How Has The Role Of Women Changed Since 1918

In what respects has the character of women’s work changed since 1918? Answer with reference to at least two countries in Europe.
The character of women’s work greatly evolved throughout the twentieth century, both progressing and regressing at different times within this period.
Working for many women in 1918 and the years before it often meant menial wages in low quality jobs or not even being allowed to work at all as women were deemed as inferior in most European societies. Unemployment benefits were extended in 1921 by the British Parliament to include allowances for wives to ensure that unemployed men could also provide for their wives as well as their children. This, however did not mean that unemployed women would receive benefits.
During the Second World War, the 1941 National Service Act is passed, extending the conscription introduced in 1938, to cover unmarried women between the ages of twenty and thirty. These women were called up to work in the war effort. Later, the maximum age of requirement was raised to forty three and also included married women, however pregnant women and women with young children were exempt. This change in women’s work not only resulted in a huge increase of women in employment during the Second World War, but it also resulted in a change in British culture. Many women during the war worked in jobs such as train drivers, tank and aircraft technicians, civil defence, and nursing and in the operation of anti-aircraft guns, jobs which were previously thought of to be exclusively men’s jobs. During the war, many women in employment campaigned for equal or similar pay to men in the same jobs, many of whom were also as new to the skills as the women were. Organisations such as the 1943 Equal Pay Campaign Committee were established which ensured that working women that were injured received equal settlements to men by the Personal Injuries Civilians scheme. By the end of the war however, many women lost their jobs in heavy industry to men returning from the war. During the work it was the work of Unions and Committees that worked towards equal pay for women, the British
By 1956, legal reforms were passed that decreed that women, teachers and civil servants should receive equal pay. However, these reforms only really effected the upper echelons of British female workers such as professional women, some local government workers and female civil servants. For most women working in Britain, their pay remained unequal. Many Government and trade unions even accepted the argument that the British economy would collapse of women were to receive equal