During World War I, with vast numbers of men either enlisting or conscripted to fight in the various forces, women stepped up to take their place as workers.
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| photo credit NATIONAL LIBRARY OF FRANCE VIA EUROPEANA: |
As well as traditionally female occupations at the time, such as nurses or teachers, many women undertook conventionally male roles in transport, for example, fire fighting, hauling coal and piloting.
Many younger women worked in munitions factories, where they were known as "Munitionettes."
This work was dirty and dangerous, in unheated and noisy factory sheds. There was little, if any, regulation regarding the chemicals and fumes the workers were exposed to, with lax procedures and little protective equipment. A large number of women suffered from reactions to these substances, as well as from the stresses and strains of the hard and heavy physical work.
Accidents in munitions factories were common but news of these was suppressed to keep morale high. In January 1917 an explosion at a TNT plant in East London killed 73 people and destroyed hundreds of nearby homes. The TNT turned workers' skin yellow; such women were called "canaries." '
Although women earned a little more money than before the war, they typically still took home roughly half the money of the men whose jobs they filled.
After the war, women were considered surplus to what most workplaces required. In Britain the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act of 1919 made it illegal to exclude women from the workplace and it did enable some women to enter the professions. But the 1919 Restoration of Pre-War Practices Act forced women from their wartime roles as men returned home and factories switched back to peacetime production.
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