WWI and consequences in

women’s life

Before the WWI, women typically played the role of the homemaker.

As a result of the war's outbreak, female

unemployment rise, especially among servants.

As men left their jobs to serve their country during the war, women replaced them

New job opportunities opened up for women.

Civil service Transport Metal Chemical eg Typist eg Tram driver eg Munitions workers eg TNT manufacture

+ 1,751% + 544% +376% +160%

Approximately 1,600,000 women joined the workforce between 1914 and 1918.

The women employed in munitions factories were known as ‘munitionettes’.

Munitionettes produced 80% of the weapons used by the

British Army.

The shortage of farm labour lead to the establishment of

the Women’s Land Army in 1917.

For many women, the war was "a genuinely liberating experience"

that made them feel like useful citizens.

But when soldiers were back, women were pressured to return into the “traditional” female jobs.

“...Even more traumatic (than losing jobs) was the painful process of readjusting to the return of loved ones from the battlefields. Hundred of thousands of men returned from the war injured in some way. Women bore a large part of the burden of caring for these men. Even worse, women lost their fathers, husbands, lovers, brothers, and sons. For these women, life would never be the same." Joanna Bourke

Sources

*Google Images*Flickr*www.commonswikipedia.org

*http://depts.washington.edu/labhist/strike/kim.shtml

*http://www.bl.uk/world-war-one/articles/women-at-home

*http://www.striking-women.org/module/women-and-work/world-war-i-

1914-1918

*http://europeanhistory.about.com/od/womeninworldwar1/a/womenworkww

1.htm

*http://www.firstworldwar.com/features/womenww1_four.htm