Men and Women at War

When men left to fight in the First World War, women had to take over their jobs. Many of these jobs were new ones needed for the war effort.

So the number of working women nearly doubled in the course of the war, increasing from just over 3 million in 1914 to nearly 5 million in 1919.

A lot of women worked in government departments and in offices. But many worked in non-traditional jobs.

The greatest increase in women workers was in engineering and over 700,000 of these women worked in very dangerous conditions in munitions factories, making weapons and ammunition.

Women also did a variety of non-traditional jobs like working on trains, trams and buses and even sweeping chimneys! They also did heavy work like unloading coal, and building ships.

Women lost their jobs when the war ended and men returned to work.