The Impact of World Wars on Women's Working Lives

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The Impact of World Wars on Women's Working Lives

Advantages

  • The 1939-45 conflict had a greater impact than the 1914-18.
  • This was because the greater scale of government intervention, popular mobilisation and shared sacrifices on the home front help to explain this difference.
  • During WW1, MC women volunteered as nurses but also took on "men's jobs" such as agricultural laboured in Women's Land Army.
  • WC women continued to work in factories and 400,000 quit domestic services for factory work.
  • Around 1.59 million women entered industrial work between 1914-1918 and also some done "men's jobs" such as bus conducting and tool setters.

Disadvantages

  • Restoration of Pre War Practices Act 1919 = meant that fewer women were unemployed in 1919 than before the war.
  • Despite the experience of higher pay and greater independence in factory work, huge pressure from the media and government forced women into their pre war roles.
  • Employment exchangers stopped a women's unemployment benefit if she refused laundry work or domestic service.
  • The interwar years the number of women in domestic service increase from 1.8 million in 1921 to 2.1 million in 1931.

Evaluation

WW1 gave a chance to experience independence and higher pay in the work place, but the Acts enacted after 1918 soon returned them to their pre-war employment in domestic service. 

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