During this period some trade unions serving traditionally male occupations like engineering began to admit women members. Trade Union Collections, London Metropolitan Universityĭuring WWII women worked in factories producing munitions, building ships, aeroplanes, in the auxiliary services as air-raid wardens, fire officers and evacuation officers, as drivers of fire engines, trains and trams, as conductors and as nurses. Many domestic servants would have been redeployed to national service, but no exact figures exist. The level of employment could have been higher as domestic servants were excluded from these figures. Forty six percent of all women aged between 14 and 59, and 90% of all able-bodied single women between the ages of 18 and 40 were engaged in some form of work or National Service by September 1943 (H M Government, 1943, p. Government figures show that women’s employment increased during the Second World War from about 5.1 million in 1939 (26%) to just over 7.25 million in 1943 (36% of all women of working age). Propaganda leaflets urged women to participate in the war effort. In December 1941, the government conscripted single women aged 20-30 as auxiliaries to the Armed Forces, Civil Defence, or war industries. However, the needs of the wartime economy won again. Trade unions again expressed concerns about men’s pay being pushed down and sought assurances that women’s wartime work would only be temporary. Despite their success in wartime industries during WWI, similar stereotypes about women’s capacity and ability to engage in ‘men’s work’ were circulated by the employers and the government. In many ways, the story of women’s employment during WWI was repeated during WWII.
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