2) Why did the number of women employed in Britain begin to rise significantly from mid 1914?
During the first nine months of the War, there were no apparent changes in the number of women employed or opportunities occurred. Women had to wait for the beginning of the second year before any changes appeared. The changes that happened where all strongly linked to the War; employment increased from mid-1915 because of a series of events in the War itself and new political and social reactions to these events. The factors for the rise were the large number of men going to fight on the Western Front, the demands of the new restructured economy and social and political factors.
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. With so many young men volunteering to join the army, and with so many casualties in Europe, a gap was created in employment and women were called on to fill these gaps. World War One was to prove a turning point for women. The number of women employed grew especially in proportion to the worsening conditions in the war and heavy losses in battle. For the first time in the country’s history conscription was introduced in 1916, therefore the need for women became even more obvious. Women realised the cause of patriotism was more important than continuing the fight for equality, although working in the same area as men was a fight for equality in itself. Many women started taking jobs for the first time, among them a large number of middle-class women.
Another important factor which helped raise female employment was that the war demanded specific needs upon different key industries. The reorganisation of the economy on a war footing meant that industries that were directly linked to the war would need to be strengthened to increase production. The most effected industry was without doubt the ammunitions one. The British army needed large quantities of ammunition and as men had gone to fight the War women had to be called upon. Quarries, mines and many private firms were brought under government control, to ensure that the extraction of raw materials needed was stable. Fewer men were available to work, especially in heavy industry as well as in the agricultural sector, which had to call upon women in large numbers. Early in 1917 the women’s Land Army was formed under the direction of the government. This was created to find more labour to work full-time on the land, as Britain had to grow more of its own food, due to unrestricted submarine warfare, thus causing blockades. With the increasing number of men enlisting, the agricultural jobs were suffering. Finally, there were doubts whether women could enter the medical field, but with the increasing number of causalities, the government quickly changed their minds.
Finally, several social and political factors influenced women’s employment numbers and conditions. Before mid-1915, the government stuck to its policy of ‘business as usual’. The turning point that gave a term to the policy, ‘business as usual’ came in May 1915 when the army almost ran out of shells. This was know as ‘ The Shell Scandal', which increased the need for army recruits, and directed attention for a drastic increase in munitions production. To cope with this problem the Ministry of Munitions was created, with David Lloyd George as minister. He was responsible for reorganising the munitions industry and the economy for war and employing more women was his idea. The ‘Right to Work March’, of July 1915, in which 30,000 women participated coincidently linked with Lloyd George’s efforts to expand the industry. The march organized did have an effect as this showed society, both the men and other women, how important and serious the movement was and demonstrated how large numbers of women wanted to have equal rights to men and to make their own contribution to their country’s effort in War. Although women thought of this idea as quite alluring most men were not of the same opinion and strikes were held against women employment which forced the government to sign accords with Trade Unions promising that women would not keep their job after the War had ended. By 1916, women had proved to the society and the government how useful they could be.
In conclusion, the first period of the war was futile to women’s opportunities and employment. The main reasons that brought changes about were the enormous numbers of men going to fight on the Western Front, the introduction of a war economy and social and political factors which have all been created by the War.
3) In what ways did the First World War change the employment opportunities of women in Britain?
Women employment was greatly helped by the First World War. The war was the main factor that changed women’s employment opportunities during the beginning of the twentieth century in Britain. The war also helped improve many aspects of women employment such as better conditions of work, pay and the different types of job available for women. This essay will discuss the changes the war brought to female employment. To do so I will describe how women employment was before 1914, during the war and after it. The main factors which I will discuss are the ranges of jobs available, conditions of work, pay, careers and the attitudes of the society and the government towards women, as well as some other minor events which helped improve women employment in Britain.
In Britain before the First World War broke out there was approximately five million nine hundred thousand women working in Britain out of a total population of nearly twenty four million women. The main women employers consisted of the Domestic service, the textile industry and the sweated trade. Approximately one million and a half women were employed in Domestic service, which involved women working such as cleaners for rich people. Textile firms provided women with employment as was the case in the past, starting from the Industrial Revolution. Woman could supervise sinning and weaving machines, and more or less nine hundred thousand women worked in the textile Industry. The Sweated trade also engaged large numbers of women, the figure almost climbing to a million. The working fields of the Sweated trades were the clothing and the dressmaking industries. Apart from those three types of employees women worked in all professions before the War. Although women could become doctors and had the possibility to qualify for degrees in universities, there was a lot of resistance as to not accept women in this profession because of various factors, but most importantly because of the attitudes of men towards women. Therefore most women would get employed in the main big three industries, where they would do difficult and extremely manual work which was very hard to manage. 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 work in very simple manual factories.
World War One was to prove a turning point for women. With so many young men volunteering to join the army, and with so many casualties in Europe, a gap was created in employment and women were called on to fill these gaps. For the first time in the country’s history conscription was introduced in 1916, therefore the need for women became even more obvious. Many women started taking jobs for the first time, among them a large number of middle-class women. Fewer men were available to work, especially in heavy industry as well as in the agricultural sector, which had to call upon women in large numbers. Early in 1917 the women’s Land Army was formed under the direction of the government. Other expanding industries such as car manufactures and aeroplane construction started employing women in large numbers to do simple jobs such as painting and driving. As we can see now, women were a vital role for the good functioning of Britain. More than half the primary teachers were women, and by 1917, one third of men were replaced by women. When the war ended, most women lost their jobs as men were coming back from the Western Front. Women started going back to their previous jobs they had before War as 1,850,000 women worked in Domestic Service, more than the pre-war level. However some industries and professions began accepting women. For example the medical fields started employing women because of the important number of casualties during the war. Overall, the War provided women with the first step to equal rights, and women had learnt a wider range of skills that they could later use.
Men’s dominance in the working world was strongly felt as most men had the better jobs. Thus, remuneration for woman was much lower than their counterparts Although women worked in factories, which was extremely difficult, because the work was very monotonous and physical they only got paid on average two thirds of a mans wage. Women felt like secondary-class citizens and were treated as such. Employers took advantage of women as the women’s main concern was to survive low salaries and poor working conditions; advancement in career had no significance for them as their limited poor educational background lessened their chances of progress in most domains of their work. Clearly they took this job purely from the need to feed their families. Their lack of education and the dominance of men in the workforce gave them little choice other than to accept these manual, simple almost degrading types of jobs. There were huge amounts of resistance to women’s employment in the professions, and most of the time women could only become primary school teachers or doctors. At that time universities could not provide them with degrees. The War provided women with jobs in different new industries such a car manufacturing or the munitions productions. Although the work in these industries was far more dangerous than in their previous employments, women did not hesitate as pay was much more attractive, almost three pounds a week. Women would work with chemicals and explosives which could cause serious illnesses or in some cases death. Many women left Domestic service in large numbers for the more attractive pay and freedom procured by other professions or industries. Conditions in the work places were still very harsh and demanding, and were still paid lees then men. Most of the dangerous jobs were done by women, and they were rarely promoted over men. After the war most women lost their jobs, however, several occupations started accepting women, which they had not done before the war. There were attempts to eliminate women’s discrimination after the war. In 1919 the Sex Disqualification Act made it illegal for employers in certain professions, not to discriminate women but overall the act did not have a great effect. Other acts were passed during the 1920s, which gave women more legal rights. Women had to wait till 1975 for the Equal Pay Act. However World War One was a main factor for caused the long term movement towards equal rights for women.
The most important factor, the government and men’s attitudes towards women was partially changed because of the war and how women had contributed in the well running of Britain. Before the War there were many restrictions on omen’s employment as they were thought to be less capable then men. There was still this idea of women being inferior the men in the first nine months of the war, for example the government kept following their policy of ‘business as usual’. When the government finally understood how useful women could be, and how much women could contribute to the War effort if given the possibility, the government promoted women employment and started advertising for this to be the case. The male population responded with strikes of all sorts, but not with sexist ideas but on the contrary when they saw how women had done their jobs as methodically as men, men where scared they would lose their jobs. Society persuaded women to go back to their old employments after the war had finished or back to being housewives. Although women were forced back to doing as they had before the war, Victorian attitudes started to change towards women, giving women more freedom before the War. Nevertheless, the War opened the path of equality, and soon afterwards women got the right to vote although it was under more conditions then the men’s right to vote.
In general, in my point of view the most important factor which led to equal rights and the vote was the radical change of attitudes the government and society in general took towards women. Many improvements were made, and now women could work in many different professions and a new respect had been created towards women because of World War One. Women had the right now to either work in which field they chose or to stay at home. In my opinion, if it was not for World War One and all the events it triggered off women would not have the same rights as today.
