THE DAY THE WORLD CHANGED
The war began in August 1914. It gave women an opportunity to prove themselves in a male-dominated society. In fact, at the outbreak of World War I, life for women was mainly tied to a life of domesticity, cleaning the house and tending to the children, their places still largely in the home. Some, like the Suffragettes, were campaigning vocally for change, but the situation still remained at a low level.
During the war women took men’s workplaces at home and took dangerous tasks in the war zone.
WOMEN IN WORKFORCE
Now, as men headed abroad to fight, women took their place. To fill the gap left by a generation of fighting men, more than a million women took the chance to join the workforce between 1914 and 1918. Conscription only made this need even more urgent as had the Munitions of Work Act 1915 by which munitions factories had fallen under the sole control of the Government. Women's job mobility increased enormously, with a large number of women abandoning the house work never to return to it.
In general, women did very well, surprising men with their ability to undertake heavy work and with their efficiency. One factory manager was quoted as saying, “Women were seen as quick learners and that in some departments they are more efficient than men, although those departments have been employing men exclusively for years.” By the middle of the war they were already regarded as a force to be proud of, part of the glory of Britain. However, their entrance into the workforce was initially greeted with hostility for the usual sexist reasons and also because male workers worried that women's willingness to work for lower wages would put them out of work. The Government, besides, combined a welfare policy offering subsidies to families with husbands at the front with increasing female work.
WOMEN OPINIONS: “A LIBERATING EXPERINCE”
The war began in August 1914. It gave women an opportunity to prove themselves in a male-dominated society. In fact, at the outbreak of World War I, life for women was mainly tied to a life of domesticity, cleaning the house and tending to the children, their places still largely in the home. Some, like the Suffragettes, were campaigning vocally for change, but the situation still remained at a low level.
During the war women took men’s workplaces at home and took dangerous tasks in the war zone.
WOMEN IN WORKFORCE
Now, as men headed abroad to fight, women took their place. To fill the gap left by a generation of fighting men, more than a million women took the chance to join the workforce between 1914 and 1918. Conscription only made this need even more urgent as had the Munitions of Work Act 1915 by which munitions factories had fallen under the sole control of the Government. Women's job mobility increased enormously, with a large number of women abandoning the house work never to return to it.
In general, women did very well, surprising men with their ability to undertake heavy work and with their efficiency. One factory manager was quoted as saying, “Women were seen as quick learners and that in some departments they are more efficient than men, although those departments have been employing men exclusively for years.” By the middle of the war they were already regarded as a force to be proud of, part of the glory of Britain. However, their entrance into the workforce was initially greeted with hostility for the usual sexist reasons and also because male workers worried that women's willingness to work for lower wages would put them out of work. The Government, besides, combined a welfare policy offering subsidies to families with husbands at the front with increasing female work.
WOMEN OPINIONS: “A LIBERATING EXPERINCE”
"I think many women did find the war a genuinely liberating experience. It was very important to them that they were actually supporting the war effort, although lots of them didn't really think much about what the war was about. They knew that their friends, relations, husbands, sons were abroad. They were dying. There was a shell shortage. And they felt they really could do something to support the war effort.”
Gail Braybon
Gail Braybon
WOMEN TASKS
Women mostly worked in ammunition factories dealing with explosive chemicals. The women employed in these factories, popularly known as munitionettes have became the most visible face of women workers in World War I. Munitionettes produced 80% of the weapons and shells used by the British Army. Many companies switched to making munitions during the war, as well as welcoming more women into their workforce.
Women also had to take over the farm work. The Government invited them to join the ranks of the Women's Land Army, a British organisation that offered cheap female labour to farmers not always keen to employ women. The volunteers that made up the WLA were given little more than a uniform and orders to work hard as the fuel restrictions made a return to manual agricultural labour unavoidable; actually the Government used this as an excuse, counting on these women to make working the land as cheap as possible.
These women sorted coal and moved heavy tubs on the surface of a coal mine – work that was dirty and physically demanding.
Women also worked in companies that manufactured sodium bicarbonate. Sodium bicarbonate was used for baking and a range of other purposes. Women at the factory did a variety of jobs, from scientific lab work to packaging the finished product.
Women also became bus drivers, conductors and cleaners. They were also employed in post offices.
WORKING CONDITIONS
Working conditions were dreadful: women worked long, arduous hours in extremely dangerous conditions expecially in munitions factories in witch there was a great danger of explosions (from 1914 to 1918 more than 400 women died in munition factories) and exposure to toxic sulphur caused hepatitis, eye and blood problems like anemia and depression of the central nervous system and left many workers with yellowed skin.
SALARY
Despite the contribution made by women, pay remained unequal and many were laid off as soon as male workers began trickling home from the Front after hostilities ceased in November 1918.
TRADE UNIONS
Women’s contribution to industrial production allowed them to take part to trade unions.
A trade union is an organisation made up of members who are workers. The main aim of a trade union is to protect and advance the interests of its members. But the activities of a trade union - such as securing a pay rise - benefits all workers in a workplace, not just those who are members of the union.
Trade unions undertake the following activities:
Negotiate agreements with employers on pay and conditions;
Discuss major changes to the workplace such as large scale redundancy;
Discuss their members’ concerns with employers;
Accompany their members in disciplinary and grievance meetings;
Provide their members with legal and financial advice.
Extending the vote to women: trade unions tended to represent the interest of male members.
WOMEN AT THE FRONT
Women at the front had different roles, not only as nurses (as we usually think) but also as soldiers and spies, others were part of the Women’s Royal Air Force (a women's branch of the Royal Air Force).
NURSES
The nursing of sick and wounded soldiers during the war was carried out by a number of trained and voluntary nursing staff.
Trained nurses were licensed professionals who had spent years training in a hospital with a recognised school, while voluntary nurses – better known as Voluntary Aid Detachments (VADs) – were people who willingly gave their time to care for wounded patients.
VAD members were not entrusted with trained nurses’ work except in an emergency when there was no other option.
SOLDIERS
There were different kinds of women soldiers: from women that passed themselves as men to women enlisted for example in the US army. The first case was the only one that permitted a woman to fight at the front without relevant problems, in fact women that enlisted were discriminated by male soldiers, that didn’t consider a woman capable of fighting.
A curious fact was the creation of the Women's Battalions that were all-female combat units formed after the February Revolution by the Russian Provvisional Government in a last attempt to inspire the mass of soldiers to continue fighting in World War I. In fact Russia had some difficulties in continuing fighting the war because of its internal conflicts. On 3rd March 1918 Russia got out of the war with the Brest Litovsk peace.
Women weren't fully accepted in the army, an example is the story of Dorothy Lawrence, a 20-year-old journalist. She contacted several British newspapers offering to work as a war correspondent in France, but all the editors refused to employ her because they considered the work too dangerous for a woman.
Lawrence then befriended two British soldiers who gave her a uniform and she disguised herself as a man and joined the British Army using the name Denis Smith. She served for ten days before her true identity was discovered, she was then interrogated and considered first a spy, then a prostitute. In the end she was sent to a convent and she had to promise not to tell her story, since she had managed to fool the army authorities. In April 1918 it was decided to form the Royal Air Force by amalgamating the Royal Naval Air Service with the Royal Flying Corps. Also formed at this time was the Women's Royal Air Force, an auxiliary organization of the Royal.
Gertrude Crawford was appointed as its first commandant, but both her and later her replacement Violet Douglas-Pennant resigned after discovering that they were just a figurehead and they weren't actually running the service. It was then appointed Helen Gwynne-Vaughan, formerly part of the volountary aid detachment.
Over the next nine months 9,000 women were recruited into the Women's Royal Air Force to work as clerks, fitters, drivers, cooks and storekeepers.
Gwynne-Vaughan was a great success as commander of the organisation. The WRAF was even considered the best disciplined and best turned-out women's organization in the country.
Gwynne-Vaughan's work was recognised in June, 1919, when she was awarded the Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire. However, after the war it was decided to disband the WRAF.
SPIES
While women are still officially not allowed to combat in many nations, there is a long history of female involvement in warfare for example as spies. Espionage knows no gender and in fact being female could provide less suspicion and a better cover. An exemple was Edith Cavell, that wasn’t actually a spy, in fact she was a nurse by profession but worked undercover to help more that 200 French and Belgium soldiers to escape from the Germans.
POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE ASPECTS OF THE WAR
At the end of the war, in 1919, women had reached some relevant achievements. For example regarding style,women could start to wear a large range of clothes, for example trousers, and they could had a short haircut. This meant that women were free to express themselves.
The suffragettes started as a prop during the war: they brought Women to be allowed to vote in many countries, for example in Britain, Russia and Austria in 1918.
The Sex Disqualification Act of 1919 made it illegal to exclude women from jobs because of their gender. But despite the important contribution women gave during wartime, most of them were expected to return to the usual business at home, to allow men to take back their jobs.
So they had to readjust to their old life and take care of their injured relatives or in worst cases even deal with their loss.
Women mostly worked in ammunition factories dealing with explosive chemicals. The women employed in these factories, popularly known as munitionettes have became the most visible face of women workers in World War I. Munitionettes produced 80% of the weapons and shells used by the British Army. Many companies switched to making munitions during the war, as well as welcoming more women into their workforce.
Women also had to take over the farm work. The Government invited them to join the ranks of the Women's Land Army, a British organisation that offered cheap female labour to farmers not always keen to employ women. The volunteers that made up the WLA were given little more than a uniform and orders to work hard as the fuel restrictions made a return to manual agricultural labour unavoidable; actually the Government used this as an excuse, counting on these women to make working the land as cheap as possible.
These women sorted coal and moved heavy tubs on the surface of a coal mine – work that was dirty and physically demanding.
Women also worked in companies that manufactured sodium bicarbonate. Sodium bicarbonate was used for baking and a range of other purposes. Women at the factory did a variety of jobs, from scientific lab work to packaging the finished product.
Women also became bus drivers, conductors and cleaners. They were also employed in post offices.
WORKING CONDITIONS
Working conditions were dreadful: women worked long, arduous hours in extremely dangerous conditions expecially in munitions factories in witch there was a great danger of explosions (from 1914 to 1918 more than 400 women died in munition factories) and exposure to toxic sulphur caused hepatitis, eye and blood problems like anemia and depression of the central nervous system and left many workers with yellowed skin.
SALARY
Despite the contribution made by women, pay remained unequal and many were laid off as soon as male workers began trickling home from the Front after hostilities ceased in November 1918.
TRADE UNIONS
Women’s contribution to industrial production allowed them to take part to trade unions.
A trade union is an organisation made up of members who are workers. The main aim of a trade union is to protect and advance the interests of its members. But the activities of a trade union - such as securing a pay rise - benefits all workers in a workplace, not just those who are members of the union.
Trade unions undertake the following activities:
Negotiate agreements with employers on pay and conditions;
Discuss major changes to the workplace such as large scale redundancy;
Discuss their members’ concerns with employers;
Accompany their members in disciplinary and grievance meetings;
Provide their members with legal and financial advice.
Extending the vote to women: trade unions tended to represent the interest of male members.
WOMEN AT THE FRONT
Women at the front had different roles, not only as nurses (as we usually think) but also as soldiers and spies, others were part of the Women’s Royal Air Force (a women's branch of the Royal Air Force).
NURSES
The nursing of sick and wounded soldiers during the war was carried out by a number of trained and voluntary nursing staff.
Trained nurses were licensed professionals who had spent years training in a hospital with a recognised school, while voluntary nurses – better known as Voluntary Aid Detachments (VADs) – were people who willingly gave their time to care for wounded patients.
VAD members were not entrusted with trained nurses’ work except in an emergency when there was no other option.
SOLDIERS
There were different kinds of women soldiers: from women that passed themselves as men to women enlisted for example in the US army. The first case was the only one that permitted a woman to fight at the front without relevant problems, in fact women that enlisted were discriminated by male soldiers, that didn’t consider a woman capable of fighting.
A curious fact was the creation of the Women's Battalions that were all-female combat units formed after the February Revolution by the Russian Provvisional Government in a last attempt to inspire the mass of soldiers to continue fighting in World War I. In fact Russia had some difficulties in continuing fighting the war because of its internal conflicts. On 3rd March 1918 Russia got out of the war with the Brest Litovsk peace.
Women weren't fully accepted in the army, an example is the story of Dorothy Lawrence, a 20-year-old journalist. She contacted several British newspapers offering to work as a war correspondent in France, but all the editors refused to employ her because they considered the work too dangerous for a woman.
Lawrence then befriended two British soldiers who gave her a uniform and she disguised herself as a man and joined the British Army using the name Denis Smith. She served for ten days before her true identity was discovered, she was then interrogated and considered first a spy, then a prostitute. In the end she was sent to a convent and she had to promise not to tell her story, since she had managed to fool the army authorities. In April 1918 it was decided to form the Royal Air Force by amalgamating the Royal Naval Air Service with the Royal Flying Corps. Also formed at this time was the Women's Royal Air Force, an auxiliary organization of the Royal.
Gertrude Crawford was appointed as its first commandant, but both her and later her replacement Violet Douglas-Pennant resigned after discovering that they were just a figurehead and they weren't actually running the service. It was then appointed Helen Gwynne-Vaughan, formerly part of the volountary aid detachment.
Over the next nine months 9,000 women were recruited into the Women's Royal Air Force to work as clerks, fitters, drivers, cooks and storekeepers.
Gwynne-Vaughan was a great success as commander of the organisation. The WRAF was even considered the best disciplined and best turned-out women's organization in the country.
Gwynne-Vaughan's work was recognised in June, 1919, when she was awarded the Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire. However, after the war it was decided to disband the WRAF.
SPIES
While women are still officially not allowed to combat in many nations, there is a long history of female involvement in warfare for example as spies. Espionage knows no gender and in fact being female could provide less suspicion and a better cover. An exemple was Edith Cavell, that wasn’t actually a spy, in fact she was a nurse by profession but worked undercover to help more that 200 French and Belgium soldiers to escape from the Germans.
POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE ASPECTS OF THE WAR
At the end of the war, in 1919, women had reached some relevant achievements. For example regarding style,women could start to wear a large range of clothes, for example trousers, and they could had a short haircut. This meant that women were free to express themselves.
The suffragettes started as a prop during the war: they brought Women to be allowed to vote in many countries, for example in Britain, Russia and Austria in 1918.
The Sex Disqualification Act of 1919 made it illegal to exclude women from jobs because of their gender. But despite the important contribution women gave during wartime, most of them were expected to return to the usual business at home, to allow men to take back their jobs.
So they had to readjust to their old life and take care of their injured relatives or in worst cases even deal with their loss.
"I think many women did find the war a genuinely liberating experience. It was very important to them that they were actually supporting the war effort, although lots of them didn't really think much about what the war was about. They knew that their friends, relations, husbands, sons were abroad. They were dying. There was a shell shortage. And they felt they really could do something to support the war effort.”
Gail Braybon
Gail Braybon