NEXT month sees the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War.

Celebrations are planned to mark the occasion but the Great War also played a key role in another anniversary being celebrated in 2018 – women’s rights.

Hannah White, from Warrington Museum, explains: “For many Warrington women the Great War was their first opportunity to show they could contribute to society apart from being wives or mothers.

“Daughters from wealthier families were not expected to have a career and working class women were expected to give up work once they married to look after their family.

“Soon more and more men were needed to serve in the armed forces and women were expected to take their place but how would they need to adapt to the world of work and how would employers cope with these new workers?”

Working class women at the time did not need to worry about fashion but wealthier Warrington women were warned that new clothes should only be bought when necessary so clothing trade could concentrate on equipping the armed forces.

Uniform rather than fashion dictated what wartime working women wore; giving them protection from the weather for outdoor work or protecting them from dangerous machinery.

Lillian Evans, the Welfare Superintendent of the St Helens Cable and Rubber Co Ltd Warrington, produced useful advice for the new female workforce and particularly those who would be undertaking heavy manual work for the first time:

“Keep special clothes for work and the plainer they are the better. Never wear stiff, tight, corsets.”

Women faced many challenges being accepted in the workplace:

  •  Unions and male workers often resisted the introduction of women workers, fearing the reduction of wages if employers saw that a job could be done by girls.
  •  Women often out-performed men in tasks needing skill rather than strength but employers paid them lower wages because they regarded them as temporary substitutes.
  •  The employers also resented having to invest in new facilities such as canteens, wash rooms and toilets for this temporary workforce.
  •  Employers were reluctant to invest in training them because once the men returned from the front they expected that the women would get married and leave.

• At the end of the war women were expected to give up their jobs to the returning male workers even if the women had proved they could do the job just as well (or often better.)