Andrea Blattler
Woman’s Roles in the Home-Front
The role of the working-woman in WW1 drastically changed due to the loss of men in the home-environment.
The world changed the day WW1 began. War broke out and men were sent to fight as soldiers in a war. Women were left to support and to care for the families that had been left behind. War brought much change to the world, especially to women. Women worked to support the families that had been left at home and suffered through the losses that the war brought them.
The role of the working-woman in WW1 drastically changed because of the loss of men in the home-environment for better or for worse.
Before the start of WW1, most women were comfortable at home with their working husbands. Only about 30% of the workforce was female and most of the unmarried, working women were servants. Before the war, women normally played the role of faithful housewives, their job was to take care of the children and the household. They polished and swept, caring for the children, cooking for the family, and sewing clothing for all. Women had…show more content… Some women also worked heavy machinery in engineering fields, worked in farms leading the cart horses, and worked in the civil service and factories. Munitionettes (women who produced the ammunition in the war) made 80% of the weapons and gun shells used by the British Army and risked their lives daily, working with poisonous gases and substances without proper protective clothing or the required safety measures. However, they were payed lower payment for doing exactly the same work that the men had done before the war, and there began the earliest demands for equal