Women and War Work

flax, and worketh wil

nt's ships; she bringe

s with strength, and

er clothing; and she shall

., Ch

k of war for women was to throw

going to mean, and luxury trades ceased to get orders; women journalists, women writers, women l

on of distress is better than its relief, and employment is better than charity, I have inaugurated the 'Queen's Work for Women Fund,' Its object is to provide employment for as ma

RY

ntative Committee of Women was established, with Miss Mary MacArthur, the well known

re was great slackness in one trade or a part of it and great pressure in other parts of it or o

Government, or ordered by other sources, manufactured by firms adversely affected by the war or in their own workrooms. They worked with the firms accustomed to making men's clothing and now unemployed, and found that they could easily take military contracts if certain technical difficulties were removed. They interviewed the War Office autho

en to see that this work was only done where ordinary trade was fully employed. Two contracts from the War Office, typical of

and the possibility of the transfere

from badly paid trades, and it was clear that if they sold the work, it would injure trade-so in the end it was decided t

s resulted-for typing, shorthand, in leather work, chair seat willo

and workrooms were established by other organizatio

CARRIAG

G A LOC

g out more and more. The Women's Service Bureau had been opened within a week of the outbreak of war and had done valuable work in placing women, before the Board of Trade issued its fir

h on the field of battle, the full working power of the nation must be made available to carry on its essential trades at home. Already, in certain important occu

th or without previous training, for paid employment. Accordingly, they invite all women who are prepared, if needed, to take paid employment of any kind-indust

on. If she is not near a Labour Exchange she can get a form of registration from the local agen

om time to time actual openings for employment present themselves, notice will be given through the Labor Exchanges, with full details as to t

a man for fighting does national war service. Every woman

y, and it was stated on them that women were wanted at once for farm-work, dairy wor

en who registered waited with no real lead or use of them for a long time. The Government seemed to suffer from a delusion a great many people have, that if you have

tiative in this great replacement. This they had to a considerable extent done, using the Labour Excha

swiftly responded to and educated women voluntee

was appointed by the Home Office-a similar committee being set up for Scotland. It arranged with the London County Council and with local authorities that their Education Committees should initiate emergency

leys, where their courses included all office and business training. Six week courses of free training

n thousands from one part of the country to another, and the munition gi

e by our Labour Exchanges, now renamed Employment Exchanges an

f "Women's Service" was held in the Albert Hall in January 17, 1917, at which Mrs. Tennant and Miss Markham, Lord Derby, Minister of War; Mr. Prothero, President of the Board of Agriculture, and Mr. John Hodge, Minister of Labour, spoke and at which the Queen was present. It was an appeal to

oes not include domestic service, where our maids grow less and less numerous and Sir Auckland Geddes, Director of National Service, tells

of Military Representatives and Tribunals setting forth the processes in which women worked and the trades and occupations, and giving ph

gland, the Boys' High and Grammar Schools, and is doing good work there. They are replacing men chemists in works, doing research, working at dental mechanics, are tracing plans. They are driving motor cars in large numbers. Our Prime Minister has a woman chauffeur. They are driving delivery vans and bringing us our goods, our bread and our milk. They carry a great part of our mail and trudge through villages and cities wit

W CLE

ROLLER

goods porters, telegraphists and ticket collectors and inspectors, and labourers and wagon sheet repairers. They work in quarries, are coal workers, clean ships, a

e must be no lowering of wage standards which would not only be grossly unfai

he N.U.W.S.S., called a conference on the question of War Servi

to Government contractors, it had been laid down that the piece rates for women should be the same as for men, and further special instructions had been given to the Exchanges to inform inexperienced applicants of the current wages in each case, so that they should be fully apprised

rkers, men and women, are very well paid and despite high prices, were never more comfortable, and never saved more. The call for women to replace men still goes on in Britain. Miners are going to be combed out again. The Trade U

man power-less than a million women who could do more important work for the war than they are n

s. Britain could not have raised her Army and Navy and could not now keep her men in the field without the mobilization of h