Women and Work in World War

Women, before the war, were thought to be useless outside the household. Before the First World War, the traditional female role in western countries was confined to the domestic sphere, though not necessarily to their own homes, and to certain types of jobs.

In Great Britain for example, just before World War I, of the approximately 24 million adult women, around 1. 7 million worked in domestic service, 800,000 worked in the textile manufacturing industry, 600,000 worked in the clothing trades, 500,000 worked in commerce, and 260,000 worked in local and national government, including teaching.The British textile and clothing trades, in particular, employed far more women than men and were regarded as 'women's work'. They obviously were given the jobs you could teach a child to do, and didn't do anything about it, until they were aware that they weren’t taken seriously when everyone had to in World War I. Canada. Women suffered in search of jobs while their sons, husbands, and brothers were off at war.

It was tragic. Waiting for a loved one to come, and earning money. Obviously they had a great deal of responsibility, contributing in the war, but not only in regular jobs, but jobs that helped their country in war as well.They were trained to be nurses.

Help out the wounded, and care for them. 3000 were trained by the Red Cross, Voluntary Aid Detachment, and St. John Ambulance. 33 lost their lives going to the war site and back. 200 got medals for their bravery.

The other women that didn’t nurse took over the men-at-war's jobs, staying in Canada. Some did it because they felt like they owed their country enough to lend a hand in the war, and others, just because they wanted to satisfy their sense of adventure.Some worked as farmerettes (female farm workers) for $4 a week, and they did more work than they gained money. They were harvesting crops and hoeing the earth and as an addition to the four dollars they got room and board.

Others became munitions workers, making shells for the war. These women worked long and hard in poor conditions for a salary of around $9 a week. These salaries were often just barely enough to make ends meet, and all money earned was handed over to a woman's husband or mother. Men, being men, were as sexist as they are today.Not all, but most treated the female co-workers with resentment. Ah, Britain.

British women were so helping. You can't resist appreciating their help. In the war, roughly two million women replaced men in their jobs. Although some of these jobs were expected to be done by a woman even before the war, like office work and such, but one effect of the war wasn’t just the number of jobs, but the type. Women were suddenly in demand for work on the land, on transport, in hospitals and, most particularly, in industry and engineering.Women were involved in the building ships and doing work like loading and unloading coal.

“Total war” demanded the mobilization of entire nations: the drain on the labor pool when millions of men were sent into the military started a need for new workers, a need which could only be filled by women. Truly significant numbers started work, but the impact of war on women’s employment wasn’t just about doing the work, for suddenly women were able to get into jobs they had previously been out of, like police work and such.Unfortunately this opportunity wasn't very stable when the war came to a close – women were frequently forced out of these jobs again, so they can be given to returning soldiers – and the wages were low when compared to men. The military, the last place people expected women to be found in.

Nursing became almost the only area of female contribution that involved being at the front and experiencing the war. In Britain the Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps, First Aid Nursing Yeomanry and Voluntary Aid Detachment were all started before World War I.The VADs were not allowed in the front line until 1915. More than 12,000 women enlisted in the United States Navy and Marine Corps during the First World War. About 400 of them died in that war. Over 2,800 women served with the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps during the First World War and it was during that era that the role of Canadian women in the military first extended beyond nursing.

Women were given paramilitary training in small arms, drill, first aid and vehicle maintenance in case they were needed as home guards.Forty-three women in the Canadian military died during WWI. The only belligerent to deploy female combat troops in substantial numbers was the Russian Provisional Government in 1917. Its few "Women's Battalions" fought well, but failed to provide the propaganda value expected of them and were disbanded before the end of the year.

In the later Russian Civil War, the Bolsheviks would also employ women infantry. Us women can handle more than everyone else thinks, and we all proved that by the end of the first world war.