Women's Work in The Great War, 1916-1918

[ejwalshe]

When Britain entered the Great War in 1914, thousands of women joined the workforce to fill jobs left by men sent overseas. In addition to taking over civil service jobs, women absolutely dominated the manufacturing industry to fuel the war effort. The work was strenuous, difficult, and certainly hazardous. Women in munitions factories had their skin turn yellow from regular exposure to TNT, earning the nickname 'canaries.' Hundreds of women died from TNT poisoning, other deadly chemicals and accidental discharges (in January 1917, an explosion at a plant in East London killed 73 people).

 

In addition to the dangerous working conditions, women were paid significantly less than men in comparable positions. In 1918, women workers on London’s buses, trams and subways organized a strike and managed to win equal pay for equal work.

 

Addressing the issue of unequal pay, in 1919 the Report of the War Cabinet Committee on Women in Industry was published. It endorsed the principle of 'equal pay for equal work', but went on to state that, because of women's 'lesser strength and special health problems', the output would likely not be equal. The Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act of 1919, made it illegal to exclude women from jobs because of their gender. However, the 1919 Restoration of Pre-War Practices Act then forced most women workers to leave their wartime roles so as to make way for the returning men from the front.

 

In this video, Catherine Burke, a female employee of the Govan Shipbuilding Yard, Harland & Wolff Limited, burning an electric cable for scrap to save the lead and copper at Glasgow, 28th June 1918.  Agnes Low operating a vertical boring machine at Glasgow, 28th June 1918. She is drilling a fitting to be used as a corner clip for a bomb beam panel of an aeroplane. Susie Loftus, in charge of the horse which hauls the plates for the small platers from South Platers Shed to the various ships that are under construction, at Glasgow, 28th June 1918. Molly Smith, a female employee of the Govan Shipbuilding Yard, Harland & Wolff Limited, driving an electric travelling crane in the South Platers Yard at Glasgow, 28th June 1918.