Women's Contribution to the War Effort in the Years 1914-18

Women's Contribution to the War Effort in the Years 1914-18

Source F is a poster produced by the government, The purpose is to

encourage women to join the war effort. It was produced in 1916, when

morale was at its lowest in Britain. At the beginning of the war,

Britain has a professional army, however by 1916 conscription was

introduced and anyone over 18 had to join the army. ]

Therefore, women were needed to replace the men. The woman in the

poster looks strong, proud and focused and catch your attention

immediately, she is pinning her hair up, getting ready for work or

unpinning it having just finished. She looks healthy and happy and

maintains her dignity as she is still wearing a dress. The wording on

the poster is very strong: “Enrol at once” in bold white writing,

which sticks out from the dark background. It is as if the government

is commanding women to work- something they have never been asked to

do before. At the time very few women were working as replacements in

men’s jobs and women were treated as second class citizens. This

poster shows that the government was forced to ask for help from the

women, they realised that without the women, the war would fall apart.

Many suffragettes were more than happy to help after Emiline Pankhurst

stated: “ What good is having the vote without a country to vote in?”.

The source is limited in its utility for a number of reasons. It does

not give us a female perspective on the issue, it does not tell us

about the conditions or hours of work and it does not show the male

attitude, only that of the governments. The poster only tells us about

one form of work offered to women at the time and how many were

actually doing it, its opinions are limited because it’s a picture so

is only a snapshot of one moment in history. It does not tell us about

women working before or after this period.

However, it is also useful because it shows a change in attitude of