Explain how women's lives were affected by WW1 in Britain.
Explain how women's lives were affected by World War 1.
Before World War 1 women across Britain mainly worked in domestic service as maids and only 25% of women worked a job. Working class women were expected to sustain family life. 11% of these worked in domestic service. Upper class women did not work and were usually tended to by their personal female domestic servants. But most women wanted equality in the work place and in society and so campaigned through the Suffragettes, protesting for women's rights. When Britain went to war in 1914 the Suffragettes stopped campaigning and backed their men. Men from all over England and Wales left their jobs and signed up to join the ranks and help the war effort in combat. Women had to fill the jobs that men left vacant as not to allow huge economic collapse and to maintain production of food stuffs (The Women's Land Army), and also ammunition and explosives for the men fighting on the front. Source A2 shows the jobs women had in domestic service decrease from 1.6 million in 1924 to 1.2 million in 1918. And jobs in industry rise from 2.1 million to 3 million women working in industrial factories by 1918. These official government statistics compare the jobs of women before and after the war in all areas of work. Giving increases and decreases of female employment in Britain. There is reason to question the reliability of this source as statistics can be manipulated to suit the purposes of governments at this time. Jobs in the war occupied by women mainly consisted of working in munitions factories. Source A3 shows this. Even though the origin of the source is unknown the source is still very useful as it supports my own knowledge of many women working in munitions. The source also shows no immediate danger in the work environment and the work doesn't look particularly hard. This could be the limitation of the source as it could mean the photograph is potentially staged as I know from research that work in
Before World War 1 women across Britain mainly worked in domestic service as maids and only 25% of women worked a job. Working class women were expected to sustain family life. 11% of these worked in domestic service. Upper class women did not work and were usually tended to by their personal female domestic servants. But most women wanted equality in the work place and in society and so campaigned through the Suffragettes, protesting for women's rights. When Britain went to war in 1914 the Suffragettes stopped campaigning and backed their men. Men from all over England and Wales left their jobs and signed up to join the ranks and help the war effort in combat. Women had to fill the jobs that men left vacant as not to allow huge economic collapse and to maintain production of food stuffs (The Women's Land Army), and also ammunition and explosives for the men fighting on the front. Source A2 shows the jobs women had in domestic service decrease from 1.6 million in 1924 to 1.2 million in 1918. And jobs in industry rise from 2.1 million to 3 million women working in industrial factories by 1918. These official government statistics compare the jobs of women before and after the war in all areas of work. Giving increases and decreases of female employment in Britain. There is reason to question the reliability of this source as statistics can be manipulated to suit the purposes of governments at this time. Jobs in the war occupied by women mainly consisted of working in munitions factories. Source A3 shows this. Even though the origin of the source is unknown the source is still very useful as it supports my own knowledge of many women working in munitions. The source also shows no immediate danger in the work environment and the work doesn't look particularly hard. This could be the limitation of the source as it could mean the photograph is potentially staged as I know from research that work in