During The Great War, many women were recruited into many departments and military services for different kinds of jobs. Some of these jobs were vacated by men who had gone to fight in the war. New jobs were also created as part of the war effort, for example, in munitions factories. Over 400 women died by the end of the war due to poor working conditions and inadequate safety equipment. The high demand for weapons resulted in the munitions factories becoming the largest single employer of women during 1918. Though there was initial resistance to hiring women for what was seen as ‘men’s work,’ the introduction of conscription in 1916 made the need for women workers urgent. Around this time, the government began coordinating the employment of women through campaigns and recruitment drives. British women took on jobs in munitions factories, drove ambulances, helped to keep the fledgling Royal Air Force in the sky, and gave succor to wounded soldiers, both at home and on the battlefield. Below, a compiled list of historical photos that show British women at work during World War I.
950,000 female workers were employed in British factories, including this worker, pictured making shell cases in a Vickers factory in January 1915 .Women employed in the transport industry increased by 555 per cent during the war, and included this pair of female porters at Marylebone Station in 1915.Women even took on tough, physical roles such as moving rubble, as seen in this photograph taken in Coventry during 1917.Women operating radial drilling machines, drilling holes in girdersView of canteen at munitions factoryWomen stacking woodW.R.N.S. fitting a mineWomen testing a mine with air presssureBritish woman winding cotton from spools on to rollers at lace factory in NottinghamBritish women in Nottingham tannery drawing skins from the lime pitBritish women painting planes at aeroplane factory near BirminghamBritish women working in chemical laboratory near ManchesterBritish women rubber workers in Lancashire making mouth-pieces for gas masksBritish women rubber workers in Lancashire forming the foundation for the treadWomen war workers, including the distinctively white-capped and aproned VAD nurses, parade outside Buckingham Palace in 1918.Members of the Women’s Royal Air Force arrive at Buckingham Palace, London, to attend a party for war workers in 1919.Female ambulance workers, such as this group photographed in November 1915, served both at home and on the front line.While some women became nurses, others worked in hospital workshops, such as this one at the Kensington War Hospital, making prosthetic limbs.400 women died in munitions factories, between 1914 (when this image was taken) and 1918, when the war ended.Exposure to toxic sulphur left many workers with yellowed skin, while others were killed in explosions. One 1917 incident killed 73 and flattened 900 homes.Despite being paid less than their male counterparts, many of the female munitionettes undertook dangerous and fiddly work.Members of the Women’s Fire Brigade with their Chief Officer photographed in their uniforms beside an extinguished fire in March 1916.Members of the Women’s Fire Brigade are put through their paces during a fire drill with hoses and extinguishers at full force in March 1916.A member of the Women Porters At Marylebone Station Group, pictured in 1914 giving a Great Central Railways carriage a thorough clean.As this 1917 photograph shows, female war workers didn’t just run trains and buses – they fixed and maintained them too.As part of the war effort, old paper had to be reused. These women are pulling apart old ledgers belonging to the London & South West Railway.The paper, as this photo taken on the 16th April 1917 shows, then had to be sorted into piles and stored.General view of brass fittings shopWomen inspecting motor engine partsWomen loading nitrate of soda into a skipWomen straightening and bending steel girderWomen painting steel workWomen copper banding t60 pdr shrapnelWomen taping planesWomen in charge of electric motorWomen wheeling away earth excavated for the installation of hydraulic pumpsWoman driving O.E.T. craneWomen operating radial drills, drilling valve covers and strainer plates for weed boxes for marine enginesWomen stacking woodWomen cleaning windowsWoman acting as helper at punching and shearing machineWomen transporting rough castings to the General StoreWomen engaged in labouring work in dressing shopWoman are with cores for ingot mouldWoman at battery drills, drilling angles and T bars for ribs of airship shedsWoman operating vertical drilling machines, drilling angles for connections to ribs of airship shedsWomen operating circular saw, cutting steel barWoman operating a Sunderland gear planer, gear cuttingWoman driving 20 ton O.E.T. craneWomen inserting and packing tubes in condensors for marine enginesWomen machining Admiralty electrical fittingsGeneral view of women engaged on small parts for boilers and condensors.Workers preparing for the construction of concrete shipsRailway workers cleaning carriagesRailway workers unloading goods from trainWomen railway workers painting and decoratingMine net workers wiring the floats togetherW.R.N.S. instructor at respirator and mask drill for military recruitsRailway worker pulling signal box leversWindow cleanersGirl operating stitching machine in Leicestershire boot factoryBritish women moulding and finishing stoneware taps at terra cotta works in LeicestershireBritish women working in lace factory in NottinghamBritish women working in tannery in NottinghamBritish women cleaning locomotive in MidlandsBritish women in glass factory cutting shop near BirminghamBritish women in glass factory near BirminghamBritish woman splicing airplane joints in aeroplane factory near BirminghamChemical works near Manchester – British women chemical workers in the MidlandsBritish women chemical workers in the Midlands taking limestone from stock, loading and wheeling barrows of lime to wagonsBritish rubber workers in Lancashire spreading machine for coaling canvas for tire makingBritish women rubber workers in Lancashire fixing studded tiresBritish women asbestos workers in factory in LancashireBritish women oil workers in Lancashire moulding cakes
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