1. The changing role and status of women 1880 – 1980
Nina Gate
NINA GATE
The impact of war on the changing role and status of women 1914 – 1951
Call for men to be conscripted -War in million women replaced men in work place. Government figures show that women’s employment increased during the Second World War from about 5.1 million in 1939 (26%) to just over 7.25 million in 1943 (36% of all women of working age).
In 1914 the government established the Voluntary Aid Division (VAD) with the aim of sending more women to work in key jobs
NUWSS had to register to find work for unemployed people
A wider range of jobs were now available to women. Changes in style and appearance made necessary by war work - wearing trousers and short hair - became fashionable. World War I had proven that women could do a wide range of work and do them well. By 1928 all women were granted the right to vote, reflecting their changed status within society
trade-unionist Mary MacArthur, Secretary since 1903 of the Women's Trade Union League, led an energetic campaign to demand they were paid as much as the men employed in the same industry - the women only got half the men's wages - but by the end of the war the proportion was roughly still the same.
At first, only single women aged were called up, but by mid-1943, almost 90 per cent of single women and 80 per cent of married women were working in factories, on the land or in the armed forces.
The campaign for women’s suffrage in Wales and England before 1918.
Prevailing social ideas – 29% in workforce 1890 , 55% single women work outside home 1st laid off work domestic servants , caring.
National union of women’s suffrage societies (NUWSS) , Millicent Fawcett 1897 Suffragist . Women’s social and political union (WSPU) Emmeline Pankhurst 1903 Suffragettes.
The methods suffragettes acid on golf courses , hunger strikes in prison Lloyd George’s house bombed , heckled Churchill’s speeches – property attacks – arsonists pillar boxes , Emily Davison kings horse 1913.
War in million women replaced men , WSPU gave white feathers ¼ million farm labourers 1917 , 1/3 in war kept them after war. Asquith speech 1917 women deserved the vote.
Social and employment opportunities and legislative change after 1945.
After the war Women gained independence similarly to the first world war women The gains made during the Second World War proved transitory as women were demobilised from ‘men’s work’ to make way for the returning servicemen, as had happened following the First World War.
However, unlike the 1920s, the late 1940s and 50s were periods of sustained economic growth. The post-war reconstruction effort made the need for an expanded labour force urgent. In the late 1940s, the government launched campaigns to encourage women to enter or stay in the labour market, and encouraged the migration of workers from (former) British colonies to fill the labour shortages.
The welfare state created many job opportunities in what was seen as ‘women’s work’. Jobs were available in the newly created National Health Service for nurses, midwives, cleaners and clerical staff. Banking, textile and light industries such as electronics also expanded during this period and provided women with opportunities in clerical, secretarial and assembly work.
Jobs were still segregated by gender and routine repetitive work was categorised as women’s work for women’s (lower) wages. The proportion of women in the labour force as a percentage of women of working age (15-64) increased from 45.9% in 1955 to 51% in Despite this increase in the rate of women’s employment, women were still considered to be 'secondary workers'. Women's wages were not considered central to families’ income, instead it was thought that women's wages were for ‘extras’ such as holidays or new consumer durables.
Welfare payments for families were based on the assumption that a man’s income supported his wife and children who were his dependants (the ‘family wage’). The benefit rates for married women were set at a lower level than those for married men.
In the early 50s, many employers still operated a ‘Marriage bar’, whereby married women were barred from certain occupations like teaching and clerical jobs (but not lower paid jobs) and those working were sacked upon marriage. But throughout the 1950s and 60s it became more common for married women to work for wages - at least part-time. By the 1960, 38% of married women worked but women were routinely sacked when they got pregnant and continued to be paid less than men even if they did the same jobs.
The changing role and status of women 1880 – 1980
The reasons for the extensions of the franchise in 1918 and 1929
Widening the franchise – Labour wanted vote to grow only 58% of adult male population
Representation of the peoples act 1918 – during conference on electoral reform which recommended limited women’s suffrage. Influential consideration
With only 58% of the adult make population was eligible to vote before politicians were persuaded to extend the vote to all men and some women
Representation of the Conservatives (believed that women over 30 were more likely to vote for the conservatives) Peoples Act 1915 this allowed women over 30 to vote provided they met the property qualifications.
Acknowledgements were made for the efforts
It only represented 40% (8.5 million) of total population of women in the UK. The electorate increased from 8.5 million to 21 million but this was still a mass in equality between women and men. Equal Franchise Act 1928
It was not until the Equal Franchise Act of 1928 that women over 21 were able to vote and women finally achieved the same voting rights as men. This act increased the number of women eligible to vote to 15 million.