No job for a womanThe effects of war on women's lives during the 20th and 21st centuries

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Pre-1914
First World War
Second World War
Post-1945

First World War

During the First World War women's work and status began to change. Women were actively recruited to do war work and many others volunteered. Women's branches of the British armed services were not created until 1917.

Images of women were used in propaganda campaigns to recruit men to fight. Some women tried to shame men into enlisting by giving them white feathers.

A minority of women opposed the war for moral, ideological and religious reasons.

At the end of the war it was clear that women and their work had been vital to the war effort.

Click on the links below for classroom activities:

A woman's place is in the home
Women's work: war work
That's no job for a woman: the services
War babes: stereotypes, pin-ups and prejudice
You have no right: protest and equality

 

Q 30859 Women coke workers
Q 30859 Women coke workers
First World War image gallery
Q 8471

Q 8471
W.A.A.C. tending graves in a cemetery

 
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