Women at war and at work

It is difficult to be precise about the effect the war had on women. Attitudes to women and the views of women themselves after the war varied considerably. They did become more confident about the kind of tasks they could do and had greater expectations about what they were entitled to. The number of women trades unionists increased during the war by 160 per cent to 1.2 million. On the other hand, women were now more eager than before the war to marry early: the proportion of single women to married women in 1921 was lower than it had been in 1911. One historian, Trevor Wilson, has suggested that one possible summary of the effect of the war on women is 'that it left them second class citizens but had improved the quality of second-class travel'.

Neil Demarco: Britain and the Great War; Oxford University Press, 1992/2000, page 44