Women in the XXI century are independent women, who are able to work at any job, study any career, as well as advocacy, engineering, diplomacy, such as education and psychology, whatever they wish; they can participate in politics aspect, for example many of them are congressmen, ministers and something bigger, presidents. This means that women have reached equal value and rights as men, they are now treated equally (not in the entire world, but most of it), and have the same opportunities that men. But this equality achieved by women did not emerge from the overnight; the role of women has been changing since the beginning of history. One of the most important and main changes happened in the WWI and the Interwar Period.
World
War I was to give women the opportunity to show a male-dominated society that
they could do more than simply bring up children and tend a home. In World War
One, women played a vital role in keeping soldiers equipped with ammunition and
in many senses they kept the nation moving through their help in manning the
transport system.
With so many young men volunteering to join the army, and with so many
casualties in Europe, a gap was created in employment and women were called on
to fill these gaps. World War I was to prove a turning point for women.
Before the war upper class women did not work, whilst women from the
middle and the working class did. The working class women worked mainly as
maids, in domestic service and in factories. They worked very hard to keep
their families going. There were fewer middle class women working than working
class but those that did, worked as teachers, nurses, telephonists, typists and
as sales assistants. When women from the middle class married, most of them had
to quit their jobs. Upper class women didn't have to work because they were all
ready well off.
But the war soon changed all this; it allowed
lower class women to work in higher careers like lawyers, accountants, civil
servants and doctors. This is because of the Sexual Qualification Removal Act
that actually allowed women to work in the same jobs as men, and the Right to
Serve procession that made the government change their minds about women
working as this was the only way to keep up production.
Women were also allowed to join the services,
such as the Women's Land Army. With this women's services were established in
1917. Many women joined the Women's Land Army Auxiliary Corps, the Women's
Royal Naval Services and the Women's Royal Air Force. Here they took over
clerical and administrative jobs normally done by men. This enabled the men to
go to the front. Women also found
employment in transport (the rail lines and driving buses and trams).
Once the war started women were quickly
recruited into traditional nursing jobs. 23,000 women served as qualified
nurses. A further 80,000 volunteered as
nursing assistants in the Voluntary Aid Detachments (VAD). Women in the VAD had
only basic first aid training and were not paid, so they tended to come from
wealthy families.
At the start in August 1914, those in political
power had been left angered by the activities of the Suffragettes and women had
no political power whatsoever. By the end of the war, in November 1918, women had proved that they were just as
important to the war effort as men had been and in 1918 women were given some
form of political representation. Women could stand for election into
Parliament and Lady Astor was the first women to be elected into a seat in
1919. Women were able to vote at the age of 30 in 1918.
At that time nobody thought that a woman would
fulfill such important and vital role, but this prove them they were wrong. They
need women to survive. All of these made women's life change, they were treated
like it was supposed. They were allowed to work in higher professions and in
jobs like factories making ammunition, on the Women's Royal Air Force where
they worked on planes as mechanics, on farms in the Women's Land Army, in
shipyards etc, jobs that before 1914 had been for men only. They achieved what
they want and were waiting, they achieved equality and they were able to have the
same opportunities that men have. This
was the start of a new way of life to women, they will start to be value, their
ideas will be listen, and their participation in the political aspect will be
necessary. The life and the role of women in society will always change, no
matter what, little changes or big ones are going to happen always.
References and for more information:
http://www.sachem.edu/schools/seneca/socialstudies/guttman/per5/roleofwomen/link1.htm
By: Luciana López-Albújar
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