The Employment Opportunities Available to Women at the Outbreak of the First World War

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The Employment Opportunities Available to Women at the Outbreak of the First World War

During the course of this essay I shall be studying the employment

opportunities for women at the start of World War One in 1914. I shall

be comparing the opportunities available for women of different social

classes. I will study some of the available jobs and look at the

equality laws and education opportunities for women or more

specifically, the lack thereof.

At the outbreak of war during 1914 there was not a great deal

available for women in terms of employment opportunities, some had

very little choice and others had no choice at all, first I shall look

at the upper class women of leisure. As their quite apt title suggests

these women had no job and no need for a job. Their husbands would

have been rich businessmen or lawyers leaving them to go about their

lives however they chose - within reason as it was seen as unsightly

for women to be wandering the streets or smoking, so they were quite

restricted. These women often had one or more maids catering for them,

a profession I shall into more detail about later.

If a middle class woman was married then she acted as no more than the

simple, stereotypical housewife. These housewives cleaned the house,

raised the children and cooked for her family and would concern

herself with little else. Single, middle class women however did have

jobs and were the only jobs that could be described as 'careers'. They

were allowed to be in professions such as teaching and they were

secretaries, they were however paid a mere two thirds of the amount

paid to men in most jobs and were rarely ever promoted above the most

useless of male workers. They had little chance of promotion due to a

lack of education and no real incentive to work harder.

A slightly more varied choice of professions was available to working

class women, but this was by no means a good thing. One of these jobs

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