Women’s Work in the Great War

When Britain entered the Great War in 1914, thousands of women joined the workforce to fill jobs left by men sent overseas. In addition to taking over civil service jobs, women absolutely dominated the manufacturing industry to fuel the war effort. The work was strenuous, difficult, and certainly hazardous. Women in munitions factories had their skin turn yellow from regular exposure to TNT, earning the nickname ’canaries.’ Hundreds of women died from TNT poisoning, other deadly chemicals and accidental discharges (in January 1917, an explosion at a plant in East London killed 73 people). In addition to the dangerous working conditions, women were paid significantly less than men in comparable positions. In 1918, women workers on London’s buses, trams and subways organized a strike and managed to win equal pay for equal work. Addressing the issue of unequal pay, in 1919 the Report of the War Cabinet Committee on Women in Industry published. It endorsed the principle of ’equal pay for