Extra Rations For Women Workers

From the Nottingham Evening Post, 30th April, 1918.

OUR LETTER BAG.

VIEWS OF CORRESPONDENTS

EXTRA RATIONS FOR WOMEN WORKERS.
In justice to many women workers I wish to lay before the public what appears to me to be at least an overnight on the part of the Food Control authorities as to what constitutes heavy work for a woman.  My work causes me to handle from 250 to 300 heavy articles per shift.  These are "up ended" twice. and moved backwards and forwards and handled in other ways.  I am lifting at least 5 tons of metal per shift.  I should think this is heavy work for women, yet I have been refused the supplementary ration of meat other than butcher's meat because my occupation is not on the schedule.  There are many women who exert themselves as much as I do, and some even more as I have been able to observe.  They also have been refused for the same reason.  If one considers that 11½ hours' actual work and 15 hours away from home constitute the night shift duty, it must be admitted that work under these conditions is heavy for a woman, and I write this on behalf of women who have done and are doing their bit in the great struggle for right and freedom, in the hope that the food authorities will make full inquiries into the nature of the work done in the various workshops before refusing extra food.—FAIRNESS TO ALL.

[A later letter from a woman doing similar work made it clear that they were working in a munitions factory, and that men in the factory were getting the supplementary ration, including the foreman whose job it was to supervise the women rather than do the heavy physical work himself.]