Employment Opportunities for Women in Britain in 1914

Employment Opportunities for Women in Britain in 1914

At the outbreak of world war one, in 1914, job opportunities for women

were very limited. This was partly due to the fact that society had

the view that men and women had separate roles in life, known as ‘The

Separate Spheres Argument’: men went to work and were involved in

politics, whereas women stayed at home and looked after children.

Women were seen as less capable than men and therefore only 2% of

women had an education, passed the school leaving age of 12: lower

class parents could not afford the price of education and would not

want to miss out on their daughter’s wage. Middle class parents were

much more likely to pay for a boy’s education because a girl would be

expected to get married and not have to work. This lack of education

meant that most women had little chance of getting a degree or having

a profession such as medicine, even though some universities did let

women study there. Even if a woman was highly qualified, there was

resistance to them working: for example, in the teaching profession

women had to leave their jobs if they got married and they were rarely

promoted above men. In fact, only a very small minority of middle

class women worked in the professions and for most women, there was no

possibility of receiving enough education.

Women were much more likely to choose a job that did not need a high

level of education, but these jobs were also limited: for example,

there were many jobs in coal mining, as coal was a major source of

fuel, to warm homes and to power factories, but women found it too

hard to carry out this sort of physically demanding work. 5.9 million

women worked at the time, (25% of the female population) and 1.5

million women (6.3% of the working population) worked in the domestic

service, making it the most popular type of work, for women. Workers

very often lived in the attics of houses and worked long hours