were involved a great deal in several areas of production and services. Women stayed enthusiastic to support most war efforts and nearly 5,900,000 women were employed in Britain, some for the very first time. As job opportunities for women did seem to open up in Britain it was all limited as they had to work in bad conditions, low pay and having to accept the fact that the men were being paid mare. Employment opportunities opened up in the fields of Domestic Services, Textiles and Sweated trades. The war also opened up opportunities for high qualified women and women in the armed forces as many organizations such as the Voluntary Aid Detachments (VAD) and The First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY) were started for the first time which increased potential opportunities for women. Similarly organizations were set up such as the ‘Work for Women fund’ which helped women who were made redundant before the war to get there jobs back during the outbreak.

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Domestic services attracted young girls because the school leaving age was 12 and no formal education was required for the jobs as most of the work was manual. It employed one person in every eight which was a significant ratio at the time it was one of the few jobs that employed large numbers of women. The conditions were harsh and the hours were long, there were no trade unions for women at the time so nothing could be done about the hours, conditions or the low pay. In the field of domestic services opportunities did seem ...

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