Women at work

Perhaps the biggest change brought about by the war affected women. Once again, just as in the First World War, they found they were much needed to help boost industrial production. By 1943, 7.5 million women were employed in war-related work - 600,000 worked as engineers, compared to just 100,000 in 1939. Unmarried women were actually conscripted by Bevin to do war work. Most women were pleased to do so. Skilled work gave them a chance to prove their abilities and earn twice as much as they could in typically 'female' jobs, such as the textile industry. Nonetheless, though women were doing skilled work, they were only paid the rate for semi-skilled workers - if they were lucky.

Despite this discrimination women were happy with their new jobs:

'At first I was really shy - I had never worked with men before. But I became as interested in mending planes as I had been in dressmaking'.

Neil Demarco: The era of the Second World War; Oxford University Press, 1993/2000, page 62