Women in World War I by Elese

Affect on Middle Class vs Working Class

2018-08-27 07:08:24 UTC

- The war was revolutionary for the middle class women. It freed them from the restraints of the home and domestic duties, allowing them opportunity and freedom they had never previously experienced.
- However, the war had an opposite effect on the women of the working class because they suddenly had to work longer hours whilst still having to fulfil domestic roles.

(Matt Henning)

Reality of Female Wartime Workers.

2018-08-27 07:24:08 UTC

- At the beginning of the war, female employment fell by 10% in London, October 1914.
- There was a union opposition to female workers based on the fear of their impacts on wages. Women were seen as hard to train and unreliable workers, the majority of women staying at home.
- There may not have been a large increase of work due to the war, many female munitions workers already had existing jobs, but the increase of demand for munitions may have brought more females to work in that particular industry.

(Callum Liang)

Women in the Armed Services

2018-08-27 08:51:47 UTC

During the war it created many women's armed services such as:

- The Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC)
- The Women's Royal Air Force (WRAF)
- The Women's Royal Naval Service (WRNS)

This enabled almost 100,000 women to take up non combatant jobs which freed up men for the combat on the front.

Women were not given full military status. They took up roles such as working as clerks, telephonists, waitresses, cooks and drivers.

continued

2018-08-27 09:11:26 UTC

Women and the munitions industry

2018-08-27 09:46:26 UTC

Munitionettes were the women that worked in the highly dangerous munitions industry. The industry employed 1 million women, the largest employer for British women.

Munitions were essential for fighting in the war. As a result of the high demands for munitions, women were paid 2-3 times the amount of domestic service, making the job extremely popular despite the dangerous working conditions. By July 1918, when the total war was in full flow, 80% of British munitions were provided by female munition workers which clearly displays the aspect of 'total war' and the importance of women in the workforce.

Working conditions were dangerous and exhausting for munitionettes. Around 200 were killed at work mostly due to TNT poisoning. Furthermore, normal working days were 12 hour long shifts with no time off (in the beginning) on Sundays.

continuing on from lewis

2018-08-27 09:59:44 UTC

Women who were enrolled in the WAAC were disciplined in civil courts and were not given ranks (called 'officials' ie. forewomen, workers etc).

Women became part of the police force - duties included crowd control, dealing with 'inappropriate behaviour' and assisting during air raids. Women police officers were used to ensure munitionettes were obeying factory regulations.

Traditional view of the Impact of the war on British Women

2018-08-27 10:16:06 UTC

The Traditional view of the impact that the war had on women was mainly that the war was a great time of opportunity and freedom for women. This was because the war took women out of the confines of domestic lives, they finally got higher pay and the government finally gave women the chance to vote.

Women were also recognised as an essential part to the nation's war efforts and most notably the nation's economy during the war. This therefore led to the perception of women changing and the path moving towards gender equality became increasingly closer.

In 1965, Marwick says that due to the rapid increase of government committees and the shortage of men, women brought a sudden advance in the economic and social power to women from the higher classes all the way down to the proletariats.

(Matt Boulos)

General facts/stats

2018-08-27 11:02:22 UTC

- Women’s employment rates increased during WWI, from 23.6% of the working age population in 1914 to between 37.7% and 46.7% in 1918
- There was a worry that employers would continue to employ women even when the men returned from the war, as the women were cheaper to employ.
- Both during and after the war, women's rights movements arose to get equal pay/conditions to men. This in essence made it less profitable for factories/bosses to continue women's employment, however due to these huge women's movements, were forced to keep them in the workforce

Saucy meme

2018-08-27 11:13:01 UTC

After the War

2018-08-27 11:36:03 UTC

-Women were socially pressured to return to their traditionally expected jobs after the war due to the return of the male soldiers.
-Female workers were seen as an obstacle that reduced men's jobs.
-The Restoration of Pre-War Practices Act of 1919 tried to take jobs from working class women.
-Female employment rates in 1921 failed to exceed the employment rates back in 1914.
-The Sex Disqualification Act of 1919 benefited middle class women as it helped them to work in the professions more easily.

(Dan1el K1m)

2018-08-27 11:58:31 UTC

2018-08-27 12:45:35 UTC

women were thought to be not as capable to work as men. At first, they were working voluntarily. cigarettes was the highest amount of which contributions of voluntary organisations.

2018-08-27 22:51:18 UTC

Trade union membership among women, which had grown by 140.6 percent between 1905 and 1913, rose by 176.7 percent between 1914 and 1918 (density rising from 8.0 to 15.9 percent), so that a little under one in five trade unionists were female. Even with a reduction of labour in building and cotton and flax, British union membership in these sectors increased by 74.6 and 15.7 percent respectively.

2018-08-28 00:34:20 UTC

During WWI (1914-18), 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, for example in ammunitions factories. Women were paid less than the men who they replaced, which led to the first successful campaigns for equal pay.