World War One opened up radical new employment opportunities to women. What was the enduring impact of the war on women's lives?
By Professor Joanna Bourke
Last updated 2011-03-03
World War One opened up radical new employment opportunities to women. What was the enduring impact of the war on women's lives?
Did World War One actually improve women's lives in Britain? At the time, many people believed that the war had helped advance women politically and economically. Thus, Mrs Millicent Fawcett, leading feminist, founder of Newnham College Cambridge and president of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies from 1897 to 1918, said in 1918: 'The war revolutionised the industrial position of women - it found them serfs and left them free.' The war did offer women increased opportunities in the paid labour market. Between 1914 and 1918, an estimated two million women replaced men in employment, resulting in an increase in the proportion of women in total employment from 24 per cent in July 1914 to 37 per cent by November 1918.
...wages were higher, conditions better, and independence enhanced.
The war bestowed two valuable legacies on women. First, it opened up a wider range of occupations to female workers and hastened the collapse of traditional women's employment, particularly domestic service. From the 19th century to 1911, between 11 and 13 per cent of the female population in England and Wales were domestic servants. By 1931, the percentage had dropped to under eight per cent. For the middle classes, the decline of domestic servants was facilitated by the rise of domestic appliances, such as cookers, electric irons and vacuum cleaners. The popularity of 'labour-saving devices' does not, however, explain the dramatic drop in the servant population. Middle-class women continued to clamour for servants, but working women who might previously have been enticed into service were being drawn away by alternative employment opening up to satisfy the demands of war. Thus, nearly half of the first recruits to the London General Omnibus Company in 1916 were former domestic servants. Clerical work was another draw card. The number of women in the Civil Service increased from 33,000 in 1911 to 102,000 by 1921. The advantages of these alternative employments over domestic service were obvious: wages were higher, conditions better, and independence enhanced.
Trade unionism proved to be the second legacy of the war. Female workers had been less unionised than their male counterparts. This was because they tended to do part-time work and to work in smaller firms (which tended to be less unionised). Also, existing unions were often hostile to female workers. World War One forced unions to deal with the issue of women's work. The scale of women's employment could no longer be denied and rising levels of women left unmarried or widowed by the war forced the hands of the established unions.
Employers circumvented wartime equal pay regulations by employing several women to replace one man...
In addition, feminist pressure on established unions and the formation of separate women's unions threatened to destabilise men-only unions. The increase in female trade union membership from only 357,000 in 1914 to over a million by 1918 represented an increase in the number of unionised women of 160 per cent. This compares with an increase in the union membership of men of only 44 per cent.
However, the war did not inflate women's wages. Employers circumvented wartime equal pay regulations by employing several women to replace one man, or by dividing skilled tasks into several less skilled stages. In these ways, women could be employed at a lower wage and not said to be 'replacing' a man directly. By 1931, a working woman's weekly wage had returned to the pre-war situation of being half the male rate in more industries.
Anxiety for their menfolk in war, the pressures of employment, combined with the need to perform housework in straitened circumstances and the inadequacy of social services exacted a heavy toll. It also made the withdrawal of women back into their homes after the war less surprising. This return to full-time domesticity was not, however, wholly voluntary.
In many instances, contracts of employment during World War One had been based on collective agreements between trade unions and employers, which decreed that women would only be employed 'for the duration of the war'. Employed mothers were stung by the closure of day nurseries that had been vastly extended during the war. Reinforcing these pressures were the recriminatory voices of returning servicemen. As unemployment levels soared immediately after the war, anger towards women 'taking' jobs from men exploded.
As unemployment levels soared immediately after the war, anger towards women 'taking' jobs from men exploded.
Women were also divided, with single and widowed women claiming a prior right to employment over married women. For instance, Isobel M Pazzey of Woolwich reflected a widely-held view when she wrote to the Daily Herald in October 1919 declaring that 'No decent man would allow his wife to work, and no decent woman would do it if she knew the harm she was doing to the widows and single girls who are looking for work.' She directed: 'Put the married women out, send them home to clean their houses and look after the man they married and give a mother's care to their children. Give the single women and widows the work.'
In some occupations, single women insisted on excluding their married sisters. For instance, in 1921, female civil servants passed a resolution asking for the banning of married women from their jobs. The resulting ban was enforced until 1946. There were other setbacks. During World War One, hospitals had accepted female medical students: in the 1920s, women were rejected by the hospitals on the grounds of modesty. The National Association of Schoolmasters campaigned against the employment of female teachers. In 1924, the London County Council make its policy explicit when it changed the phrase 'shall resign on marriage' to 'the contract shall end on marriage'.
Finally, some historians believe that the war was a key element in the granting of the franchise to women over the age of 30 years who held property in 1918. However, gratitude for women's war work cannot explain why only women over the age of 30 got the vote while it was the younger women who had done the work. Rather, it is more convincing to argue that the lobbying of the feminist movement and the commitment of the Labour Party to a wider franchise were crucial factors. In addition, it was a case of the suffragists being around at the right time.
...it was a case of the suffragists being around at the right time.
In 1917, the government became aware of the need to call an election. The problem was that, according to the law, only men who had been resident in the country for 12 months prior to the election were entitled to vote, effectively disenfranchising a large number of troops who had been serving overseas. This dilemma forced Parliament to revise the franchise. At this point, the arguments of Millicent Fawcett and the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies proved particularly persuasive and, by drawing attention to the work of women during the war, persuaded the Liberal leader, Asquith, to grant a minority of women the vote. But it was not until 1928 that women over the age of 21 were finally allowed to vote. In effect, this meant that in 1918, 8.5 million women were enfranchised, or 40 per cent of the total number of women. In 1928, this was boosted to 15 million, or 53 per cent of total number of women.
Books
Working-Class Cultures in Britain: Gender, Class, and Ethnicity by Joanna Bourke (Routledge, 1994)
Out of the Cage: Women's Experiences in Two World Wars by Gail Braybon and Penny Summerfield (Pandora Press, 1987)
Women Workers in the First World War: The British Experience by Gail Braybon (Croom Helm, 1998)
Working for Victory: Images of Women in the First World War by Diana Condell and Jean Liddiard (Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1987)
Working-Class Culture, Women, and Britain 1914-1921 by Claire A Culleton (Macmillan, 2000)
Feminism and Democracy: Women's Suffrage and Reform Politics in Britain, 1900-1918 by Sandra Stanley Holton (Cambridge University Press, 1986)
Fighting Forces, Writing Women: Identity and Ideology in the First World War by Sharon Ouditt (Routledge, 1994)
Nice Girls and Rude Girls by Deborah Thom (IB Tauris, 1997)
On Her Their Lives Depend: Munition Workers in the Great War by Angela Woolacott (University of California Press, 1994)
Archive of primary documents from World War One Established and maintained by the World War One Military History discussion group, the site focuses on 1890-1920, discussing topics from military, diplomatic, social, and economic issues to the arts.
The Great War The PBS site for 'The Great War and the Shaping of the 20th Century' series goes beyond the military and political history of World War One to explore its ongoing social, cultural and personal impact.
Fawcett Library The Fawcett Library houses an extensive collection of women's history with a reading room, exhibitions and events.
Imperial War Museum - Women in Uniform Opening in spring 2003, the exhibition illustrates the role that women have played in conflict in the 20th century. The museum would like to hear from women who may have personal mementoes relating to their experiences. Please write to Jan Mihell, Dept of Exhibitions, Imperial War Museum, Lambeth Road, London SE1 6HZ.
Joanna Bourke is Professor of History at Birkbeck College and the author of a number of books, including An Intimate History of Killing (Granta, 1998) and The Second World War: A People's History (Oxford University Press, 2001).
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