Women and War Work

by Helen Miller Moyes

More research is being done by them in every department. In professions such as accountancy, architecture, analytical chemistry, more and more women are entering. In the banking world women have done very satisfactory work, and one London bank manager, asked to say what he thought of prospects after the war, says he is very strongly of opinion it will continue to be a profession for women after the war. This manager thinks the question of higher administrative posts being open to women will depend entirely on themselves and their work, and what they prove capable of achieving and holding, they will certainly have.

In the war, one profession, in particular, has come nearer to finding its rightful place than ever before—the teaching profession. Their salaries which, in too many cases, were disgracefully low, have been raised. The woman teacher has shown her capacity in new fields of work in the boys' schools, but it is in another sense that their profession, both men and women, but very specially the women, have achieved a very real gain in the war.

The teachers of the country have done a very great deal of war work of every kind. The National Register of 1915 was largely done by their labour. The War Savings Associations and Committees owe a great debt to teachers and inspectors, who are the backbone of the movement, headmistresses are asked constantly to help in securing trained women, taught to work in Hospitals on their holidays, on land, in organizing supplies and comforts in canteens and clubs, and more and more are put on official Committees in their towns and districts.

It means the teacher is finding the status and position the teachers in their profession ought to have in their communities, and the war has done a great deal towards achieving that desirable end, though there is still a good deal to be done.

In the Government Service there has undoubtedly been great opportunities for women, especially those of organizing, executive and secretarial ability—and in many cases the payment in higher posts is identical for men and women, and higher posts, if they have the ability, are freely given to women and the whole position of women in our Civil Service is improved. In the very highest posts, such as those of Insurance and Feeble-minded Commissioners, etc., women before the war received the same salaries as men.

The organizing ability and the common sense way in which our women in voluntary organization, quite rapidly, themselves decided what organizations were unnecessary and merely duplicating others, and refused to help them, so that they died out quite quickly, roused admiration, and the war has educated vast numbers of women in organization and executive ability. Women who never in their lives organized anything, and never kept an account properly, are doing all kinds of useful work. One nice middle-aged lady whose War Savings Association accounts were being kept wrongly, or rather were not really being kept at all, when told they must be done fully and correctly by one of our National Committee representatives, said, "Oh, but you see, I never did anything but crochet before the war"; but we have succeeded in making even the crochet ladies keep accounts and do wonderful things.

In the great world of mechanics and engineering, women are doing a wonderful amount of work and, there is no doubt, will remain in certain departments after the war. One danger there is in the women's attitude—so many of our women have learned one branch of work very quickly, that there probably will be a tendency to believe that anything can be learned as easily. There are only certain departments of mechanics that can be learned in a few months' time, and women will probably go on doing these. Such work as theirs in optical munitions, has shown their very special aptitude for it and in law-making, etc., they will be used more and more. Women have successfully done tool-setting and can go on with that. The training for civil and mechanical engineering is long, but there will be, if women are keen and will train, plenty of opportunity for them in peace-time occupations in civil, mechanical or electrical branches in connection with municipal, sanitary and household questions and in laundries, farms, etc. The women architects and these women could very well co-operate closely.

Women clerks and secretaries will remain largely after the war. Fewer men will want these posts as we are convinced there will be big movements among our men to more active work, to the land and to the Dominions overseas.

Women on the land will in numbers stay there, and there is a distinct movement among women with capital to go in for farming, market gardening, bee-keeping, poultry-keeping, etc., still more.