Describe the employment opportunities of women in Britain in 1914 at the outbreak of war.

        Some women did go into working labour such as textiles, dressmaking, and clerical workers and in the food industries. Even with these jobs they could not compare to the amount of women who just did domestic services around either their own home or for their employers at their home. This mainly happened in the Sweated Trade, which was clothing and dress making. In the sweated trade women were often paid ‘piece rate’ for the amount of items that they made in a week.

        The men expected the women to give up their jobs once they became married. This is because the men did not think that it was acceptable to send their wives out to work. Most women had to have jobs as domestic helpers because their husbands did not bring in enough money for them to survive on altogether so they needed to earn extra money for food. Not all of this money came form completing domestic services; they had to have other jobs as well because the earnings were not that high for women. Women were paid two to three times less than men even if they did the same hours a day. Over the country in the industrial areas of Britain was where most of the women worked in factories. It was mainly in the north Midlands where these factories were.        

        Women sometimes worked as shop assistants or in an office or a bank but even if they did a better job than men they would still never get paid as much or they would never get a job promotion over them no matter what.        Most women who worked in these places were often middle class whereas the working class worked in a factory or domestic services.

        Women’s job opportunities were far more limited in the range of jobs that they could do compared with men. This was because women did not get a chance to become educated very well, as at the age of twelve they had to leave school. The reason why they had to leave school was because in life they would not get very far and so therefore did not need the education. After women had left school they went straight into domestic service because the pay was low and so many other women wanted to have the same job.  Also women were not given very good status in their employment and so since men were given more opportunities and were given preferences over women they needed it more. It also meant paying extra money that they could not afford.

        Some workers lived in attics and did about three times more hours than others did and managed to take five to ten pounds a year. These working class women had either half a day off a week or sometimes even a month.