Issue 2: Effect of the War on Scotland Women

Women’s War Work What jobs were done by women during the war? During the war women did all sorts of new jobs and nurses such as Mairi Chisholm became important role models for women eager to feel they were ‘doing their bit’ for the war effort. A “Woman’s Right to Serve” became the slogan of the Suffragettes as they pushed to help with the war effort.

Case Study 1: Mairi Chisholm Scottish. 18 years old in 1914. Joined an experimental first aid post just behind the front line in Belgium. By working so close to the front line, the women were in constant danger.

Case Study 1: Mairi Chisholm Chisholm’s nursing bravery was awarded in January 1915 when the King of the Belgians awarded her the Order of Leopold. In March 1918, she was affected by poison gas released against troops and although Chisholm recovered and returned to her post, she was never again fully fit.

Case Study 2: Elsie Inglis Mairi Chisholm has only become well known in Scotland in recent years; much better known is Elsie Inglis, another Scot who used her medical skills to assist in the war effort.

Case Study 2: Elsie Inglis Elsie Inglis was the driving force in the creation of the Scottish Women’s Hospitals Committee that sent over 1000 women doctors, nurses, orderlies and ambulance drivers to war zones across Europe and the Balkans. Inglis was also involved in setting up four Scottish Women’s Hospitals, which had much lower levels of death from disease than the more traditional military hospitals.

Case Study 2: Elsie Inglis Having endured terrible conditions, capture, repatriation and also fighting against male-dominated decision-making in the UK, Elsie died of cancer in November 1917.

Dilution The biggest increase in female employment was in the previously male-dominated engineering industry, especially the part that made munitions. Before the war, fewer than 4,000 women worked in heavy industry in Scotland. By 1917 over 30,000 women were employed during the war making munitions in Scotland.

Many men feared ‘dilution’. This was the fear expressed by skilled men who had served a seven-year apprenticeship, that their skills would be ‘diluted’ by quickly-trained women. Those men feared that working women would dilute their skills, their status in the workforce, their wages their future employment.

The Ministry of Munitions introduced a dilution scheme whereby skilled jobs were broken down into individual processes. Women were then trained in individual processes, which allowed them to work under supervision. That way many women could be trained in different processes so the job was done but the status and skill of the ‘skilled man’ was not undermined. The Munitions of War Act of 1915 also suggested that women should be paid comparable rates to men but that seldom happened.

Rent Strikes The Great War made many Scots more politically aware. The people became radicalised. Red Clydeside is a term used to describe the era of political radicalism that characterised the city of Glasgow. The rent strikes that started in Glasgow are perfect examples of people taking direct action to change or protect their way of life.

Why was the government concerned about the rent strikes? On 17 November 1915 a mass demonstration in George Square worried the government. The rent strikes had grown to an extent that they threatened wartime production. The government passed the Rent Restriction Act. Rents were frozen to 1914 levels unless improvements had been made to the property.

Conclusion When the war ended the majority of women did not keep their new wartime jobs. The Restoration of Pre-War Practices Act meant that returning soldiers were given back their jobs. Within a few years of the end of the war over 25% of all working women were back in domestic service – child minding and doing housework. That total was more than before the war. Partly as a result of the war, women over 30 who owned property, or were graduates of British universities were given the vote – widening of the franchise.