In Britain during the First World War, there was a shortage of farm labour as men were conscripted into the forces. There was also a need to grow more food due to the threat to supplies caused by German submarines. This led to the establishment of the Women’s Land Army in February 1917.

By 1918, there were over 113,000 women working on the land. Female labour alone was still not enough to meet the shortfall in agricultural labour. Prisoners of war were also sometimes used, often working alongside land girls.

As these images show, women were employed in a wide range of roles, from dairy work to hard manual labour such as ploughing, flax pulling and felling trees.

Posters

Join the women's land army

Land Girl, full-length figure, in uniform and hat, guiding a horse-drawn plough to right. Crows, soaring over the newly furrowed ground, are silhouetted against the stylised rays of a partially obscured sun text: "NATIONAL SERVICE" (upper edge) & "WOMEN'S LAND ARMY" (in 2 lines at upper right of design) & "'GOD SPEED THE PLOUGH AND THE WOMAN WHO DRIVES IT'".
Image: IWM (Art.IWM PST 5996)

Recruitment poster for the Women’s Land Army, 1917.

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Photographs

Roles Include Caring for Animals

A member of the Women's Land Army leads a horse out from the stables during the First World War.
Image: IWM (Q 30652)

A member of the Women's Land Army leads a horse from the stables on a farm during the First World War.

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Photographs

Working in the Fields

A member of the Women's Land Army operating a single-furrow plough on a British farm.
Image: IWM (Q 54607)

A member of the Women's Land Army operating a single-furrow plough on a British farm during the First World War.

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Photographs

Milking cows

A member of the Women's Land Army milking a cow.
Image: IWM (Q 30680)

A member of the Women’s Land Army milking a cow.

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Art

Working with Prisoners of War

Two women of the Women's Land Army and two German prisoners-of-war are engaged in agricultural work. They appear to be harvesting wheat with forks alongside agricultural machinery.
Image: IWM (Art.IWM ART 1179)

The Women's Land Army and German Prisoners, 1918, by Randolph Schwabe.

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Photographs

Feeding livestock

Members of the Women's Land Army feeding pigs and calves.
Image: IWM (Q 30662)

Members of the Women's Land Army feeding pigs and calves in an orchard.

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Art

Ploughing fields

A scene showing two grey horses harnessed to a plough being driven by a Land Girl, moving from right to left of the composition. Beyond the girl is a view of the distant countryside. A storm is brewing in the grey sky above their heads.
Image: IWM (Art.IWM ART 2618)

A Land Girl Ploughing, 1918, by Cecil Aldin.

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Photographs

Felling trees

Members of the Women's Land Army Forestry Corps prepare a meal in an area surrounded by fallen tree trunks in the United Kingdom during the First World War.
Image: IWM (Q 30694)

Members of the Women's Land Army Forestry Corps.

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Art

Shepherding sheep

a full length portrait of a woman in a Women's Land army uniform, holding a crook, amongst a flock of sheep.
Image: IWM (Art.IWM ART 1181)

The Shepherdess, by Randolphe Schwabe.

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Posters

Interested? Enrol Today!

Land Girl, full-length facing figure, in white coat and sun hat, holding a bucket in her left hand. She stands beside a small calf. Behind the figure a rectangular panel, enclosing 13 lines of text, and an agricultural landscape, fruit trees to right and a field of harvested corn to left text: "FOR FOOD PRODUCTION FORAGE + TIMBER The help of British Women is urgent and indispensable Recruits required immediately for the WOMEN'S LAND ARMY ENROL TO-DAY".
Image: IWM (Art.IWM PST 5489)

Recruitment poster for the Women’s Land Army, 1918.

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