Page 69 - Fyne Times Spring 2014

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But it wasn’t just on the home front
where women played a vital role. In
the military at the time, all nurses were
female. This meant that although they
weren’t on the frontline, women were
still dealing with the horrors of war
in Northern France, dealing with the
casualties in field hospitals and driving
ambulances. Vastly fewer women died
than men, but their job was nonetheless
difficult, dangerous and at times, utterly
terrifying.
However, things were still not equal. Back
in the UK, the Unions were reluctant to
accept the new women workers. Most of
them refused to represent the rights of the
women and voiced their concern about
‘men’s jobs’ being handed over to women.
Bosses were also not paying the women
as much. By employing two women to
do the job of one man and paying them
both less overall than the male in the job
before them, bosses were still not treating
women fairly. Ensuring jobs were split
between women also gave them false
proof that a woman was incapable of
doing the same job as man.
After the war, things did not improve as
much as women had expected. Although
they finally won the right to vote, it
was still restricted to women over 30
who owned property. Many of the men
returning from the war also took their
jobs back and there was a prevailing
feeling that all women should return back
to the home. But even worse was the
fact that priority in the jobs left available
to women was given to those who were
single. The feeling at the time was that
women who had been left single by the
death of their husband needed the jobs.
While this may have been true, it meant
a great deal of organisations changed
their policy to state that when a woman
got married, she had to leave her job.
These policies stuck around for some time
and even when they were removed, it was
the social norm for a woman to leave her
job when she was married.
The First World War offered women the
chance to break free from the home and
start living independent lives taking on
roles that were normally reserved for men.
Sadly, it was a short hiatus from the norm
and women were once again forced back
into their assigned gender roles. However,
21 years later with the advent of World
War Two they got the chance to taste
these freedoms again and this time, the
fight for women’s rights continued and
still continues today.
At the start of the war,
only 24 % of women had
paid employment. By
1918, the figure was 37%