2. Before the WWI, women typically played the role
of the homemaker.
3. As a result of the war's outbreak, female
unemployment rise, especially among servants.
4. As men left their jobs to serve their country during
the war, women replaced them
New job opportunities opened up for women.
Civil service Transport Metal Chemical
eg Typist eg Tram driver eg Munitions workers eg TNT manufacture
+ 1,751% + 544% +376% +160%
6. The women employed in
munitions factories were
known as ‘munitionettes’.
Munitionettes produced 80%
of the weapons used by the
British Army.
7. The shortage of farm labour lead to the
establishment of
the Women’s Land Army in 1917.
8. For many women, the war was "a genuinely liberating experience"
that made them feel like useful citizens.
9. But when soldiers were back, women were pressured to return into the
“traditional” female jobs.
10. “...Even more traumatic (than losing jobs) was the painful process of
readjusting to the return of loved ones from the battlefields. Hundred of
thousands of men returned from the war injured in some way. Women bore a
large part of the burden of caring for these men. Even worse, women lost their
fathers, husbands, lovers, brothers, and sons. For these women, life would
never be the same." Joanna Bourke
