Women's Work During the First World War

Women's Work During the First World War

Source A is a letter written a long time after the war in 1976 by a

woman who lived through the First World War. Therefore this source

could prove to be inaccurate due to the fact it was written 58 years

later. Source A is a positive source to show the comparisons between

Domestic Service and War Work. You can find out from this source that

there was a huge difference in wages; in the Domestic service women

were lucky if they earned £2 a month and they worked very long hours.

However, when women worked in the war hand cutting shell fuses they

earned as much as £5 a week. Women found this wage remarkable and this

made them well off. From Source A we can find out that women working

in the Domestic service were desperate to 'out' and leave due to the

terrible conditions and the fact they were regarded as second class

citizens and could not do male jobs, so when the need came for war

workers, most women were happy to go.

Question 02;

Study Sources A, B and C

Does the evidence of Source C support the evidence of Sources A and B

about Women's work during the First World War?

Source A is a positive source to show the comparisons between women

working in the Domestic Service and women working in the War cutting

shell fuses. It was written by a woman who lived and worked during the

First World War, and this could prove its accuracy. Source B is part

of a book written by Sylvia Pankhurst: an ex suffragette leader in

1932. Therefore this source could prove to be inaccurate. Source B

contains negative information about women working at a Londonaircraft

works, painting aircraft wings. It cr...

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...aganda poster produced in 1916. It is

useful because it shows the methods the Government used to get women

to work. It also shows the fact that women were considered important

by the Government towards the war effort. However, due to the fact

that this propaganda; not all women would have been regarded as

important during the First World War. This propaganda poster relies on

women's guilt because on the poster there is a man waving his wife

goodbye as he goes off to war. The women in the poster is putting on

her overalls and going to work in munitions factories. This makes

women feel they should do their bit for the war effort and help

support their own country. Although this source is Government

Propaganda and can be considered unreliable, it is still useful to

show what propaganda during the First World War was like.