Sources of Additional Women Workers
The question naturally arises, where did the increased number of women
workers come from? Who were the thousands of munition workers, the
girls undertaking men’s jobs, and all the army of a million and a third
women who were at work in July, 1918, and not in July, 1914?
_Transfers from Nonessential Industries_
The increase during the first months of war in the industries equipping
the troops was met for the most part by a transference of workers from
slack to busy lines. “So great has been the passing from industry to
industry,” said the factory inspectors,[84] “that at the beginning of
the New Year it seemed almost as if women and girls had gone through
a process of ‘General Post.’” For instance, makers of high class
jewelry in Birmingham transferred to light metal work for the army.
Silk and linen weavers went into woolen mills and dressmakers in the
west Midlands were taken on in light leather work. In other cases
slack industries took up government work. The activity of the Central
Committee on Women’s Employment in securing contracts for uniforms
for idle dressmaking establishments has already been mentioned. The
Scottish fish workers were relieved by knitting orders. Certain carpet
mills took up the weaving of army blankets, corset makers were set
to making knapsacks, girl workers on fishing tackle were used in the
manufacture of hosiery machine needles, previously imported from
Germany, and an effort was made to provide the manufacture of tape
and braid for uniforms for unemployed lace makers in the Midlands.
Army shirts were made by many of the Irish collar factories. In
retail trade also there was often a transfer from slack to busy shops,
as from dressmaking and millinery to the grocery trade. Middle aged
professional women whose ordinary occupations were unfavorably affected
by the war frequently took the positions in banks, insurance offices
and other business offices which had for the first time been opened
to women. Yet in the two trades which suffered most severely from
unemployment, namely, cotton textiles and dressmaking, there was a much
“less general movement of the workers to find a livelihood in other
directions.” This was considered due in the one case to “relatively
high wages and specialized factory skill,” in the other to “deep-rooted
social traditions and special craft skill.”
[84] Great Britain Home Office, _Report of the Chief Inspector of
Factories and Workshops for 1914_, p. 33.
Very early in the war, also, married women who had worked before
marriage returned to industry. A large proportion of the expanding
needs of the woolen trades was filled in that way. In “drapery”—that
is to say, “dry goods”—shops, and in cotton and shoe factories and
potteries, many of these “dug-out” married women also appeared.
Municipalities, when substituting women for men on tram cars and in
other services, frequently gave preference to the wives of men who
had enlisted. Many married women entered the food trades and they did
not seem to object to dirty work in foundries and other places as did
single women. In the professions, also, some women returned to teaching
and clerical work. Soldiers’ wives likewise entered munitions work in
large numbers. While the reason for their reentering work was probably
largely economic—rising food prices and “separation allowances”
insufficient to maintain a skilled worker’s standard of living,
particularly if the family was large—yet their choice of occupations
appears to have been at least partly dictated by patriotic motives.
As the war went on, the transfer of women from “normal” women’s
occupations, such as domestic service, dressmaking, textiles, the
clothing trades and laundry work to the more highly paid lines,
especially munitions work, became more and more noticeable. The
actual decline in numbers in these occupations has previously been
described.[85] In addition to the decreases in these trades, a
considerable change in personnel was observed, involving “the loss
of skilled women and the consequent deterioration of the quality of
labor.”[86] For example, skilled women left laundry work, and their
places were filled by charwomen, or young girls fresh from school. Not
infrequently the skilled women went to almost unskilled work, as from
textiles to munitions.
[85] _Vide_ pp. 35, 38.
[86] British Association for the Advancement of Science, _Labour,
Finance, and the War_, p. 71.
On the other hand, war conditions occasionally kept women at home who
were previously employed. In districts where large numbers of soldiers
were billeted women were kept busy at home attending to their needs.
Especially in colliery districts the rise in men’s wages caused married
women who were thrown out of work at the beginning of the war to become
indifferent to obtaining new positions. In some cases, notably in the
Dundee jute mills, separation allowances placed the wives of casual
workers who had enlisted in a state of comparative prosperity, and
they ceased to go out to work. But on the whole the war doubtlessly
increased the employment of married women.
In spite of impressions to the contrary, the proportion of previously
unoccupied upper and middle class women entering “war work” was by
no means large. Some young girls from school who would not normally
have gone to work and some older women who had never worked before
entered clerical employment, especially in government offices, and
often obtained promotion to supervisory positions. A limited number
of well-to-do women took up such temporary farm work as fruit picking
from patriotic motives. Many of the women working behind the lines
in France and as military nurses were from the “upper classes.”
And an appreciable number of munition workers were drawn from the
ranks of educated women. One such worker estimated that in the
large establishment where she was employed, about nine out of 100
women belonged to that class.[87] Educated women were particularly
likely to take up such skilled occupations as oxy-acetylene welding,
tool-setting, and draughting, where their trained minds proved
advantageous. Daughters of small tradesmen and farmers, who had
not worked before except in their own homes, were likely to become
forewomen and supervisors, positions for which their reliability and
common sense well fitted them.[88] The “week end munition relief
workers,” or “W. M. R. W.,” who worked Sundays in order to give the
regular staff a rest day, were rumored to include among their members
“dukes’ daughters and generals’ ladies, artists and authors, students
and teachers, ministers’ and lawyers’ wives,”[89] but this class of
workers was, after all, small and was not increasing.
[87] Monica Cosens, _Lloyd George’s Munition Girls_, 1916, p. 114.
[88] Miss O. E. Monkhouse, M. B. E., in _Railway News_, March 30, 1918,
p. 368.
[89] Henriette R. Walter, “Munition Workers in England,” _Munition
Makers_, 1917, p. 138.
Mainly, however, the new needs of industry have been filled by working
women or the wives of working men. Former factory hands, charwomen
and domestic servants are found on the heavier work, and shopgirls,
dressmakers and milliners on the lighter lines.
A fairly large proportion of the increase may, moreover, be accounted
for without the recruiting of new workers. Numbers of home workers, of
half employed charwomen and of small shopkeepers and other employers
have voluntarily become regular employes. During the war fewer women
married and of those who did marry a large proportion seem to have
remained in industry. A writer in _The New Statesman_ noted of certain
women munition workers that “a large majority of them—even girls who
look scarcely more than sixteen—wear wedding rings.”[90]
A general idea of the sources from which the new workers came into
industry may be obtained from an analysis made in January, 1917, of
the prewar occupations of nearly half a million women and girls who
were insured against unemployment, covering nearly all the munition
trades. Seventy per cent of the 444,000 workers considered had changed
their occupation during the war. Twenty-three per cent had changed
from one kind of factory work to another, 22 per cent had not been
employed except with housework in their own homes, 16 per cent had
been in domestic service, and 7 per cent had been at work in other
nonindustrial employments. Assuming that the same proportions held for
the 778,000 additional women found in private factories and government
establishments in July, 1918, 178,000 of them would have come from
other kinds of factory work, 171,000 from the home, 125,000 from
domestic service, and 54,000 from nonindustrial occupations.
[90] _The New Statesman_, January 13, 1917, p. 346.
PREWAR OCCUPATIONS OF 444,137 FEMALES INSURED AGAINST UNEMPLOYMENT IN
JANUARY, 1917[91]
---------------------+--------------+---------------+------------+
| Metal Trades | Chemical | |
| (except | Trades (incl. | Clothing |
Prewar | Engineering)| small arms) | |
Occupation +--------+-----+--------+------+------+-----+
| No. | Per | No. | Per | No. | Per |
| | cent| | cent | | cent|
---------------------+--------+-----+--------+------+------+-----+
Same trade | 53,249| 48.1| 14,634| 8.4|38,256| 53.6|
Household duties | | | | | | |
and not previously | | | | | | |
occupied | 18,927| 17.1| 52,401| 30.2| 9,334| 13.1|
Textiles Trades | 3,408| 3.1| 6,226| 3.6| 1,000| 1.4|
Clothing Trades | 4,635| 4.2| 17,941| 10.3| 8,430| 11.8|
Other Indus. | 12,458| 11.3| 20,879| 12.0| 5,745| 8.0|
Domestic Serv. | 12,502| 11.3| 44,438| 25.6| 4,970| 7.0|
Other nonindustrial | | | | | | |
occupation | 5,449| 4.9| 17,079| 9.9| 3,643| 5.1|
---------------------+--------+-----+--------+------+------+-----+
Total insured | 110,628|100.0| 173,604| 100.0|71,378|100.0|
---------------------+--------+-----+--------+------+------+-----+
---------------------+--------------+---------------+
| Other | All |
| insured | insured |
Prewar | trades | trades |
Occupation +-------+------+--------+------+
| No. | Per | No. | Per |
| | cent | | cent |
---------------------+-------+------+--------+------+
Same trade | 30,399| 34.3| 136,538| 30.7|
Household duties | | | | |
and not previously | | | | |
occupied | 17,843| 20.2| 98,511| 22.2|
Textiles Trades | 4,374| 4.9| 15,008| 3.4|
Clothing Trades | 8,787| 9.9| 39,793| 9.0|
Other Indus. | 10,065| 11.4| 49,147| 11.1|
Domestic Serv. | 12,062| 13.7| 73,992| 16.6|
Other nonindustrial | | | | |
occupation | 4,977| 5.6| 31,148| 7.0|
---------------------+-------+------+--------+------+
Total insured | 88,527| 100.0| 444,137| 100.0|
---------------------+-------+------+--------+------+
[91] _Labour Gazette_, December, 1917, p. 438.
_Transfers between Districts_
In connection for the most part with the expanding munitions industry
there has developed a phenomenon rare on any large scale in the history
of women in industry, namely, the transfer of women workers from
their homes to other parts of the country. Especially in England such
transfer was carried on during the war on a fairly large scale. The
British Government has naturally not encouraged detailed statements of
the building of new munition plants and the extension of old ones, but
occasional glimpses reveal revolutionary changes. In a speech to the
House of Commons in June, 1917, the British Minister of Munitions said:
But the demands of the artillery programme, as it was
formulated in the latter half of 1915, were such that it
was necessary to plan for the erection of large additional
factories.... They were erected at such a pace that what
were untouched green fields one year were the sites a year
later of great establishments capable of dealing with the
raw materials of minerals or cotton, and of working them
into finished explosives in great quantities every week.
Moreover, firms in operation before the war frequently doubled and
quadrupled their capacity. In Barrow, for instance, a somewhat isolated
town in the northwest of England, the population grew from 75,000 in
1914 to 85,000 in 1916 on account of the enlargement of a munitions
plant. To meet the needs of such centers it was necessary to secure
workers from many other localities.
Effort was made to center any transfer of women workers in the
employment exchanges. The Ministry of Munitions’ handbook of
“Instructions to Controlled Establishments” recommended application
to the employment exchanges for all female labor instead of engaging
it “at the factory gate” in order that the supply might be organized
to the best advantage and “any unnecessary disturbance” of the labor
market avoided. But the recommendation was not universally adopted.
An undated circular of the Ministry complained that in cases where
the exchanges were not used, skilled women, such as power machine
operators and stenographers, for whom there was an “unsatisfied demand”
on government work, had been hired for unskilled munitions work where
unskilled women were available. Women had been brought into towns where
lodgings were almost impossible to obtain while suitable local women
were unemployed. Such occurrences and the “stealing” of skilled men by
one employer from another caused an order to be made under the Defence
of the Realm Act on February 2, 1917, which forbade the owner of an
arms, ammunition, explosives, engineering or shipbuilding establishment
to procure workers from more than ten miles away except through an
employment exchange.
The employment exchange figures of the number of women obtaining
employment in other districts, which therefore probably cover an
increasing proportion of the movement, are for 1914, 32,988, for 1915,
53,096, and for 1916, 160,003.[92] In March, 1917, the number of women
workers being moved to a distance through the exchanges was between
4,000 and 5,000 a month. In February, 1917, 5,118 women from some 200
different exchange areas were brought into eight large munition centers
alone. In this one month, 1,641 women were brought from sixty-three
different districts to a single munitions factory in the south of
Scotland, and to another in the West Midlands. 772 women “were imported
from centers as far apart as Aberdeen and Penzance.” From Ireland,
where the conscription acts were not in force, and where women did not
replace men in industry to any large extent, many girls crossed over
to work in British munition factories. Official judgment ascribed the
increased mobility of women labor to the rise in wages and the appeal
of patriotism, which together supplied an incentive previously lacking.
[92] _Labour Gazette_, March, 1917, p. 92.
Besides the munition workers, the transfer is noted during 1914 of
silk and cotton operatives to woolen mills and of tailoresses from the
east coast to Leeds uniform factories, and in 1915 of fisherwomen and
others from the east coast resorts to the Dundee jute mills to replace
the married women who left to live on their separation allowances. Some
women substitutes for men in clerical and commercial work and in the
staple industries, and agricultural workers, especially for temporary
work, were transferred in 1916 as well as the munitions workers.
_Care of Transferred Workers_
The work of the “local committees on women’s war employment” in
recruiting women from nonindustrial areas, meeting strangers, arranging
for their lodging, and promoting “welfare” schemes, has previously been
outlined. For the women transferred under their auspices the employment
exchanges were able to guarantee that such arrangements had been made.
All women applicants for work in national factories were required to
pass a medical examination before being allowed to leave home.[93] In
all cases the working conditions and living expenses to be expected
were fully explained and the exchange had the power to advance railway
fare.
But even with such precautions serious problems arose in transferring
large numbers of women and girls long distances from home. Additional
strain was involved in working among strangers. In one case where
women munition workers were thrown out of work by a strike of the
men, their plight was the more serious because many of them were
miles from home and had not the money to return. For young girls the
absence from home restraints and supervision was often harmful. One of
the later reports of the Health of Munition Workers Committee of the
Ministry of Munitions suggested a still more difficult situation in the
following:[94]
The arrival of mothers in a town accompanied by quite young
infants, or three or four young children, having travelled
long distances, is becoming more and more common—the
mother is attracted, in the absence of the father on active
service, by the prospect of high wages in munition works,
and brings her baby or children with her.
[93] _Labour Gazette_, March, 1917, p. 93.
[94] Great Britain Minister of Munitions, Health of Munition Workers
Committee, _Memorandum No. 17_, “Health and Welfare of Munition Workers
Outside the Factory,” 1917.
So pressing had the problems become that the committee, while
recognizing the valuable work done by the local volunteer committees,
felt that the time had arrived when the state should appoint officials
to “supplement, complete or coordinate their work.” In accordance
with this recommendation a number of “outside welfare officers”
were appointed in 1917 by the Ministry of Munitions, who aided the
local committees and were held responsible for completeness in their
arrangements.[95]
Could more women have been obtained to meet the industrial needs of
the nation, or did the expansion in the number of workers come near to
exhausting the supply? The question is one to which it is hard to give
an accurate answer. It has been pointed out that the number of women at
work increased over every three months’ period up to July, 1918, though
the rate of increase diminished during the fourth year of the war.
It was estimated that 12,496,000 females ten years old and over were
not “gainfully occupied” in July, 1918. Still later, just before the
armistice, in the week ending November 8, 1918, there were 36,999 women
on the “live registers” of the employment exchanges.
But on the other hand, as far back as January, 1916, officials of the
exchanges stated that a third of the unfilled applications were those
of women not previously employed, and another third those of women in
situations who wished to change. The 12,496,000 females not at work
included school girls, the old and incapacitated and housewives with
small children, fully occupied by home duties. The measures taken to
curtail industries not essential to the war and to conserve labor
power, and the general complaints of a scarcity of labor, indicate that
few additional reserves either of men or of women were available in the
last months of the conflict.
[95] John and Katherine Barrett, _British Industrial Experience during
the War_, Sen. Doc. 114. 65th Cong., 1st Sess.