Women & the War Efforts

British society has undergone many changes during the Great War. Significantly, the changes had affected many women of all statuses to bring the good for the rights of women and how they eventually obtained their voting rights. Before the Great War, Upper Class women in Britain did not work at all, where they were known to be caring for their husbands, children and of course their homes.

Also, they had the job of being a housewife; fulfilling the basic essential needs in the home of cleaning, ironing, preparing meals, etc.Like nowadays women have several rights they are eligible to, however in the late Victorian and early Edwardian period (1880’s – 1914), women had no rights at all. Women were known not be as clever as men and for several other reasons they were not allowed to go out into the financial world and receive jobs for extra income. The average woman would spend their day looking after their children, cleaning their house and cooking for their family. The woman's husband would have a job and earn the money whilst the woman stayed at home and looked after the children.

Women's family were very important to them.Woman wanted to be treated as equally as men. Women's only professions were said to be motherhood and wifehood. "A woman's place is in the home" is how women expressed their selves as all their chores were in their home whilst the men went out to work. Girls were said to follow their mother’s footsteps so it wasn't as important for them to go to school. If a poor man chose to send his children to the 'poorhouse', the mother was legally defenceless to object.

Some communities let women act as lawyers in courts, sue for property and to own property in their own names if their husbands agreed.Though, there was quite a division between the upper, middle and working class women during the First World War. Having discussed about the status of the upper class women, it was however not the same case for the working class women. The working class women worked mainly as maids, in domestic service and in factories.

They worked very hard to keep their families going. There were fewer Middle class women working than Working Class but those that did, worked as teachers, nurses, telephonists, typists and as sales assistants.When women from the Middle Class married, most of them had to quit their jobs, but there are sources which say that women from Lancashire were still expected to work in the textile mills, even if they were married. Upper Class women didn't have to work because they were already well off, because of the husbands earning sufficient amount of revenue to provide the family with not only food, water and shelter but also to some extent; luxury, which at the era was hard to afford for the less fortunate families.

Education was not available to working class women but, at the end of the 19th century some universities were beginning to accept a few wealthy women to study degree courses. Though, they were still educated separately from the men, and it wasn’t until 1920 that some universities actually granted degrees out to the women, for instance, Oxford University was the first to do so. It was a great thanks to individual initiatives, and the pioneering work of the Association for Promoting the Higher Education of Women that women’s colleges came to be established for the first time in the history of Britain situated in Oxford.Yet, sources have said that some woman did work in professions in the 18th century. They were doctors, lawyers, preachers, teachers, writers and singers (but this was less regarded by the nation and often was frowned upon as they were to be at a lower status to the men and not competing with them, to secure a place in society but look after the children). But by the early 19th century woman were limited to factory labour and domestic work.

The only professions the women were then allowed to do were writing and teaching.The British textile and clothing trades were regarded as 'women's work' as they employed far more women than men. In Great Britain, just before the World War I, out of 24,000,000, 1,700,000 worked in domestic service, 800,000 worked in the textile manufacturing, 600,000 worked in the clothing trades, 500,000 worked in commerce and 260,000 worked in local and national government. Yet, numerous Historians believe that the War had a played its substantial role in helping women to earn jobs while the men were out fighting in the war.These sources are to provide enough evidence to show that there were already small steps of change being shown before the war efforts in the World War One.

(For photos please look at the sources page, letters indicate the same image with captions). A. Employees at work in the Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre factory in Coventry in July 1897. These were skilled, indoor jobs.

Similar factory was done using to manufacture products before the WW1, where munitions were made. B. Two nurses at Cheyne Hospital for Sick and Incurable Children, Chelsea, Greater London in 1893.Though, only professional nurses were able to do this level of work which was extremely rare.

C. The three Miss Bromleys with their bicycles in Byfield, Northamptonshire, in 1904. Often they would run small businesses such as delivering, so they’d use one of the common types of transport, although there were trains as a mode of transport available as well. D. A busy street scene in Cheapside, London around 1900. Women are walking alone and in groups.

Some of them would have been out shopping. Shops are advertising goods designed to appeal to women.This suggests that women were beginning to roam around with freedom without their husband’s going with them. E. A group of young girls training to be domestic servants at Headington Domestic Training School, Oxford in 1913. The school trained girls to serve in the best houses in the city.

This was one of the well-known jobs for women throughout Britain but had improved its standards. F. The Comptometer room at the Stratford Co-operative Society in 1914, showing girls and boys working on model 'E' comptometers.The comptometer was invented in 1887 and was the first successful manual calculating machine. This had influenced most women to invent items that would help not only them but others as well. People/Groups Insight: The Suffragettes The Suffragettes were significant campaigners, or shall I say violent protestors who’d demanded votes for the women.

However, the movement had begun in 1897, with a woman named, Millicent Fawcett (founder of the National Union of Women's Suffrage) who had a similar vision but with peaceful protests.She felt that any violence or trouble would persuade men that women could not be trusted to have the right to vote. Her main focus plan was patience and logical arguments. However, her progress was very slow, so from then on a new campaigners group was formed, The Suffragettes, in 1903, official founder Emmeline Pankhurst. In 1905, a major event to show them wanting their equal rights to men, specifically the vote had occurred when Christabel Pankhurst (daughter of Emily Pankhurst) and Annie Kenney interrupted a political meeting in Manchester between Winston Churchill ; Sir Edward Grey.

Both Pankhurst and Kenney were thrown out of the meeting and arrested for causing an obstruction and a technical assault on a police officer. Both women also refused to pay a fine preferring to go to prison to highlight the injustice of the system as it was then. Emmeline Pankhurst later wrote in her autobiography that: "This was the beginning of a campaign the like of which was never known in England or for that matter in any other country....

. we interrupted a great many meetings....

.. and we were violently thrown out and insulted. Often we were painfully bruised and hurt. The Suffragettes had now got the better of themselves to staying on the path of spreading violence across the nation until they had been given the vote; they had burned down churches as the Church of England had been against them, and what had really surprised them was that the Queen had disagreed with the fact of the women receiving the votes, which mean that the Suffragettes were not going to give up on their efforts.

More and more violence had taken place, from vandalising Oxford Street to chaining themselves to Buckingham Palace!Furthermore, many individuals from the group had hired boats up to River Thames, abused Parliament and others even refused to pay their taxes. Quite happy to go to prison, the Suffragettes had went on hunger strikes, creating this an issue for the government as they would be responsible for their deaths, so in order to feed them they would be chained and force-fed not by the mouths but most painful of all by their noses! Therefore, this could not be carried on for much longer so to get around this the ‘Cat and Mouse Act’ was introduced.The logic behind this was simple: a Suffragette would be arrested; she would go on hunger strike; the authorities would wait until she was too weak (through lack of food) to do any harm if in public. She would then be released. Once out of prison, it was assumed that the former prisoner would start to eat once again and re-gain her strength over a period of time. If she committed an offence while protesting, she would be immediately re-arrested and returned to prison.

Here, it was assumed that she would then go back on hunger strike.The authorities would then wait until she was too weak to cause trouble and then she would be re-released. This Act had been performed on many individuals. Nevertheless, an event had also taken place to mark the extremism in these Suffragettes was when Emily Wilding Davison threw herself under the King’s horse during June 1913 in Derby. Instantly she was killed and was the first Suffragette martyr.

From then on, Britain had been engaged into the War, so Emily Pankhurst had instructed the Suffragettes to stop their campaign of violence and support in every way the government and its war effort.But would have this been enough to convince the Government to pass out a new Act? Women at Work – Case Studies Case Study 1 – Munitions Production Women did not become involved in war work on a huge scale until after the first year of war, which being largely ignored by the UK government. The growth of the workplaces for these women was very restricted to munitions factories and voluntary work. However, women had not wanted to only knit socks and raise money for the men/boys at the Front.

After a year their chances had finally arrived in 1915 after the famous ‘Shell Scandal’ (this was the shortage of shells in the Battle of Neuve Chappelle), highlighting the rapid increase that was needed in the munitions production. British Prime Minister, Lloyd George recruited the help of the leader of the Suffragettes, Emmeline Pankhurst to help promote the need for female labour. After successfully organising the demonstration of the woman’s ‘right to serve’ a military conscription law had been introduced in March 1916 which now made it even more vital for the women to play their role in the war.The types of work that women became involved in was varied, often skilled and sometimes dangerous. For example: 'Women working in larger munitions factories were known as Canaries because they dealt with TNT which caused their skin to turn yellow. Around 400 women died from overexposure to TNT during World War One.

Other hazards were more obvious and minor problems were common. ' From the biography of a 'Munitionette', Miss Joan Williams. Here Miss Williams explains that the equipment and the environment the women had often worked in had caused a major risk to their health and that about 400 women died from the TNT.She had witnessed the minor problems that women like her had faced in the factories like these.

However, munitions work was highly paid, which had a major impact in attracting women from jobs into domestic service, which showed a decrease in numbers during the war. Accounted for large proportions of women in the workplaces, to which extent in mid-1917 it was estimated to women producing approximate of 80% of all munitions.Case Study 2 – Transportation Industries The largest entry of women in workplaces was the transport industry where they took work as conductresses (and sometimes, as drivers), on buses, trams nd underground trains. Although, the war had been had broken out, women had particularly thought that the country still had to keep going as it were before, so transport for some people was the only way to travel around the country and even for women who had to get to work used the transport.

For the country seeing women have the jobs in transport industries was a shock for a few or even a new sight. '... by February 1917 the total number of bus conductresses leapt from the timorous handful of the previous year to about 2,500, some half of whom, it was said, were former domestic servants.Arthur Marwick This source had shown that men like Arthur Marwick were amazed at the amount of women who had actually taken over workplaces.

He explains the statistics which were a huge amount and he may be either shocked or surprised by this. As the public encountered them on a daily basis they provided the most outwardly visible example of how women had entered the workplace. A great number of women had come to work in fields as varied as commerce, administration, education, forestry and agriculture.The 'Women's Land Army' (conventional to help produce more food supplies and goods to sustain the war efforts) alone employed over 260,000 women as farm labourers. While the war offered many new choices for women and work, it did not usually lead to a rise in the salaries of women, which were already much lower than men’s. In Britain, rather than paying a woman during the war what they would have paid a man, as per government equal pay regulations, employers split tasks down into smaller steps, employing a woman for each and giving them less for doing it.

Case Study 3 – Medical/War ServicesAs the war was on-going there was an increase in demands for nurses and doctors as more and more casualties had been arriving and with that were to see a rise in the women getting involved in nursing work. Organisations such as the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (An organisation of women recruits who ran field hospitals, drove ambulances and worked in troop canteens) and the Voluntary Aid Detachments (Formed to provide essential medical help during the war era) formed before the War saw a rise in the number of volunteers so that by mid-1917 around 45,000 women were in nursing occupations.This was in few cases of most women that had drove ambulances for the first time or even experience the nursing work that was often done by the professional doctors. Trainings were given to women who were willing to help work in these services.

By 1915 women volunteers over the age of twenty-three were able to serve overseas in hospitals on the Western Front, Gallipoli and Mesopotamia. Case Study 4 – Women in the Armed Forces Much later on in the War the armed forces began to recruit women.The Royal Navy formed the Women's Royal Naval Service (WRNS) in 1916; this was followed by the Women's Auxiliary Corps (WAACs) in 1917 and the Women's Royal Air Force (WRAF) in 1918. These women filled administrative posts such as clerks and telephonists, worked as cooks, instructors, code experts and electricians. This freed up the men who had previously performed these jobs to join the fighting.

Few women served in the front lines fighting, but there were exceptions: Flora Sands was a British woman who fought with Serbian forces, attaining the rank of Captain by the war’s end, while Ekaterina Teodoroiv fought in the Romanian army.There are stories of women in the Russian army throughout the war, but in the aftermath of the February Revolution of 1917 an all-female unit formed with government support: the Russian Women’s Battalion of Death. While there were several battalions, only one fought in the war, but fight they did, capturing enemy soldiers. These nurses saw the horrors of war first-hand, and were able to return to their normal lives with this information.