Women at Work – a Pictorial History
There is often a misconception that women have only recently entered the workplace. However, women have been in work in one way or another for centuries. Rather it is the type of work and wages that have changed. During World War I and World War II women were required to enter ‘masculine’ fields of work in large numbers, for example, factory work and the effects of this experience led some women to push for permanent changes. The growth of women in employment, with a disposable income of their own, helped women to grow as a consumer group. Advertisements were increasingly aimed at women. This growth also contributed to a growing sense that women should be treated equally to men, for example, that they should receive equal wages and working conditions.
Each of the images below show a woman at work, click the image to discover what task they are performing.
Pre-World Wars
Women who worked often did so in their own homes, for example sewing. The hours were long and the pay was low (these were known as the sweated industries). Other women, especially single women, worked as teachers, waitresses, clerks or in factories. Many women stopped work once married to look after their homes and families.
These two images show us that the women involved in sweated industries worked by themselves at repetitive tasks. The women are having to lean over their work, causing eye strain, and no safety precautions were in use. We can also see that they are in their own homes, surrounded by domestic chores.
To find out more about the working conditions of the time you can view scans of two newspaper articles - 'How Women Toil' from 1906 is about the sweated industries and 'Our Lives as Waitresses' is about what in was like to be a waitress in 1927.
World War II, Agricultural Work
Women had worked on the land for many years, normally their own land in order to help feed their families, but during the war many more were required to do so. Women were normally working on land that was not their own. Women were required to do this because most labourers were previously men and they were required for fighting. Girls from all areas of the country, rural and urban, would be sent to work on farms so that food production could keep up with demand. These girls were known as the land army and duties could range from fruit picking to sheep shearing, in large farms with groups of workers or smaller more remote farms.
These images show girls happily working together but like many war time photographs they helped to form propaganda of happy workers toiling for their country. All too often women were infact isolated on farms and the work was often back-breaking. Few of these women were skilled in agricultural work and accidents occurred. Here we see the opposite, camaraderie, cleanliness and assisted work.
World War II, Factory and Urban Work
During the war women moved into areas of work that had previously been dominated by men. After the war men were allowed to return to their old jobs and so women moved back into female areas of the workplace. However, women had now had the opportunity to be as regarded as men in the workplace, and many felt in being forced out of work and back into the home that their contribution had not been appreciated. As more women were working than before more were able to experience what it was like to earn your own money and to choose how to spend it.
These pictures illustrate the range of tasks women were required to perform. Deliveries would previously have been, mainly, carried out by men and boys and it could be a cold and physically demanding job, also requiring early starts and/ or long hours. Factory work was similar in these ways. Women were often unprepared in terms of the training they received. The final image shows factory workers practicing for an air raid drill. When the air raid siren sounded workers would have to place gas masks on and retreat to air raid shelters. Such interuptions to the working day were at times, and especially in cities, commonplace and they added to the stresses of women’s working environments.
Post-World Wars
Women commonly worked together in ‘pools’. The images show women in a typing pool and a sewing pool. They would all be carrying out the same tasks in the same location for the same business. The women would have had very similar skills and wages. Here we can see that the women worked solitarily, although sat together, under supervisors.
Developments in technology increasingly meant that fewer women were required to work the same roles as before and so women worked more solitarily in offices. Increases in income and luxuries meant that more women were now working in areas such as beauty. These pictures show women working alone but in two very different industries; one is a woman working for women in order to feed the desire for beautification and luxeries that could be purchased; the other shows that women typists were again working by themselves rather than in pools and we can see that she is a solitary female in a male office’
As women increasingly moved into the sphere of work their disposable income increased. This along with the rise of available consumer goods and the feeling that these were items to aspire to, especially in the years following the austerity of the war, led to more advertising being aimed at women. Women’s journals commonly printed advertisements, increasingly in colour, aimed at women for female, male and household products. The invention of television and the rise in audiences also led to televised advertisements directly aimed at women, often in their domestic sphere as a housewife. The co-operative movement advertised its products in these ways. In addition, they produced forerunners to modern infomercials that were shown to cinema audiences.
Although the post war period saw a rise in products and a drive for more consumer goods, advertisements often stressed that products were value for money and/or long lasting. This reflects the fact that although the desire for products and income was increasing, economy was still of great importance. By the 1950s advertisements were often aimed at building a lifestyle, a comfortable home and family. You can view several examples of co-operative advertisements from the era on the National Co-operative Archive website.
The National Co-operative Archive holds:
- The National Co-operative Film Archive
- The Co-operative Press Photographic Collection
- The Co-operative Union Photographic Collection
Author: Karyn Stuckey, Assistant Archivist, National Co-operative Archive
