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world war 1
Part B

World War 1 made a colossal impact to all aspects of human life around the world, everyone who fought, witnessed, and survived from this catastrophic event was impacted on each to different degrees and consequences. One of the major groups who were affected by World War 1 were the women of Britain, playing a significant role to provide for their family and for the men who fought in the war.

With the early rush of volunteers in 1914 and the conscription in 1916 led to a shortage of manpower on Britain’s home front, this then led to women taking up jobs normally done by the men such as farming or bank clerks. This was the start of a major social change as prior to the war a women’s main job was to stay at home to bring up the family and to do domestic work. Both source A and source B show how women’s lives had changed at the home front in Britain during World War 1, source A shows a photograph of women working in a munitions factory, this is an example of how women’s roles changed during this time as a women’s main job was staying at home and not to get their hands dirty. Source B is an image of a type of propaganda which was used during that time to get women involved in the war by taking over jobs normally done by men, such as a munition worker.

The importance of women in the workforce had grown dramatically, filling many jobs brought into existence by wartime need. The number of women in employment in Britain increased from three million in 1914 to five million by 1918. One of the most highly employed jobs at the time was working in highly dangerous munition factories where one million women were employed, attracted by higher pay to work in production of munitions towards the war. There was also increasing demand for women to do heavy work such as unloading coal and building ships, they worked as bus conductors, farmers, clerical officers, banking, education and doctors. With the introduction to the women’s army

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