The First World War and Women's Equality

The First World War and Women's Equality

The Great War of 1914 - 1918 was a turning point in the history of

many things, including the Women's Rights Movement. It is the effect

the war had on the women's movement that I will be focusing on in this

essay.

Before the war women had very little rights compared to the men. They

were forbidden from working in the heavy industries (mining and

factories) or the higher paid 'full' professions of the time (lawyer,

manager, etc). Women were only paid to work in the domestic industries

such as childcare, housekeeping and nursing. If men were in the same

industry (i.e. butlers) they were always paid more than women. If

women did work they were also expected to do all the household chores

at home as well. In 1911 only a third of the female population was in

paid employment. Women had no say in whom was in the government and

they were generally as second class citizens, a different race. A

saying concerning women was that 'they should be seen and not heard'.

Despite their being downtrodden many women who wanted reforms refused

to give up and in 1912 the suffragette movement was formed.

With the onset of the war things began to change. The men that usually

did these jobs had enlisted in the army and if they weren't already

dead they certainly weren't working so it left huge gaping holes in

the industries that they came from. The demand for shells at the front

caused women to start filling the jobs of the men. The effects of

total war had caused the need for women to be employed in the heavy

industries such as munitions, drivers, welders, and mechanics. Total

war meant that instead of just the...

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...ve seen that

during the war when women were working alongside men they were still

not regarded as equal. The war did nothing to improve the lives of

women directly but it changed many women's views of themselves and as

a result support for equality increased. It was only after the war

that many men began to realise that women were not second class

citizens and that they could work alongside them. Although full

equality was reached in 1928 (ten years after the end of the war)

there is no doubt that had the war not taken place then it would have

taken a lot longer for the full equality of women to happen.

It is an interesting to note that today there is still a significant

pay gap between men and women in the same industry just as there was

in 1914. So perhaps the war did not help in bringing about equality at

all.