Another interesting indication of the extent and variety of women’s work in the latter months of the war is a list of placements made by an employment exchange. The list includes learners in sheet metal working, engine cleaners for a railway company; machinists in a torpedo factory; drivers for a tramway company; gas meter inspectors; crane drivers; insurance agents; sawmill laborers; cemetery laborers; railway porters; painters of motor car bodies; machinists for engineering firms; plumbers in a shipyard; bill posters; electric welders; foundry workers; armature winders; postwomen; lorry drivers; wood cutting machinists for shipbuilding; moulders at a grinding mill; chauffeurs; lift attendants; tinsmiths; solderers in gas meter works; telephone repairers; hay balers; laboratory assistants for wholesale chemists; tailors’ pressers; cinema operators; bank clerks; glass blowers; pipe plasterers; bake house assistants; cork cutters; gardeners; core makers in an iron foundry, and mechanics of many kinds.[50]
A Home Office report on the “Substitution of Women in Nonmunition Factories” adds to the above classifications employment in scientific work and in management and supervision, which a number of women entered during the latter months of the war, though a lack of suitable candidates retarded the movement. Educated women found places in factory laboratories where, also, intelligent working women took up the more routine processes. Most of the women engaged in managerial work were found in the prewar “women’s industries” like laundries and clothing factories, while the opening of new trades provided opportunities for many forewomen.
In July, 1914, the total number of women at work for pay was officially estimated as 5,966,000. Four years later this total had risen to 7,311,000 which, as has been noted, was a net increase of over a million and a third. An increase was found in all the major industrial groups except domestic service, in which the numbers decreased by 400,000, or about 20 per cent, during the war period. In private industrial establishments the number of women workers rose in four years from 2,176,000 to 2,745,000, an increase of 569 000, or 26.1 per cent, while in government industrial establishments, only 2,000 women were employed in July, 1914, and 225,000 in July, 1918, or over a hundred times as many.
By far the greater part of the increase in the number of women factory workers was to be found in the munition trades. Indeed, in the three trades of paper and printing, textiles and clothing, the last two of which had been “women’s trades” even before the war, there was an actual decrease of 86,000 in the number of women workers during the four year period under discussion. Out of the total increase of 792,000 in this group of occupations, 746,000 were to be found in the metal, chemical and wood trades, which cover most of the munition work done by private firms and in government establishments, which were mainly munition factories.
Another interesting sidelight on the contribution of English working women to the needs of the war is brought out by the numbers employed in the manufacture of all kinds of military supplies, including such things as uniforms, shoes and food, as well as munitions. In April, 1918, a total of 1,265,000 women were employed by private concerns on war orders, while government work brought the total up to 1,425,000, about equally divided between munitions and shipbuilding.
EXTENSION OF THE EMPLOYMENT OF FEMALES
IN INDUSTRY DURING FOUR YEARS OF WAR[51]
| Trade | (A) | (B) | (C) | (D) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| July, 1914 | July, 1918 | ||||
| Metal | 170,000 | 594,000 | 424,000 | 9 | 25 |
| Chemical | 40,000 | 104,000 | + 64,000 | 20 | 39 |
| Textile | 863,000 | 827,000 | - 36,000 | 58 | 67 |
| Clothing | 612,000 | 568,000 | - 44,000 | 68 | 76 |
| Food, Drink, Tobacco | 196,000 | 235,000 | + 39,000 | 35 | 49 |
| Paper and Printing | 147,500 | 141,500 | - 6,000 | 36 | 48 |
| Wood | 44,000 | 79,000 | + 35,000 | 15 | 32 |
| China and Earthenware | 32,000 | ||||
| Leather | 23,100 | 197,100 | + 93,000 | 4 | 10 |
| Other | 49,000 | ||||
| Government Establishments | 2,000 | 225,000 | +223,000 | 3 | 47 |
| Total | 2,178,600 | 2,970,000 | +792,000 | 26 | 37 |
- (A) = Estimated Number of Females Employed July, 1914
- (B) = Estimated Number of Females Employed July, 1918
- (C) = Increase (+) or Decrease (-) July, 1914-July, 1918
- (D) = Per Cent of Females to Total Number of Work People Employed
The addition of orders for the Allies brought the total number of women on war orders up to 1,750,000.
The following table gives comparisons for April, 1917, and April, 1918, for the various classes of industry: