War

Background

This programme focuses on the contribution women made to the war effort during the First and Second World Wars. The sources used include film, posters, slogans, and they reveal the attitudes, both positive and negative, towards women and their contribution during the wars. Women were crucial outside the home because they were needed to do the work that had traditionally been done by men, food production, factory work, and they were needed to do war work such as nursing. Women were crucial inside the home because issues such as food and mothering continued to be vitally important during war time.

The importance of the role of women during the wars can be seen in the volume of propaganda that was directed at them. The government launched a campaign to encourage women to support the war effort both inside and outside the home.

Propaganda during both wars was broadly similar in its purposes:

• to provide information about the war;
• to encourage civil obedience, for example, food management and production, black outs;
• to boost morale and win the war.

A range of media were used to convey these messages. Film was an important way to reach people and the Ministry of Information made and used information, documentary and feature films. Radio, posters and advertisements were other important ways of sending powerful messages about how women should behave during the war. The images shown were positive. Happy, smiling women were shown making vital contributions in the name of patriotism and these images were also intended to make people feel that Britain was a country worth fighting for.

The nature of women's work during the wars, in particular during World War One, represented a challenge to and a change from the Victorian stereotype of the 'ideal woman'. Many individual women, for example, Elizabeth Fry, Annie Besant, Mary Seacole, and campaigners such as the suffragettes, had already challenged this stereotype. The 'ideal woman' stayed inside the home looking after her husband and her children. The purpose of the propaganda, therefore, was complex. It aimed to persuade women to take up paid work in traditional male areas like engineering and at the same time it tried to reassure society that this work was temporary and that women would return to the home when the war was over.

In fact, for many women the reality was very different to the 'ideal'. Since industrialisation, many working class women had worked in mills and factories and had carried the double burden of housework and industrial work in factories and mills. In 1910 women made up one third of the workforce although the nature of the work was often temporary and/or part-time.

The wars, therefore, offered most women new opportunities. The war made it possible to travel, to be independent, to mix with other social classes, to be leaders, organisers, managers. The patriotism that came with the wars made it legitimate for women to behave in new ways. Women were being praised for behaviour that would be criticised in peace time. At the same time, the wars were a time of terrible hardship for many women who had to work both inside and outside the home, feed families during rationing, cope with the trauma of death and injury both at home and on the battlefield.

Vera Brittain in Testament of Youth (1960) records the changes in her own wealthy background that the war brought. Before the war she had little independence and was chaperoned. During the war she worked as a VAD (Voluntary Aid Detachment) nurse, looking after the injured and the dying, travelling alone, mixing with all social classes.

What was the role of women in the First World War outside the home?

Middle and upper class women volunteered to be VAD nurses, ambulance drivers, or worked in the Women's Land Army. One nurse, Daisy Spickett, talked of the uncertainty that the war brought: "Nobody knew what we were going to do...."

Many working class and lower middle class women went into industry.

In July 1914, a total of 3,224,600 women were employed, by January 1918 this figure had increased to 4,814,600. Of these, 250,000 women were employed on the land and 200,000 as clerical workers in government departments. Some did very heavy work such as shipbuilding.

The munitions industry was particularly important and more than 700,000 women were employed in it 1914-18. Munitions production was dangerous (TNT poisoning was a hazard and explosives were involved) the shifts were long (workers stood for 10 hours). The poisoning affected skin colour. One woman recalled: "Of course we all had bright yellow faces..." However, compared to other industrial war work, it was well paid and often done at night which meant that women could do their housework in the daytime.

Extract 2: A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A MUNITIONS WORKER (1916)
Made in Woolwich Arsenal. Shows women dressing for work, clocking in, making shells, washing. Commentary emphasises health and safety precautions.

This film was made by the Ministry of Information to persuade women to enter the munitions industry. The propaganda purpose of the film and the patriotism of the time affected the images shown and the commentary. The film stresses the safety of the arsenal as a place of work and the words 'Working for Victory' stress the contribution that women were making to the war.

As the programme indicates, despite the crucial role of women during the war, many men were resistant to being replaced by women in the work place. Trade Unions insisted that agreements be drawn up that the jobs were temporary – that is, women would give them up at the end of the war.

Extract 3: MRS JOHN BULL PREPARED (1918)
This film examines the change in women's roles during the war compared to pre war. Mr Smith, head of the family and factory employer, is opposed to women working outside the home. His daughter, however, has different ideas about a woman's place during the war. The film is patriotic and therefore sympathetic to working women. It ends with middle class women being called by the 'Spirit of British Womanhood' to serve the war effort.

It is clear from the statistics that the attitudes held by Mr Smith were not unusual. Those who did the type of work that had traditionally been done by men largely did so within the public sector e.g. the munitions industry. Within private industry there was resistance to employing women. For example:

• In workplaces controlled by the government, there was a 300% increase in women workers between 1914 and 1916.
• In privately owned workplaces, there was only a 36% increase in women workers between 1914 and 1916.

(Martin Pugh, Women and the Women's Movement, 1914-1959, 1992)

What was the role of women in the First World War inside the home?

Daily life, especially for the working classes, became harder during the war. The food crises meant shopping took longer and middle class families often had to do without the servants they had employed before the war. The role of women as mothers was seen as particularly important and took on a national importance. Mothers were reproducing the next generation at a time when the present generation of young men were being slaughtered at the Front. In 1914 there was a 10% rise in infant mortality and an increase in the incidence of tuberculosis.

As a result the government began to intervene in daily life in new ways. In 1916 a government Department for Food was established and projects were started to feed families. Organisations like the Women's Labour League set up communal kitchens to support the feeding of families and especially of children. Many women who had been suffragettes like Sylvia Pankhurst started to campaign for health visitors, health centres, health education. The programme refers to National Baby Week launched in 1917 with its dramatic slogan: 'It is more dangerous to be a baby in Britain than it is to be a soldier'. The purpose of the campaign was, in part, to give women the education that the government thought they needed in order to be mothers.

Extract 6: MOTHERHOOD (1917)
The film MOTHERHOOD tells us about attitudes at this time towards the working class in general, mothers in particular, and the role that the middle classes should take in response. The film was made and shown around the country as part of the National Baby Week campaign. The film was funded and the script written by Dorothy Baird, a middle class philanthropist (someone who is charitable because they love their fellow human beings) who also appears in it as the Health Visitor.

The messages of the film are clear:

• mothering is as much the patriotic duty of women as fighting is the patriotic duty of men;
• the working class in general needs educating;
• mothers in particular need educating (cooking, nursing, knitting);
• the state has a duty to intervene (in the shape of the health visitor) into family life;
• middle class women have a duty to help educate working class mothers.

During the film, particular attention should be given to the poses taken by the characters. For example, some of the poses of the Health Visitor and of Mary are similar to, or mirror, Christian religious poses.

The idea that the government had a duty to intervene in family life was not acceptable to most working class families at this time. During the previous century the Poor Law had contributed to a real fear of charity and state intervention. In addition, it was doubtful that in reality many middle class women, who had employed nannies since the nineteenth century, would have enough knowledge to help other mothers! The film also indicates some fear of the working class at a time when ideas about eugenics were part of the culture. Middle and upper class Britain was frightened that the working classes, whom they thought inferior, would have too many children. Some people saw it as the duty of the middle classes to keep down the number of working class babies.

What happened after the First World War?

After the war most men and women returned to their 'traditional' pre war roles. By 1921 the number of women working outside the home was the same as in 1914. In 1931, 2.13 million women were employed in domestic service, the same number as in 1911.

(Source: Peter Clarke Hope and Glory: Britain 1900-1990 1996)

However, the experiences of the war could not be taken away or forgotten. Many women had experienced industrial labour, others had been supervisors, managers, campaigners. They had developed skills of organising, managing, collaborating. They had travelled, mixed with men and women of different classes. Their role had been crucial.

Many sections of society were frightened of the consequences of women's greater freedom and independence. We can see this particularly in attitudes to sex. During the war some places, for example Cardiff, banned women from parks and others set up park patrols. In 1916 Marie Stopes (covered in FAMILY notes) published 'Married Love' which taught women about sex and about birth control. The book was very controversial and banned in America as being 'obscene'.

In addition there had been a change in the relationship between the state and the private domain of the family. In 1918 the Maternity and Child Welfare Act reflected this change. Local authorities (councils) had to take some responsibility for families, for example, grants for food for pregnant women and children, hospital treatment, creches and nurseries. It was not until the Second World War, however, that the government would intervene in family life again on the scale it had done between 1914 and 1918.

SECOND WORLD WAR

The Second World War affected the lives of women even more directly than the first had done. The threat of invasion and the reality of the blitz meant that the war effort on the home front was particularly important during the Second World War and in 1941 conscription for all women between 19 and 40 years of age was introduced. In general, there was a far higher degree of interference in women's lives in the Second World War compared to 1914-18. Propaganda was again crucial to persuade women to support the war effort.

What was the role of women in the Second World War inside the home?

Extract 8: THEY ALSO SERVE (1940)
This film was made by one of the few female directors, Ruby Grierson. It has a housewife as its heroine and focuses on her daily life and that of her family during the war.

The realism of the film contrasts to the more fantastic imagery of the films of World War One, including MRS JOHN BULL PREPARED and MOTHERHOOD. The heroine is a housewife and she is practical, unglamorous and very hardworking. It shows how hard daily life was for many women. This daily hardship was not just due to the war. A survey in the late 1930s into women's lives had found a range of physical complaints including anaemia and neuralgia. Some women had only four hours sleep a night and no holidays.

The film is also a useful source of information about the wide variety of ways in which women's lives could be affected by war. The housewife could have her family disrupted by evacuation for her children and possibly herself , and conscription for men. She needed to shop, cook, sew, wash clothes and possibly garden and, in addition, could be called to work outside the home. Most of these tasks had to be done by hand. Consumer goods were still low - only 6% of homes with electricity had electrical appliances by 1939. A washing machine was still much more expensive than a washerwoman.

As in the First World War, there was a renewed interest in issues that were seen as 'women's issues' including food and mothering. The Ministry of Food distributed advice on diet and nutrition. Food preparation during the war was highly labour intensive, involving pickling, bottling. Queues and shortages became part of shopping. Slogans directed at the home front included 'Make do and mend'; ‘Dig for victory’; ‘Women! Farmers can't grow all your vegetables’; ‘Food is a munition of war, don't waste it’.

What was the role of women in the Second World War outside the home?

The middle and upper classes largely joined the Land Army, ATS, WAACs, WAAF, WRNS. Some became fighter controllers, nurses on the front or worked in civil defence dealing with unexploded bombs, the injured and the traumatised.

As in the First World War, working class women went to work largely in the factories. The Ministry of Information film NIGHT SHIFT is an important source about the nature of factory work.

Extract 14: NIGHT SHIFT (1942)
This film was made by Paul Rotha, a talented documentary film maker who also made 'West Indies Calling' which is shown in the Channel 4 Schools series RACE IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY. Women work in 10-hour shifts, social mixing takes place in the canteen, music and dancing is used to boost morale. The women are confident that they are doing as good a job as men.

While NIGHT SHIFT is an important source on the experience of factory work, it also shows the confidence women had in their industrial role. Statements such as 'while we can't be firing them (the guns) we're putting all our effort on behalf of the men who can'; and 'we're proud of the work we're doing' were designed to appeal to the patriotism of potential female workers. The film was also intended to make people feel pride in the achievements of British women. Britain was a country worth fighting for!

Although NIGHT SHIFT is more realistic than many earlier examples of its type, the context of war time and patriotism in which it was made meant it did not show some of the harsher realities of factory life. Male workers could be very hostile and there were examples of men sabotaging women's work. Toxic jaundice, chemical burns and dermatitis were all occupational hazards and women were paid less than men. The long hours of factory work were off-putting to many women and films like NIGHT SHIFT were needed to overcome their reluctance to take up factory work.

Many of these women had children and needed childcare in order to get to work. In 1939 there were not enough nurseries but after conscription for women was introduced in 1941, women campaigned for nurseries. By 1944, 1,500 nurseries had been set up.

Single women could be moved anywhere after conscription. As in the First World War, the war effort made travel, independence and socialising possible and patriotism made it legitimate for many women who otherwise would be at home.

Extract 15: MILLIONS LIKE US (1943)
This film, made by Launder and Gilliat, tells the story of Celia – a single woman who could be moved around the country. Celia's father would prefer his daughter to stay at home and look after him but the message of the film is clear – Celia's duty lies in war work. The film shows romantic images of work in the WAAF, as a nurse and on the land that were intended to persuade other women to commit to war work and to boost morale. Celia is sent to an aeroplane factory and although this does not seem as attractive or glamorous to her, she is rewarded – this is where she meets her husband. When he is shot down it is the camaraderie of the work place and the desire to serve the country that helps her overcome her sadness at his death. The film ends with Celia and her workmates singing 'There I was waiting at the church'.

MILLIONS LIKE US is representative of greater realism in films – for a short time during the 1940s film makers tried to show the experiences of ordinary people. This film is realist because it focuses on working class characters and documents their lives. However, the attitudes towards women in the film are traditional and not new. For example:

• Dad wants Celia to look after him;
• Celia dreams of marriage when she is conscripted;
• Images at the end of the film show that a woman's duty was to 'back up' the brave pilots flying overhead.

How did women's experiences in the UK differ to their experiences in USA, USSR, Germany?

The film extracts used in the programme show how a source of information about the past is deeply influenced by the context in which it was made. For example, films made in other countries are different to those made in the UK because values, politics, conditions, priorities were different.

Capitalist USA:
Extract 10: WOMEN OF STEEL (1943)
This film shows women doing men's jobs with confidence, skill and expertise. It is also careful to stress that when the war is over, women will give up those jobs. The film is reassuring the American public that women are not a permanent threat to men's jobs and, at the same time, showing how America could take pride in the achievements of women workers.

Communist Russia:
Extract 11: FEAT OF MOSCOW (1943)
This film shows women in a range of heavy industrial jobs, including munitions and tanks. Note the facial expressions of the Russian women –- they are not shown as happy and smiling as their American counterparts because the context and the purpose of the film is different.

In comparison to America and Britain, the experience of women in Soviet Russia was less about a change in gender roles and more about working together with men for the survival of communism. Women in USSR had experienced different policies towards women and the family before the war. Stalin's determination to industrialise Russia had dramatically changed the lives of women. From the 1920s they were needed in factories. Government propaganda, including film, idealised the factory girl. Factory women in the US were shown as beautiful, happy, fulfilled women who won awards for their industrial output and won the hearts of handsome young men. Legislation had made the family less important. Divorce was easy to get between 1926 and 1936. In addition, from 1920 women could have free, legal abortions.

Nazi Germany:
Extract 12: Sequence of shots of women in Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany had used propaganda films to 'educate' women about their roles before 1939. Women had a strong sense of their place in society as mothers of the future superior 'Aryan race'. As a result, women in Germany found it harder to work in factories than British, American and Russian women did.