Within days of Britain declaring war on Germany, the two main women's suffrage organizations, the NUWSS and the WSPU agreed to end their protest and work for the war effort.
As men were called to the front, women were brought into the workplace to replace them, with the number of women in employment rising from just over 3 million in 1914 to nearly 5 million in 1918. Women in their thousands went to work in private offices and government departments. They became bus conductors, ambulance drivers and bank tellers. They trained as carpenters, stokers and tool setters. Nearly a million women were employed to work in the munitions industry, making vital, and dangerous weapons. As part of the Women's Land Army, thousands were sent to work on the land.
The armed forces also had a big drive to recruit women and the war years saw the founding of the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) in 1916 and the Women's Royal Naval Service (WRNS) and the Women's Royal Air Force (WRAF) in 1917. Most women were employed well away from the fighting for example as cooks, clerks, storewomen, messengers and signalers.
Women also played an indispensable role as nurses. In 1907, the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY) had been established to tend to soldiers at field hospitals in times of war. The Voluntary Aid Detachment had been set up in 1908, the medical wing of the Territorial Army, involving both women and men. Both these organisations were to become invaluable as the number of casualties grew. In 1914, the Scottish doctor, Elsie Inglis, founded her Scottish Women's Hospitals movement, sending units of trained doctors and nurses to the Front.
Not all women supported the war. On 18 AprilÌý1915, 1500 women from Northern Europe and the USA met in The Hague to discuss peace at the International Congress of Women. Sylvia Pankhurst was one of those who continued to protest against the war.
|
