The work of the “local committees on women’s war employment” in recruiting women from nonindustrial areas, meeting strangers, arranging for their lodging, and promoting “welfare” schemes, has previously been outlined. For the women transferred under their auspices the employment exchanges were able to guarantee that such arrangements had been made. All women applicants for work in national factories were required to pass a medical examination before being allowed to leave home.[93] In all cases the working conditions and living expenses to be expected were fully explained and the exchange had the power to advance railway fare.
But even with such precautions serious problems arose in transferring large numbers of women and girls long distances from home. Additional strain was involved in working among strangers. In one case where women munition workers were thrown out of work by a strike of the men, their plight was the more serious because many of them were miles from home and had not the money to return. For young girls the absence from home restraints and supervision was often harmful. One of the later reports of the Health of Munition Workers Committee of the Ministry of Munitions suggested a still more difficult situation in the following:[94]
The arrival of mothers in a town accompanied by quite young infants, or three or four young children, having travelled long distances, is becoming more and more common—the mother is attracted, in the absence of the father on active service, by the prospect of high wages in munition works, and brings her baby or children with her.
So pressing had the problems become that the committee, while recognizing the valuable work done by the local volunteer committees, felt that the time had arrived when the state should appoint officials to “supplement, complete or coordinate their work.” In accordance with this recommendation a number of “outside welfare officers” were appointed in 1917 by the Ministry of Munitions, who aided the local committees and were held responsible for completeness in their arrangements.[95]
Could more women have been obtained to meet the industrial needs of the nation, or did the expansion in the number of workers come near to exhausting the supply? The question is one to which it is hard to give an accurate answer. It has been pointed out that the number of women at work increased over every three months’ period up to July, 1918, though the rate of increase diminished during the fourth year of the war. It was estimated that 12,496,000 females ten years old and over were not “gainfully occupied” in July, 1918. Still later, just before the armistice, in the week ending November 8, 1918, there were 36,999 women on the “live registers” of the employment exchanges.
But on the other hand, as far back as January, 1916, officials of the exchanges stated that a third of the unfilled applications were those of women not previously employed, and another third those of women in situations who wished to change. The 12,496,000 females not at work included school girls, the old and incapacitated and housewives with small children, fully occupied by home duties. The measures taken to curtail industries not essential to the war and to conserve labor power, and the general complaints of a scarcity of labor, indicate that few additional reserves either of men or of women were available in the last months of the conflict.
CHAPTER VII
Training for War Work
It was with remarkably little organized training that the women took up their new lines of work and fitted into the men’s places. The most extensive development of special training was to be found in the munitions industry, under the auspices of the Ministry of Munitions. An official circular of the Ministry, dated November, 1915, outlined a scheme for producing semi-skilled workers by strictly practical courses of thirty to one hundred hours’ duration, intended to give the learner “machine sense” and to teach him to use some one machine tool. It was realized that this type was not in harmony with the best educational principles, but the necessities of the case demanded that nothing more should be tried than to turn out speedy and accurate workers in the shortest possible time. The comparatively small demand for women munition workers at this time was suggested by the fact that, while the classes were to be open both to men and women, it was recommended that the local authorities should be sure of employment for the latter before training them. The pupils were required to agree to work in munition factories at the end of their course.
Seventy such training centers were opened by the Ministry of Munitions in the course of the war, accommodating 6,000 to 6,500 pupils. Seven were factories utilized solely for industrial training, the smallest of which accommodated 150 and the largest from 800 to 1,000 pupils at a time. The others were smaller technical schools. The Ministry of Munitions had direct control of the training factories and appointed their staffs, but the schools were managed by the local educational authorities. According to representatives of the Ministry of Munitions, women were always trained “to order,” and not “to stock.”
Next, perhaps, to munitions work in frequency, though much less extensive, were the courses offered in agriculture. In connection with the women’s county committees it was arranged that women should be admitted to the county farm institutes, and short emergency courses, some of only one month’s duration, were started. During the season of 1916, 390 women completed such courses. In almost every county also large landowners and farmers gave free training to some women. In 1917, 247 “training centers” were reported and 140 farms had registered for the work.[96] Such centers were attended mainly by young country girls, sixteen or seventeen years old, who in peace times would have entered domestic service. Small “hostels” or boarding homes were sometimes opened in connection with the training centers. The “Land Army” made use of these various schools, centers and practice farms for its short training courses and also arranged brief apprenticeships with employers.