women, the war and the vote

Question 1

overall summation of the impact

Answer 1

overall, had a profound impact on women, challenging traditional gender norms and played a role in the extension of the franchise.

Question 2

how had the war impacted the lives of women

Answer 2

• dilution of labour in the munitions factories
• ministry of munitions subsidised nurseries for working women- 28 creches by 1917
• welfare services established for women in munitions factories
• 1911 national insurance was extended in 1916 for those in war work- so maternity care was available for many more women
• led to a concern about birth rate
• Care of Mothers and Young Children Act of 1915 gave local authorities responsibilities for the care of pregnant women and babies.
• death rate among young children fell to the lowest recorded in 1916 and 1917

Question 3

what positive effects did the war have on the position of women

Answer 3

women needed as the workforce due to men fighting. they did traditionally male jobs- such as work in factories, offices, transport, non-combatant jobs in armed forces.

this helped change the view of women as weak and only capable of housework- women were able to prove themselves.

Question 4

What work did women do with the armed forces?

Answer 4

WAAC- women’s auxiliary armed corps
WRNC- women’s royal naval service
WRAF- women’s Royal Air Force
100,000 women served in the armed forces.

Question 5

How many women served with the British army in France in administrative roles and as cooks

Answer 5

17,000

Question 6

What was more typical war work for women

Answer 6

Nursing
- 23,000 women were in the Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD)
- 15,000 women became medical orderlies.
- the direct encounter with the horrors of modern war was a searing experience for many of the women volunteers- earned gratitude and respect of those whom they looked after

Question 7

What were limitations for women in the war? (With work in the armed services)

Question 8

What were the actions of the suffrage movement in the war

Answer 8

• stopped the campaign for suffrage whilst war was ongoing and helped in other ways
• focused on national unity and encouraged women to contribute to the war.

Question 9

What were the voluntary help organisations for?

Answer 9

• organisations to care for Belgian refugees
• the support given to the YMCA
• ad hoc committees to help mothers with children and poor families whose husbands were at the front line
• all received wide-spread support.

Question 10

What union campaigned during the war?

Answer 10

The Women’s Social and Political Union

Question 11

What did the union campaign for?

Answer 11

Demanded the right for women to take up jobs to free men for the forces.
* initially, women lost jobs because of the war- demand for textiles dropped
* by the end of 1914 there was 82,000 women working in munitions
* rose to 340,000 by 1916 and 947,000 by 1918.
* 300 of these were killed in explosions or by the adverse effects of the chemicals they handled.

Question 12

Effect on trade unionism

Answer 12

• the TUC did NOT press hard for equality and many still faced discrimination in the workplace
• more did join trade unions
• number rose from 437,000 in 1914 to 1,342,000 in 1918.

Question 13

Was the joining on trade unions significant?

Answer 13

• women joining did not lead to much female participation in trade unions activities
• number of female TU members fell after the war

Question 14

Was there an overall lasting impact on women in work?

Answer 14

Not significantly, total number of women in work only rose from 5.9 million in 1914to 7.3 million in 1918.
More women worked in offices than factories and most still had traditional occupations.

Question 15

What was the biggest exception in work of women during/after the war

Answer 15

Transport- did see a significant increase in female employees- from 18,000 to 117,000. Women drove ambulances and delivered letters and telegrams.

Question 16

Where was the biggest change for women/what type of women experienced the largest change

Answer 16

The employment of married women- most women before the war stopped working when they got married, there was a widespread expectation that it was the responsibility of married women to look after their husbands and children.

Overall, married women experienced a significant improvement in their financial independence and the overall health of women and children.

Question 17

How did the ministry of munitions improve the female labour force?

Answer 17

• Facilities improved under this
• there were some workplace nurseries, canteens and washrooms
• Seebohm Rowntree was put in charge of the welfare and health department on the ministry of munitions- did a lot to help.

Question 18

What was the effect on the safety of the women

Answer 18

More women in work travelling around= danger of attacks on them increased.
A volunteer service of women patrol became recognised as a women’s police force.
They did not have the power of arrest- so more like an auxiliary service.
About 4000 patrols by 1917
Other women volunteers kept an eye on the domestic lives of women who were given separation allowances whilst their husbands were away in the forces.

Question 19

Give examples of the industries which women worked in/ what happened as a result of this

Answer 19

• women wore looser clothes and shorter skirts
• women drove ambulances and delivered first aid
• delivered letters and telegrams
• worked in heavy industry
• shovelled and delivered coal
• mechanics and tended to cars, lorries and even planes.

Question 20

Was the overall impact significant?

Answer 20

In terms of numbers- it is not as significant.
* 947,000 women in munitions in 1917 but 1,250,000 in domestic service and 954,000 in banking and insurance.
* 1901= 4.1 million women worked
* 1931= 5.6 million women worked (despite the war)
(So the effects of greater employment did not last).
* in 1921, there were 41 female civil engineers, 49 architects, 20 barristers and 17 solicitors- so cannot reflect attitudes that there was a greater public acceptance of a more independent and varied employment of women.

Question 21

What act gave some women the right to vote?

Answer 21

The Representation of the People Act 1918

Question 22

Terms of the representation of the people act

Answer 22

All men over the age of 21, (or 19 if had fought on front line) and women over the age of 30 (with minimum property restrictions of a value of £5, or if they themselves were a householder or married to a householder).

So the very poorest would have no vote- as it would not have classed as a householder and were very unlikely to own their own house.

Question 23

Summation of the arguments regarding the extension of the franchise

Answer 23

• there were bills before 1914 (conciliation bills) which got considerable support and would have given women the vote had the war not have intervened
• war granted them gratitude and respect from males
• not war- the women who did much of the war work were under the age of thirty- so not the ones given the vote
• suffragettes raised the matter of female vote to that of pubic opinion and brought it attention

Question 24

Evidence for the vote being due to achievements before the war

Answer 24

Women who did much of the war work were not the ones given the vote.
Arguable that w/o the interruption of the war it would have been granted
The activities by the suffragists mobilised popular public opinion.

Question 25

Evidence for vote being granted due to experiences during the war

Answer 25

The replacement of suffragette violence with pro-war patriotic activity helped to end the hostility due to militant action. The WSPU received gov subsidy in 1915 for promoting the war. Ministry of munitions work etc

Question 26

Evidence that it was a movement towards democratic reform including changes in parliamentary attitudes which granted women the vote.

Answer 26

The issue of reforming the male franchise kept the discussion surround suffrage alive. Relatively few men voted by 1914 and the qualification was based on residence and registration in particular constituencies. (Movement of millions of men in the war made this v difficult).

Question 27

Steps towards granting women the vote

Answer 27

* local government board civil servants put forward a proposal for a simple uniform adult franchise * labour cabinet minister Arthur Henderson suggested that the voting age for women should be 25 and 21 for women in 1916 * June 1916, NUWSS held a conference and asserted that if qualifications for men were to change, then there should be a renewed campaign for women * put to a special parliamentary committee in oct 1916.

Question 28

What did the parliamentary committee recommend?

Answer 28

* By 15 votes to 6 that women’s voting should take okayed * by 12 votes to 10 that there should be some restrictions * jan 1917, speaker- j.w. Lowther recommended that there should be: * one single qualification for voting * a simplification of registering of householders to vote * women on the local government register or married to someone on the register who had reached a ‘specified age’ should vote * age should be 30 or 35. * at 30, this would have added 7,000 women.

Question 29

When was the bill accepted?

Answer 29

Passed in commons in June 1917, in the Lords in February 1918 by 136 votes to 71.