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British Labour, Replacement and Conciliation, 1914-21
British Labour Replacement and Conciliation 191421 Author:Adam Willis Kirkaldy Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE EMPLOYMENT OF WOMEN DURING AND SINCE THE WAR CHAPTER I INTRODUCTORY SURVEY It is impossible in 1920 to estimate the importance of the changes cause... more »d by the increased employment of women during the war. That is a task for future generations. For the moment little can be given beyond a record of the numbers employed, some details of success or failure, and some idea of new openings, often as evanescent as they were sensational. The need for the work done by women from 1914-1918 is clear ; its bearing on their industrial future is not. The slump in employment at the beginning of the war, caused by want of confidence in the markets and changes in the character of the demand, passed within a very few months, owing to the urgency of the war demand for many kinds of goods, the departure of men for service with the Colours, and the recovery of much of the normal business of the country. For a time there was some unemployment among women owing to depression in the luxury trades,1 but before long large numbers were swept into munition industries, while some were beginning to replace men in other trades. This influx continued at an increasing rate until the beginning of 1917; then, a point having been reached at which the supply of those who were readily obtainable was largely exhausted, whilethe demand for their services still grew, though at a decreasing rate, competition for women's labour became acute. 1 It is, however, worthy of note that in Birmingham the manufacture of " patriotic " badges and brooches gave employment in the first two or three months of war to many people, especially young girls, who would otherwise have been out of work. To the last two years of the war belong the rapid rise in women's wages, the great growth in their trade union membership, an...« less