The First World War brought many changes in the lives of British women. It is often represented as having had a wholly positive impact, opening up new opportunities in the world of work and strengthening their case for the right to vote.

The reality is more complex. Not all of the opportunities the war provided to women were entirely positive or long lasting.

Here are 12 facts about women during the First World War which help to illustrate the ways in which women’s lives changed during this period.

Art

1. Women were already working

The interior view of a munitions factory showing the production of 15 inch shells by women factory workers. There are winches hanging from the ceiling and large steel shell cases sitting on wooden trolleys in the centre of the image.
© IWM Art.IWM ART (2271)

Women in paid employment were not a new phenomenon in 1914. They made up a substantial part of the industrial workforce even before the First World War, although they were mainly concentrated in textile manufacture. After 1915, when the need for shells intensified, women were brought into munitions manufacturing in large numbers. By 1918 almost a million women were employed in some aspect of munitions work.

Photographs

2. Women on the beat

Two members of the Women's Police Service comparing notes with a male police constable at Euston Station, London, 1918.
© IWM Q 31088
wo members of the Women's Police Service comparing notes with a male police constable at Euston Station, London, 1918.

The first women police officers served during the First World War. One of the main responsibilities of the Women’s Patrols - as they were initially known - was to maintain discipline and monitor women’s behaviour around factories or hostels. They also carried out inspections of women to ensure that they did not take anything into the factories which might cause explosions. As is shown here, they also patrolled other public areas such as railway stations, streets, parks and public houses.

Art

3. All aboard the transport industry

A full length drawing of a woman bus conductor. She wears a blue uniform and hat, and carries the distinctive bus conductor's bags with leather straps crossing her chest.
© IWM Art.IWM ART 2316

One of the areas of employment where new opportunities opened up for women was in transport. Women began working as bus conductresses, ticket collectors, porters, carriage cleaners and bus drivers. During the war the number of women working on the railways rose from 9,000 to 50,000. While new jobs did become available to women during wartime, many of these opportunities were closed to them after the war as servicemen returned to their jobs.

Photographs

4. The need for childcare increased

A fresh air school for workers children in the munitions township of Gretna Green.
© IWM Q 30567
A fresh air school for workers children in the munitions township of Gretna Green.

For women with children who wanted – or needed – to take on paid work, childcare could be a problem. The pressing need for women to work in munitions did prompt the government to provide some funds towards the cost of day nurseries for munitions workers, and by 1917 there were more than 100 day nurseries across the country. However, there was no provision for women working in any other form of employment and most had to rely on friends and family to help care for their children while they were at work.

Photographs

5. Women braved dangerous working conditions

One half of a panoramic view taken on 4 July 1918 of the destruction caused by an explosion three days earlier in the Amatol Mixing House at the National Shell Filling Factory at Chilwell, Nottinghamshire, in which 134 people died.
© IWM HU 96428A
One half of a panoramic view taken on 4 July 1918 of the destruction caused by an explosion three days earlier in the Amatol Mixing House at the National Shell Filling Factory at Chilwell, Nottinghamshire, in which 134 people died.

Munitions work was relatively well paid - especially for women previously employed in domestic service. But it was often unpleasant, dangerous and involved working long hours. Women in large shell filling factories worked with TNT. This poisonous explosive could cause a potentially fatal condition called toxic jaundice, indicated by the skin turning yellow. There were also several devastating explosions in which women workers were killed. The aftermath of one of the worst, at Chilwell, Nottinghamshire is shown in this photograph.

Posters

6. Women wanted to join up…

a full-length depiction of a member of the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps. text: G R WOMEN URGENTLY WANTED for the W.A.A.C WOMEN'S ARMY AUXILIARY CORPS WORK AT HOME AND ABROAD WITH THE FORCES COOKS CLERKS WAITRESSES DRIVER-MECHANICS ALL KINDS of DOMESTIC WORKERS.
© IWM Art.IWM PST 13171
A full-length poster depicting a member of the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps

Pressure from women for their own uniformed service to assist the war effort began in August 1914. After a War Office investigation which showed that many jobs being done by soldiers in France could instead be done by women, the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) was established in December 1916. In April 1918, the WAAC was renamed Queen Mary’s Army Auxiliary Corps. The Women’s Royal Naval Service was formed in November 1917 and the Women’s Royal Air Force was set up on 1 April 1918. In total, over 100,000 women joined Britain’s armed forces during the war.

Uniforms and insignia

7. …And some did their bit 'unofficially'

Part of a collection of relics relating to Dr. Elsie Inglis. Dr. Elsie Maud Inglis was born in India in 1864. After studying medicine in Edinburgh she took up private practice there in 1895 and then was instrumental in initiating many valuable organisations for the medical care of women and children.
© IWM UNI 4269
Jacket - Scottish Women's Hospitals belonging to Dr. Elsie Inglis.

Even before the formation of the women’s services, some pioneering women made their own way to the front to help the war effort. In 1914, when the War Office turned down an offer of help from Scottish doctor Elsie Inglis with the words, ‘My good lady, go home and sit still’, she set up the Scottish Women’s Hospitals on the fighting fronts. Inglis herself went to Serbia to treat the sick and wounded. This is a jacket worn by her during the war.

Photographs

8. Women’s football became popular

Women munitions workers' football team from the AEC Munitions Factory at Beckton, London.
© IWM HU 70114
Women munitions workers' football team from the AEC Munitions Factory at Beckton, London.

Working together in large numbers opened up new leisure and recreation opportunities for women. Sport was encouraged amongst female workers as it was thought to be good for their health and general moral wellbeing. Many munitions factories developed their own ladies’ football teams such as the one shown in this photograph. The most famous of these teams were Dick, Kerr's Ladies FC in Preston. Founded in 1917, their matches drew large crowds. They continued to enjoy success until women were banned from playing in Football League grounds in 1921.

Photographs

9. The suffrage movement fractured

A portrait of the leader of the Women's Suffragette movement, Mrs Emmeline Pankhurst (left) and her daughters Christabel (centre) and Sylvia (right) at Waterloo Station, London. Mrs Pankhurst was about to leave for a lecture tour of the USA and Canada.
© IWM Q 81490
A portrait of the leader of the Women's Suffragette movement, Mrs Emmeline Pankhurst (left) and her daughters Christabel (centre) and Sylvia (right) at Waterloo Station, London.

Christabel Pankhurst (centre) and her mother Emmeline (left) founded the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) in Manchester in 1903. It used militant campaigning to try to gain women the vote. Its members were known as suffragettes. During the war, Emmeline and Christabel led the WSPU in supporting the war effort. By contrast, Sylvia Pankhurst (right) opposed the war and in 1914 broke away from the WSPU.

Posters

10. Only the over-30s won the vote

Banner with the wording: "EVERY MOTHER MUST VOTE FOR THE SOLDIER WHO WILL ABOLISH CONSCRIPTION Printed by J. E. King, 42, High Street, Watford. Published by T. V. Pretty, 77, Queen's Road, Watford."
© IWM Art.IWM PST 12198
Banner produced in 1918 the text, in black, is arranged in banner form over a plain white background, text: "Every Mother Must Vote For The Soldier Who Will Abolish Conscription."

The Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) suspended campaigning for women’s suffrage during the war. This recognised the need to support the war effort, but also that such support could ultimately benefit the campaign. This tactic appeared to pay off. In February 1918, the Representation of the People Act gave the vote to all men over 21 years of age and to women over 30. However it was another ten years later before this was extended to women over 21. In December 1919, Lady Astor became the first woman to take a seat in Parliament.

Art

11. Singledom went on the rise

A view across the cemetery at Etaples showing the rows of simple crosses, tended by a group of women. In the background a steam train crosses a green landscape.
© IWM Art.IWM ART 2884
John Lavery, 'The Cemetery, Etaples' (1919).

Over 750,000 British men died during the First World War - 9% of all British men under the age of 45. At the time - and in subsequent years - it was felt that the losses amounted to a 'lost generation' of young men. During the 1920s, newspaper headlines talked of 'surplus' women who would never find husbands. While many middle class women did remain unmarried due to the lack of available men in the relatively narrow social sphere in which they moved, some women in this period remained single by choice or by financial necessity. Professions such as teaching and medicine were opening up to women, but only if they remained unmarried.

Posters

12. Work clothes affected women’s fashion

full-length depictions of a group of about 20 women, in fashionable civilian dress. text: Women! who need Skilled jobs ASK FOR Free Training Register your NAMES AND WANTS AT THE NEAREST EMPLOYMENT EXCHANGE.
© IWM Art.IWM PST 5475
1919 poster: "Women who need skilled jobs ask for free training"

Women serving in the auxiliary services or working in manufacturing, transport and on the land wore a range of uniforms and clothes, sometimes including trousers. Although women’s fashions were already evolving by 1914, the move to more practical clothing during wartime undoubtedly accelerated the pace of change. As illustrated on this poster, by 1919 many fashionable young women were wearing shorter skirts and looser-waisted clothing.

Watch on

Did the First World War transform women's lives? Delving into the IWM film and sound archives, we uncover some incredible true stories of the women who served and worked during the First World War.

Interviewer: “What was a nice little girl?”

Mairi Chisholm: “Oh a nice little girl was a very feminine little girl. You see it was a man's world totally and completely. Women were not supposed to have much in their brains, and of course we were not brought up to careers at all. The one and only career was a good marriage.”

At the start of the 20th century Britain was one of the greatest powers on earth. Yet despite its wealth as a nation, many British people's lives were marked with poverty and inequality. Women had few opportunities and few rights. The First World War is often represented as having a wholly positive impact on women's lives: women stepped into men's jobs for the first time ever, thousands of women served abroad along the front lines, women's football even became a hugely popular sport, and the war is thought to have strengthened their case for the right to vote. But the reality is more complicated. Not all of the opportunities for women were positive, lots of the changes were reversed as soon as the war was over, and cultural attitudes towards women were not that easily changed. So did the First World War really transform women's lives at all?

Ellen Parton: “Before the war, women's employment was highly stratified by class, working-class women were broadly accustomed to working long as the hours of dirty sometimes heavy work in areas such as domestic service and unequal pay was the norm. There was little to no legal protection for women against domestic violence and very little protection for young working-class girls from sexual abuse or being forced into prostitution. Across the board women were expected to get married and look after the home.”

Britain entered the war in August 1914 and over the next four years some 4.9 million men had signed up or been conscripted to join the army. Millions of women were already working prior to the outbreak of the First World war but now women took on more active roles, more highly paid roles and more dangerous roles.

Ellen Parton: “They were encouraged to ensure that the men in their families signed up, women were encouraged in the press and through colourful impactful poster campaigns. With the men drawn away to the armed forces, opportunities opened up for women. 117,000 women were employed in transport compared to just 18,000 women previously.

The First World War also saw women enter heavy industry for the first time. In response to the shell shortage of 1915, huge factories were set up. Women were known as canaries in the factories as they had to handle the TNT used as the explosive agent in munitions which caused their skin to turn yellow.”

Caroline Rennles: “Of course, we all had bright yellow faces you see because we had no gas masks in those times. The conductors used to say in the trams, you'll die in two years, cock. We used to say well we don't mind dying for our country. As I say, we were so young we didn't realise, but they used to call us canaries, we were bright yellow and all this front hair was all ginger you see.”

In total around 900,000 women worked in the munitions industry, and it was particularly hazardous work. There were several large factory explosions during the war including at Chilwell in July 1918 where 134 workers were killed and more than 250 were injured. Due to the dangerous nature of this work it was considered to be relatively well paid compared to other jobs open to women and yet across the board women still earned as little as half the wages of men.

Caroline Rennles: “It come right down to nothing almost about a pound I think, as far as I can remember. It was very, very low I know.”

Interviewer: “Your wages?”

Caroline Rennles: “Yes, very low.”

For working women with children, childcare could be a problem. The pressing need for women to work in munitions did prompt the government to provide some funds towards day nurseries and by 1917 there were more than a hundred day nurseries across the country. However, there was no provision for women working in any other form of employment and most had to rely on friends and family for childcare.

Ellen Parton: “This was still the overriding attitude, that these changes were necessary temporary measures to support the war effort and should not lead to legal or cultural change.”

Pressure from women for their own uniformed service began as early as August 1914 but it was not until the middle of the war that the government began planning for the women's auxiliary services. More men were needed for fighting which meant training women to replace them in non-combatant roles. In December 1916 the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps known as the WAAC was established, the Women's Royal Naval Service was formed in November 1917 and the Women's Royal Air Force was set up on the 1st of April 1918. In total over a hundred thousand women joined Britain's armed forces during the First World War.

Mairi Chisholm: “No I had nothing in my mind except that I got the chance to go to London and I had the chance to do a worthwhile job. It was the lure of adventure of course, you see, and I think it was just, here as an opportunity.”

Florence Parrott: “When I got in that Blitz that made my mind up for me. I got hit, I got hit in this arm and they took us to St Bartholomew’s Hospital, and I said to the girl laying next to me I said, when I get out of here, I said, I'm going to join up. Because I said if I'm going to get knocked about, I'll go where I expect it. And I did.”

One of the major ways that women served during the war was nursing. This was also a key role that brought women abroad near the front lines.

Ellen Parton: “Nursing in the First World War was exhausting, harrowing dangerous work. Although it had long been an occupation associated with women, nursing as a profession by its very necessity mushroomed during the First World War. Trained nurses were licensed professionals, they'd spent years training and they were paid whereas voluntary nurses better known as Voluntary Aid Detachments or VADs comprise mainly young middle- and upper-class women in its ranks. By 1918 there were over 90,000 Voluntary Aid Detachment nurses in the red cross.”

Mairi Chisholm: “I used to take that ambulance out and drive the length behind the trenches sometimes to get some, some people out. You had to drive in the pitch dark. No lights whatsoever from the trenches and if you can imagine yourself, heavy roads with deep mud, troops coming up, guns coming up and then the most appalling slither as the ambulance slid off the pave into the mud.”

Interviewer: “Were you shocked by the kinds of injuries you saw?”

Daisy Spickett: “One would have been shocked if one could afford to be. I mean, that was what was our salvation, we were thrown head first into the work but we had to do something about it. I remember one occasion I shall never forget; a patient came in with his head bandaged up and only his eyes showing and as I took bandage after bandage after bandage, I thought to myself there's going to be no face left here at all, and then I realised that he was gazing intently at me, and I thought, he's waiting to see my reaction. Then of course it was absolutely different, I chatted to him and teased him a little and tried to make him smile.”

Ellen Parton: “By 1918 more than 17,000 nurses had served close to the trenches working in field hospitals all along the Western Front.”

On the home front, working together in large numbers opened up new leisure opportunities for women. Sport was encouraged among female workers as it was thought to be good for their health and moral well-being and many munitions factories developed their own ladies football teams.

Ellen Parton: “Women's football was established before the First World War but it really took off during this period. Ultimately this was to ensure the mental and health and physical well-being, which in turn kept the factories productive. However, they were really successful with the Dick Kerr Ladies in Preston for example drawing large crowds at matches. Fronted by Captain Lily Parr; she was openly gay, over six foot tall and she scored over a thousand goals during her time on the team. Sadly, all this came to an end at the end of the war. In 1921, the FA ruled that women should be banned from playing in football league games. Reasons given were spurious suggestions that the game was too physical and may hamper a woman's ability to have a child for example, whereas the real reason was probably quite simply that it was becoming too popular and a potential challenge to men's games. It was a decision which was only overturned in 1969 when the ban was eventually lifted.”

The ban on women's football at the end of the war was not the only instance in which opportunities that had opened in wartime or once again closed. On the 11th of November 1918, the Armistice was signed. Tens of thousands of men were demobilised and returned to Britain, to the lives and jobs they had held before the war. Men seeking jobs after 1918 were almost always prioritised over women and women were forced back into low-paid roles or domestic service. For many women, their experiences during the war had been temporary and short-lived but there were some inevitable long-term consequences.

Over seven hundred thousand British men had died during the First World War. That's nine percent of all British men under the age of 45 and more women than ever were now single.

Ellen Parton: “It's certainly true that some of these women chose to remain unmarried. Professions such as teaching, or medicine were opening up to women, but only if they remained unmarried."

In 1918 women over 30 were given the vote. Some have argued that the modern emancipation of women would not have been possible without the contribution of women who served and worked during the First World War.

Ruby Ord: “We were in this hotel and a raid started; we'd got two officers there suffering from shell shock and the men with them were in a panic and Staccard went over to the piano and she played for two hours while the raid last and we all sang, and these men didn't know it was a raid on the, the shell shock officers. And afterwards they were so overwhelmed, the men were, and they said well if anybody ever says a bad word about the WAACs, they have to answer to us for it after this. Because of course people were very ready to criticise us, we were the women who followed them in France of course. But there were several incidents like that where the girls showed outstanding courage and they really had it. So, I don't know, I really learned to admire women, I admired them tremendously.”

But the steps that had been made during this time were soon masked by other matters. Britain was steeped in unemployment and poverty and soon began to prepare for another war.

Ellen Parton: “The war had not shifted attitudes fundamentally enough to mean that women's contribution to the world of work wasn't anything more than for the duration, to be wound up as soon as the war was over.”

What is certain is that the war had changed the world and Britain in immeasurable ways. Not all changes brought about by the war stayed in place, but it is possible that it laid the groundwork for greater change to come. When war was declared again in 1939, this time women were readily factored into the war effort.

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