The Rise of the Number of Women Employed in Britain in Mid-1915

As men had gone into war, many jobs needed workers. The largest single employer of women in 1918 was the munition factories due to the high demand for weapons. Though there was initial resistance to hiring women for what was seen as ‘men’s work’, in 1916 there was an introduction of conscription made need for women workers urgent. The government began coordinating the

During World War I (1914-1918) a massive number of women joined the armed forces in hopes of being able to serve their country and those in need. There was a high demand for nurses to attend injured soldiers, and as a result from that women wanted to join the armed forces knowing that while the men were treated for their injuries they too could help out their country if permitted. Furthermore, women had to take on the jobs left by all of the men that went to war. Opening the possibilities of women to keep working even after the war is over, creating the employment rate to go higher. Some women had to go back to what they were doing before but a majority of women were able to keep working alongside men. Their wage was a lot less than men but

(Scates & Frances, 1997). This however was verified to be wrong as employment of women increased from 24% in July 1914 to 37% in November 1918 but this growth tended to be in traditional industries such as clothing and footwear (Mendenwald N.D). The varying attitudes towards women were established through the statement a factory administrator, who claimed “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”. During World War 1, not all the occupations were burdensome and non live- threatening. Some women operated in munitions and ammunition factories, which were treacherous and unhealthy and involved working with chemicals like sulphur without protection triggering damage to the skin and lungs (Mendenwald N.D). In an effort to produce more skilful women into the working industries, schools were set up to train women in upholstering, trimming, and other work calling for skilled operatives. The foremost cause of this was the unions were cautious to employ women in

WWI was a trying, and difficult time for all people, especially with the unnecessary casualties, but it was also one of the moments in history where women finally got to step up to the plate after a lot of discrimination against their gender, a thing no can control. When men had gone to fight in the war, women were recruited in abundance. There was some clash between whether women should or should not have jobs that were considered “men's work”, but ever since the Conscription Crisis, women workers were massively needed. Which meant manual labor such as working heavy machinery in engineering. There were also many other jobs that were opened up to women, such as tram conducting,

July 28, 1914 marked the start of the evolution of women´s roles in the work place. Before the beginning of the 1900’s, it was quite known that women were to stay at home only. All of women’s work was around the house, while men were the ones who went out of the house. However, women moved on to working beyond their homes, as a consequence to World War One. While some had believed that men were ultimately superior to women, the many important roles women played during the war, such as working dangerous jobs and volunteering to fight, positively impacted women’s rights in the work place forever.

During WWI, large numbers of women were recruited into jobs vacated by men who had gone to fight in the war. New jobs were also created as part of the war effort. The high demand for weapons resulted in the munitions factories becoming

Between 1914 and 1918, more than a million women joined the workforce to fill the gap left by the men at war. Finding themselves working diversely from nurses and cleaners to police patrols and explosives manufacturing for the war. Yet they still earned only half as much as men working the same jobs men did and were still constricted with what they

As more men entered the armed forces, women needed to replace them. By the war's end, hundreds of thousands of women had entered the workforce, many of them in traditionally masculine occupations such as engineering, munitions, transport, business, and eventually even the military. The war produced a leap in women's employment from twenty-six percent in the workforce in 1914 to thirty-six percent by 1918. One million women worked in munition industries, forty-thousand served as nurses, and twenty-thousand joined the Women's Land Army as agricultural workers (Marwick, 1977). For the young and the middle-class, work outside their homes was indeed a new experience. On the other hand, working-class women were used to paid work, but the type of work was new. Many left low-skill, low-wage jobs, especially in domestic service, for better paying skilled labor in factories and workshops (Kent, 1993).

The American war effort demanded increased production of war materials in addition to the millions of American men who were deployed across the world. The resulting work shortage led to a massive, wide-scale incorporation of American women in the workforce rectify the problem. More than six million women took jobs for the first time during World War II, and many, almost two million, worked in traditionally male domains manufacturing war items such as engines, artillery, and aircraft frames.

During the years of 1914-1918, many women’s lives and experiences dramatically changed in Britain due to the impacts of war. The introduction of conscription in 1916, gave women the necessity for total war and DORA (defence of realm act) for the movement of women in the workforce. Within the depiction of Source D, it is evident that many women, even though within the ‘workforce’ had to work long hours dealing with heavy machinery. Other roles such as banking, teaching and medicine were also occupations that were on offer to women whim were not part of the factory working as the job roles were categorised as ‘non-combat’ duties. Such duties use to be performed by men (which is evident from source E). The employment if women went from 3 million

Before the war, women in western countries were mainly confined to work in the domestic field, as servants, while others worked in textile and clothing factories. In fact, in Great Britain, just before WW1, there were 24 million adult women;

The role of women in war has varied significantly throughout British History. During world War 1 womens role was constricted as many worked in the industry of textiles , knitting and munitions. This said they played a pivotal role in the war effort as 23.8 million in britain were all working. Voluntary and paid positions were taken up as unfamiliar roles to women, Nevertherless this was recquired in order to sustain the living of many families. World War 1 illustrated the capability of women in wokring across a variety of fields. However the effort from women was arguably taken out of context. Despite the rise in pay , women still earned less then men. They held the responisibility of working as a generation of men went to fight. This covered munitions, police patrols and even nursing.Women worked in horendous conditions and accidents were far too frequent in factories. A TNT plant killed 73 people and also leading to the destruction of nearby homes. Furthermore the collective effort was extraordinary , the workers of one factory in Gloucestershire within the four years filled over 17 million shells(BBC world war 1).Opportunities in civil service increased by 1,751 %.

Women were given job opportunities in world war 1 because a lot of men went off to go fight in the war. There was a very high demand for weapons and although at first they were skeptical about hiring women to do a mans job the women were needed. Women were recruited through campaigns and recruitment drives[1]. Jobs that were given to women during world war I consisted of railway guards, postal workers, police, firefighters, bank teller and a lot of factory jobs for machinery. Although these job opportunities were a big step for women it created a wages and right problem. The women were getting paid way under of what the men would have gotten paid, even though they were doing the men’s jobs. The women workers on the London buses and trams started

One of the main factors which contribute to the increase of women working was the conscription of women. With the outbreak of war and most of the men fighting against fascism, as shown in the article called ‘Women under Fire’ by Carol Harris the National Service act made conscription of single women aged 20-30 legal on 8th December 1941. Later this inclusivity was removed and by mid-1943 almost 90% of single women, 80% of married women and older women were working to support the war

World War II was the first time that women were greatly encouraged to join the workforce. Nearly 6 million women took industrial jobs such as steel plants, shipyards, and lumber mills at the urging of the government and media (“Women of the Century”). Because the men were away fighting in