Women Munition Workers

From the Huddersfield Daily Examiner, 19th July 1918.

OUR SPLENDID WOMEN.

THE WAR AND THE REVOLUTION OF THE WORKSHOPS.

(By a Correspondent.)

If you passed it on your bicycle you would never imagine it was a fuse factory.  If you guessed you would probably say “Technical School."  Built since the war, in the heart of an agricultural district, it seems far from industry; farther yet from the war.  Stretches of fields, grey, quiet country roads, peaceful farmsteads, the chirrupings of birds, and the indolent sigh of the wind are all about it.  It is a ruddy, glowing picture in the sunlight.  The workshops themselves are the airiest I know.  The women come of farming stock, and have brought their red cheeks and fresh complexions from the farm to the factory.
Very shy were they of the whizzing wheels in the beginning.  There was none of that inherited mechanical skill that the child born of textile workers soon manifests.  The change from cow milking to lathe minding was too great to be easily made.  So they started on hand lathes—just one or two of them—and as they saw their hurts were no more than a bruised finger or so they shifted to the power-driven lathes.  In that way they were won over.  At lunch time you may see them scurrying down the yard to the bicycle shed, and riding off to the farms for dinner.  Not all though; very many use the canteen, and indeed some—who lodge in the neighbourhood—find the food so good and cheap that they have all their meals there.

OUTPUT INCREASED.

One was not surprised to find that this factory held a record—out of 20,000 shells only seven were rejected.  At another works there are lathes being used that are over half a century old, and which were recovered from the scrap heap.  The manager said to me, "We have done with lathes what the army has done with men.  These oldsters who thought their part in life was played are doing their most important life's work."
At many of the factories you may find the men smoking, their eyes on their jobs, their pipes gripped hard in their teeth, the smoke spurting from their lips.  "It helps the job on," I was told, and although it is a war innovation it is doubtful whether it will ever stop.
But, of course, the great revolution of the shops has been in their employment of women.  The scoffers of 1915 are the enthusiasts of to-day.  A firm which originally employed only 833 women now finds work for 2,097, at another factory their numbers have grown from 45 to 2,000.  Their employment has been part of the dilution scheme, and the output has, generally, increased as a consequence.
Folk have been saying "The women are splendid" for a year or more.  They cannot say it often enough.  I watched a group of girls painting shells.  "How many to-day, Alice?" asked the manager.  "A hundred an' forty-six" was the smiling reply.  As we walked away he said, "Do you know, three months ago they were doing only eighty an hour, and we thought that was capital.  They get just the same pay now.  They're the most wonderful workers in the world."

LIKE KNITTING STOCKINGS.

I have seen-them, men and women, tens of thousands of them, in various factories toiling with an enduring patience and attention that is past all praise.  They are making, let me say, armour piercing bullets in an automatic lathe.  If you expressed astonishment they would probably say, "It's only like knitting stockings," just as one woman handling heavy shells in Liverpool said in her laconic way when asked if they were not too heavy for her, "No heavier than a babby!"
Next there is the first-aid room.  Most factories have one these days.  No longer is it necessary for men to extract bits of metal from each other's eyes with knife blades—as I have seen them do.  Now, a uniformed nurse, skilled, efficient, re-assuring, does the job.
And finally in many factories there are the practical "schools" on the premises, where the boys between 14 and 16 are taught one day a week something of the theory and more advanced parts of their job.  They get paid for that "schooling."  In one works the twenty best lads are picked out every year to attend at the nearest University.

[The ‘dilution of labour” scheme was proposed at the end of 1915 to employ semi-skilled and unskilled men and women alongside skilled workers.  Initially it was proposed as a way of maximising the output of skilled munitions workers, but it seems to have been overtaken by the demand for men to join the Army, so that women were by this time doing more skilled work than originally expected.]

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.] 

A Day in the Life of a Shell Girl

From Woman’s Weekly, 12th January 1918.

A DAY IN MY LIFE.

BY THE SHELL GIRL, WHO HELPS THE "MAN BEHIND THE GUN."

A munitions worker 

LIKE most English girls, when the call came for women to help in the Great War, my ambition was to make shells, and I joined the great army of munition workers. 

The work is hard— very hard—but the pay is good, and, what is more, the munition girl is always happy in the knowledge that she is "doing her bit" to help the boys "out there." 

My work was boring and screwing 6-inch shells, operations which require much attention and care, for the cap must fit exactly to be of any use.  When I joined I was put to watch a machine for a fortnight (during this time I 'was not paid), and after that I was allowed a machine of my own. 

The heaviest part of the work is lifting the shells by means of a chain hoist.  They weigh 186 lb. each—a tough task for a girl, but I was spared this, for the machine behind me was run by a man named Joe. and always when I attempted to get a shell he would say, "Eh, mate!  Let me do that!"  

Joe was quite a character in our room.  He was a discharged soldier, but would never talk of his experiences "out there." 

"You get on with them there shells," he would say.  "Time enough to talk when the war's over." 

Joe kept his eye on us during the night shift, and whenever he noticed a head nodding over a machine he was quickly on the scene with a can of tea, which he kept incessantly stewing over the hydraulics.  In the day time he always came well provided with apples and sweets, and in his unostentatious way he would hand them to the girls at lunch time, hurrying away before we could thank him.

The hours at our works were from seven at night until eight o'clock the next morning for two weeks; and six at night till seven o'clock in the morning for the next two weeks.  During a shift most of us were able to make from sixteen to eighteen shells, and this, at piecework rates, brought our wages from two pounds fifteen shillings to three pounds per week. 

There were nice recreation rooms in which we could rest during dinner hour, and for a quarter of an hour at tea time.  There are attendants these rooms who, for the charge of a penny, will heat up any food you may bring. 

MY "MATES." 

My "mates," as they called themselves, were a strong, free-and-easy lot, very intolerant of my finicky ways, and some of them looked with scorn at the clean serviette I brought each day, and my cup and saucer in place of a can for my tea; but they were a very kind lot of girls, as the following story will show: 

There was one little woman whom the girls, for some reason or another, did not like.  She was not interested in their stories of the fine clothes they were buying, and the surprises they had "up their sleeve" for "George" when he came home.  All through the long shift the little woman would stand silent, her eyes glued to her machine; and during the dinner hour she never entered the recreation-room.  I learnt afterwards it was because she only had a crust of dry bread to eat, and didn't want anyone to pity her poverty.  One day she completely broke down, and I saw the girl at the next machine, after a little hesitation, turn to her. 

At lunch time that day this girl called her mates and told them the story.  The little woman's husband had deserted her.  She had six children, and the eldest, a boy of eighteen, had just joined up.  She was trying to keep things going, but her strength would not allow her to make more than ten shells a day, and the order was that twelve must be the minimum per shift.  Unless she could do better she was to go. 

Without any more ado, and, of course, against regulations, a group of girls banded themselves together and pledged themselves to put at least six shells to the little woman's total. 

And they did; and, what is more, would not listen to the little woman's thanks.  "Garn,'' said one girl. 'it doesn't matter who makes 'em, long as Kaiser Bill gets it in the neck!"  

The munition girl keeps herself and her friends alive with her high spirits and her unbounded energy.  She means her man to win the war.

WOMEN MUNITION WORKERS.

Women desirous of doing War-Work are now being offered every facility for training in the Engineering branch of Munition Work.  No charge is made for the training, and a Subsistence Allowance at the rate of 25s. per week is paid to students from the date of enrolment.  Overalls and caps are also provided free.
Women are urgently wanted, and all particulars of training. wages, hours, etc., may be had on application to: The Education Officer, L.C.C. Education Offices, Victoria Embankment, London, W.C.2.

Christmas Trains

From the Sunday Pictorial, 23rd December 1917.

XMAS TRAIN CRUSH.

Lack of Facilities Leads to Much Crowding.

WAR WORKERS ON HOLIDAY

Fewer but more crowded trains was the order of the day at the London termini yesterday.
Thus, although long queues formed up before the booking offices, and although even guards' vans were packed with passengers, the decreased facilities realty resulted in a considerable slump in the Christmas rush from and to the country. Those who did travel had to bear all the discomforts of wartime journeying.

At King's Cross over 500 people were lined up waiting for tickets to the North by one train. Many people had to wait over two hours for tickets, and many got none.

The great majority of the travellers were munition workers.  At St. Pancras Station there were also many munition workers travelling. The twelve o'clock train for Manchester went out in two portions, and several coaches were added on to the first portion.

Paddington Station was very busy. Six lines were all the time before the booking hall windows, and in the early morning extended right through the booking hall to the subway and out into the street. The 1 p.m. train to Torquay, Plymouth and Penzance was of enormous length, and every seat was taken.

Many people were left behind when the 11.50 train left Euston for Birmingham, although the train was in two portions.

Waterloo was perhaps the busiest station in London owing to the number of soldiers coming and going on leave, in addition to great throngs of civilian travellers.

The majority of people, however, are apparently spending their Christmas at home. A railway official said there seemed a decrease in Christmas travelling all round. We are grateful that our appeal has been so well heeded.

To-morrow and on Boxing Day Underground train services will be as usual, with a Sunday service on Christmas Day. Many omnibus services will cease about 5 p.m. on Christmas Day.

A Wartime Beauty Hint.

From the Yorkshire Post, 28th November 1917.

A WARTIME BEAUTY HINT.

The war has made many sacrifices necessary, comfort, leisure, pleasure and many other things.

Many ladies who are doing war work are anxious about their complexions being sacrificed too, by reason of the rough and hard work, exposure and bad atmosphere endured in the shop or factory.

This need cause no anxiety, for, if proper care and attention be given to it, the skin can withstand the extreme conditions referred to.  The secret is to keep the skin thoroughly clean.

Soap and water cleanse the surface, but are powerless to cleanse the pores – the breathing organs of the skin – OATINE alone will do this, it removes ingrained dirt and grime from the pores and makes them clean and healthy, so that hard work and bad air, or extremes of temperature need not be feared.  It keeps the hands soft and velvety.

OATINE is used by Munition Workers everywhere.  Get a jar to-day, 1s. 1½d., and 2s 3d., of all Chemists, Stores and many Drapers.

Women For Munitions

From the Huddersfield Daily Examiner, 16th January 1917.

WOMEN FOR MUNITIONS. 

ANOTHER HALF MILLION WANTED, AGED FROM 18 TO 45. 

Two hundred photographs prepared by the Ministry of Munitions showing women at work in the munition factories are on view at Harrod’s, London. Filling shells, stoking nitric acid stills, assembling fuses—a work as delicate as making a watch—acetylene welding, electric wiring, and making the wings of aeroplanes are but a part of the work they perform.

Women are engaged to-day on hundreds of different processes on which only men have worked before. Not all have the physical strength for manual labour, but there is any amount of gauging, testing, and inspecting to be done, and in this responsible work well-educated women specially excel. Whether they are working in trousers and tunics, as some of the operations require, or in khaki or asbestos overalls, all the women look thoroughly happy.

Half a million are already engaged in the munition factories. Another half a million are required. An appeal is therefore made to every woman who is physically fit between the ages of 18 and 45, who is not already engaged in productive labour, to offer herself as a worker to a munition factory. Application may be made either to the local employment exchange or to one of the munition training centres in London or the provinces.

Compulsory Minimum Wage For Women

From the Huddersfield Daily Examiner, 16th February 1916.

COMPULSORY MINIMUM WAGE FOR WOMEN.

DECISION THAT AFFECTS MUNITION WORKERS.

£l A WEEK TO EMPLOYEES IN CONTROLLED SHOPS.

The official recommendation to munition making employers to pay a minimum weekly wage of £1 a week to women workers over 18 years of age is about to be given the force of an instruction that must be observed.

In recent conferences with the Minister of Munitions, the Amalgamated Society of Engineers has insisted that the recommendation should be converted into an actual order, and Mr. J. Binns, the district organising delegate of the society in Manchester, told a Press representative last night that his Executive has notified that it has now been incorporated in instructions to all controlled firms.  The decision will affect the women employees in about 4,000 works.

[This report can be compared with the previous report of Mary Macarthur's lecture in which she said that  many women munitions workers were being paid very low wages and working very long hours.  £1 a week is 6d, an hour for a typical 40 hour week - more than twice the rates that she quoted in some of her examples.]  

Working conditions for women munitions workers

From the Huddersfield Daily Examiner, 14th February 1916.

REVELATIONS OF WORKING CONDITIONS.

WOMEN EMPLOYED 83 HOURS A WEEK AT 2¼d. AN HOUR.

STRIKING ALLEGATIONS BY MISS MACARTHUR.

Some remarkable revelations as to the conditions under which women are working in certain munition districts were made by Miss Mary MacArthur in the course of a lecture at Sheffield last night.

At the start of the war, she said, the employment of women to replace men lowered the standard of wages and conditions.  The Government tried to deal with this by adopting in theory the principle of equal work for equal pay, but in practice the employers managed by all sorts of methods to get out of the obligation. [illegible] there had been a constant degradation of the standard.

It could not be said that an equal wage was being paid for equal work.  In even munition work there were still some cases of deplorable sweating.  In one factory in Scotland women were working 83 hours a week at 2¼d. an hour, and in hand-grenade work in an English factory women were earning 15s. a week at 2½d. an hour.

Of course, all the regulations as to bonus and conditions were in abeyance, and thus at a certain northern works a day shift stopped at 10-30 p.m. on Saturday and began at 6-30 on Sunday morning.  As it took some women one and a half hours to reach their homes, they had only about three hours' sleep, and still the firm complained that they had lost time in the morning.  She was glad to say that that state of things was now remedied.

In one case girls of thirteen were working from seven in the morning until nine at night.  Such conditions could not be allowed to continue.

When she pointed out to a Scottish employer that the women were not receiving the same piece rate as the men he replied that he dare not pay it, because the women's output was so much better than the men's that they would be earning £13 a week.

The reforms demanded for women workers included eight-hour shifts, with one day’s rest in seven, canteens and suitable food, rest rooms, proper means of conveyance to and from work, proper housing conditions, equal pay for equal work, and a minimum wage of 6d. an hour.

[It's commonly thought that munitions work was better paid than most jobs open to women during the war, but this report shows that this was not always true.  Mary Macarthur was the founder of the women's trade union., the National Federation of Women Workers.]

Women's Part in the War

From The Times, 15th December 1915.

BEHIND THE WAR.

THE ENGLISH GIRL'S PART.

The market-place of the village of —, not very far from the front in Picardy, is crowded.  Pine boards, placed on low saw-horses, serve as counters of the canvas-roofed booths.  They groan under the weight of the wares piled upon them.  Picture post-cards and woollen mittens, socks and mufflers, leather purses, old books, torn sheet-music, spectacles, and pince-nez, which range in price from 4d. to ls., fresh vegetables and butter, fish and meat, cut flowers and chocolate, fowl and game (live and dead) are being sold to eager buyers.  Not the usual clientele of peasant women, but bronzed- faced, steel-helmeted French troopers, turned housemaids, are busy buying the week's supply for the messes of the hundreds of battalions quartered in the neighbourhood.....

A PAIR OF FAT DUCKS.

One corner of the market-place has become the centre of interest.  Out beyond the line of booths an old, wrinkle-faced peasant woman stands, holding a pair of fat ducks by the feet, one in each hand.  The birds wriggle and squawk, but she pays no attention to this: grasping them the more securely, she holds first one and then the other on high, that her customer, as well as the group of soldiers that has gathered, may inspect and admire the fine birds.  And the customer?  She is a khaki-clad, slim, young English girl.  Her skirt is short, her boots heavy and well-worn.  She has shoulder-straps on her Red Cross uniform, and her broad-brimmed felt hat shades a face tanned and burned by months of out-of-door life.  She is utterly unconscious of the crowd, and merely keeps on repeating to the duck woman, “Trop cher, trop cher.”  The woman bursts forth in an elegy of her ducks, in a French patois that sounds interesting, but is unintelligible.  “Trop cher” is the only reward she gets for her pains.  The young girl pulls a memorandum book out of her pocket, consults it, and then looks fixedly at the market-woman.  She evidently wants the ducks.  The woman remains obdurate.  Then the girl snaps close her notebook, and turns to go.  But the victory has been won.  The ducks are hers at her own price.  There is a murmur of admiration as the wriggling birds are borne off to the Red Cross motor-ambulance that stands waiting at the kerb.  The girl steps to the front of the car, cranks the heavy engine, jumps into her seat and in a moment is off, piloting her big motor ambulance through the confused traffic, across a narrow insecure temporary bridge.  “C’est chic, les Anglaises.” a bearded young veteran murmurs to a comrade, as the khaki-coloured car passes out of sight.

DOING MEN’S TASKS.

The participation of women in war tasks has in all countries been admirable.  The devotion of Frenchwomen in caring for the sick and wounded under the most difficult circumstances, even under heavy shell fire, has called forth justly merited praise.  But of all the belligerents Englishwomen alone have had an active share in the fighting, in that in so many cases they are doing a man’s work.  Hundreds of young Englishwomen have, for more than a year, been living close up to the front, working at men's tasks, with a skill and untiring cheerfulness that are astounding.

I was standing at the railway station of a village somewhere back of the French lines.  A trainload of wounded arrived.  A certain number of the wounded were allotted to the town.  They were removed from the train into a temporary waiting-room, and then to the ambulances.  I noticed that more than half of the stretcher bearers were women—Englishwomen— and the ambulances were driven by the same women.  The admiration of the French trooper for the amazon-like achievements of the Englishwomen knows no bounds.  Their own women are devoted, tender, and sympathetic nurses, but Les Anglaises are heroic.  A man who has been wounded three times during the war told me that the difference between a man and a woman driver of an ambulance was all to the credit of the latter.  “I would a thousand times rather be driven by a woman,” he said to me.  “They’ll look out for every pebble in the road, avoid every jolt, and it makes a difference, I can tell you, when you have got a bad pain in your body.”  As far as I can ascertain, Englishwomen are the only women in this war who have driven motor ambulances.  These services have been performed not only at British bases, but more particularly among the French.  Clad in fighting clothes, wherever there are fighting men there the Englishwoman is to be found.

Stretching across the rolling sand dunes of the north-east corner of France there are vast tent colonies, where for a year British women have been living under canvas, in all kinds of weather, nursing British wounded.  It is one thing to nurse the wounded in well-heated, comfortable hospitals, and another to live in a cramped, ill-heated, draughty tent, where one is obliged often to wade ankle-deep in mud to reach one's patients.

Lack of Accommodation for War Workers

From the Birmingham Daily Gazette, 11th December 1915.

BEDS MADE ONCE A WEEK.

Lack of Accommodation for War Workers.

COVENTRY INVASION.

Coventry is at the present moment faced with a problem more difficult probably than any it has hitherto had to tackle.  Thousands of workers have been drafted into the town for employment on various forms of munition work, and within another month or so, a "Gazette" representative learned yesterday, some 6,000 women are to be brought in for a similar purpose.  In addition there has been a great influx of men employed in the building trade owing to the extensions that are being made to existing factories and the erection of new buildings, and with no houses available for their accommodation, practically every house where lodgers are taken is full up, and the common lodging-houses crowded, the problem of housing the extra crowds has become critical.

As far back as last August, when the National Registration was made, and before the invasion really commenced, it was estimated that the shortage of houses could only be represented by big figures.  Indeed the enumerators had instances where beds were being used by both day and night shift men, and were only really "made" once a week, Saturday being the only day they were not occupied.

Special Trains.

Since then other steps have been taken, and a great number of the munition workers are housed in Rugby, Nuneaton, Warwick, Kenilworth, Leamington, Bedworth, and even as far as Atherstone, and for these special trains are run night and morning by the railway company, whilst accommodation on the ordinary trains has been increased.

The Corporation have, at the request of the Local Government Board, commenced a scheme for the immediate erection of six hundred working-class houses at Stoke Heath, in close proximity to the Coventry Ordnance Works, whose employees will be given preference in the letting.  These will be let to munition workers only, for the period of the war.  About fifty acres of land have been acquired for the purpose at a cost of £200 on acre, and though the Ministry of Munitions are not contributing to the cost of the site, they are giving financial assistance towards the cost of the houses, streets, and sewers.

In order to get over their difficulty to a certain extent one of the munitions firms is erecting hutments to house about 2,000 women workers, whilst 300 temporary self-contained dwellings are also being provided in the same locality. These will be of the bungalow type, containing three bedrooms kitchen and scullery.

Skilled and Unskilled.

It has been stated that a large number of women workers are being brought in to release men for the Army, but this is not quite true.  What is happening is that a "dilution" scheme is in progress, by means of which each factory will have such a proportion of skilled, semi-skilled, and unskilled men and women, as will give the greatest efficiency to every one, and it is mainly owing to the excellent concessions made by the trade unions that this has come to pass.

It is unfortunate for Coventry that sufficient accommodation cannot be found for all these workers within the town.  It is estimated that already there are some 6,000 or 7,000, or even more, extra workers in the town which, if even only a small proportion of them are married, would mean a huge increase in the population.  What it would mean with another 6,000 or 7,000 coming in during the next month can easily be imagined.

Canteens for Women Munitions Workers

From the Huddersfield Daily Examiner, 9th September 1915.

WOMEN AND THE MUNITION WORKERS.

TO THE EDITOR.

Sir,—A representative committee has been formed by the Young Men's Christian Association to provide canteens for munition workers. ....  it is felt that a special appeal might very properly be made to the women of Great Britain for the same object by the Young Women's Christian Association.

Throughout the length and breadth of the land munition works are springing up—in many cases almost the entire labour is found by women—and the necessity for proper canteens, conducted on the well-known lines of the Young Women's Christian Association, is quite as great as is the necessity for similar canteens for men.  Rest and recreation rooms attached to the canteen, where a trained social worker is always in charge, are greatly appreciated by the girls.

With confidence, therefore, we appeal for funds to women to help their sisters who are so patriotically responding to their country's call.  This is a supreme opportunity for women to help not only in this gigantic struggle against tyranny and oppression, but also in the cause of the industrial woman of this country.  She is taking the great chance that has now come to her, and she looks to us to help her to be both physically and morally fit for the new enterprises at which she is trying her hand.  Such huts as are provided by the Y.W.C.A. vary in price from £300 to £700.

All donations, however small, should be sent to the Secretary, Munition Workers' Welfare Department, 23, Bruton Street, W.  .....

(Signed)  VICTORIA, Princess of Schleswig Holstein,
              President of the Y.M.C.A. Munition Workers' Committee.
(Signed) H. M. PROCTOR, SYDENHAM, DERBY.