Women at war

At first, women found that the only roles available to them were traditional tasks. They were quickly recruited into Volunteer Aid Detachments as assistant nurses and many served close to the front in Belgium and France. Work as a nurse had a romantic appeal to these young, middle-class women. But their experiences soon shattered any romantic ideas they might have had of gently mopping the feverish brows of gallant young men. One remembered this incident in an operating theatre:

"The leg I was holding came off with a jerk and I sat down still clasping the foot. I stuffed the leg into the dressing pail beside the other arms and legs."

As the war continued and more men were needed for active service at the front, women found themselves being asked to take over the jobs the men had been doing in the army. They became typists, cooks, drivers and mechanics in the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC). The women in the WAAC were considered to be of a lower class than the equivalent for the navy (the Women's Royal Naval Service) and the air force (the Women's Royal Air Force). The Wrens and the WRAF catered for the 'nicer girls'. By 1918 over 100,000 women had volunteered for service in one of these auxiliary organisations.

One area which remained stubbornly unpopular for women was agriculture. Although the war meant that there were 260,000 jobs available in farming, only 48,000 women volunteered to work in the Women's Land Army. Agricultural labouring was seen as heavy, dirty, and unfeminine work. Soldiers had to be diverted from active service and prisoners of war brought in to work the fields to keep food production levels up.

Neil Demarco: Britain and the Great War; Oxford University Press, 1992/2000, page 41