What about the Women? Legacies of the First World War

Mary’s brother Andrew was killed in action in 1917 whilst serving as a naval infantryman in the Royal Naval Division. This prompted Mary to leave behind Scotland to serve on the Western Front from 1917-1919.

Nicknamed “Fluffy” on account of her hairstyle, Mary first joined the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) before moving to the Women’s Royal Air Force (WRAF).

Women in the WRAF fulfilled many duties, including serving as aircraft mechanics or in the offices as clerks. Often social class played a role in the allocation of duties for women involved in war work.

Evelyn applied for a job as a clerk in a munitions factory. Because of some uncertainty regarding Evelyn’s ancestry, the office requested another five references be provided. This is probably because of the effect of the 1916 Easter Uprising, following which Britain was increasingly paranoid about Irish loyalties. Alfred wrote back in contempt, suggesting that the references he had already provided from a senior academic and a prominent judge should surely be sufficient.

Jessie was a keen enthusiast of the natural sciences and was studying at Cambridge. At the time, women could study but only received partial degrees. In 1919 Jessie found a job working at the Paris Peace Conference where she specialised in the debates surrounding Palestine. At one occasion her identity was stolen by a Zionist representative in order to access the archives of the British delegation.

In these letters between father and daughter, Alfred expresses concern for Jessie’s recent bout of influenza, as well as offering his advice about the shape of the world to come. He also writes that “the old dominance of Europe has gone forever … it seems to me more and more evident that the war has severed the vital chords of its moral energy and physical prosperity, and America is ready to step into its place”.

Although his prediction proved accurate, it is worth noting that this brave new world would be shaped as much by women such as Jessie as by men like her father.

Food deprivation was a persistent problem in post-war Britain. Rationing had been introduced in 1918, and some items such as butter continued to be rationed until 1920. Whilst the audience of this book would not have encountered such problems, many working class families continued to struggle with poverty and hunger throughout the 1920s. “Hunger marches” were held in protest at high unemployment, one of the root causes of food deprivation.

Although sensationalised at the time, historians have questioned whether there really was a generation of “surplus women”. Nevertheless, in the 1920s, conservative-minded men feared the rise of modern, independent women.

An article in The Times of 5 February 1920 worried about “the frivolous, scantily-clad, jazzing flapper, irresponsible and undisciplined, to whom a dance, a new hat, or a man with a car, were of more importance than the fate of nations”.

Often women’s war work was divided along class lines. Upper class women were more likely to be involved in organising or coordinating roles, whilst those from the middle classes took clerical or nursing positions and working class women found jobs in factories, the fields or the front.

These patches depict some of the best known jobs undertaken by women as well as less well-remembered positions.

Together they remind us that not all women’s war jobs were as directly related to the conflict as the nurse; women also had to step into everyday jobs such as operating lifts or conducting trams whilst men were away.

Some women drew on new skills and networks to continue their careers in the interwar years, but most were expected to leave these jobs after the men returned from war. Often this was written into their contracts, and women who remained working after the war faced social stigma for “stealing” men’s jobs.

War work therefore did not necessarily bring lasting change for all women. The 1921 census showed that there were fewer women in employment than in 1911, suggesting that, for the majority, war work did not lead to longer-term career opportunities.

After the war, Gladys married Albert George Tidmarsh and worked as a housemother at the school where he taught music. During the Second World War, she again volunteered as a Red Cross nurse.

Gladys’ story reminds us that for many women, the end of war meant a return to more traditional roles in support of their husband’s careers; yet she also stands out as a dedicated and talented individual who seized the opportunity to work for her country in both world wars.