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To be a woman in 1914 in Britain, | 0:00:17 | 0:00:20 | |
your life was defined more by what you couldn't do than what you could. | 0:00:20 | 0:00:26 | |
You couldn't read the lesson, you couldn't preach in church, | 0:00:26 | 0:00:30 | |
certainly not in the pulpit. | 0:00:30 | 0:00:32 | |
Indeed, you couldn't hand out the hymnbooks, take the collection, | 0:00:32 | 0:00:36 | |
or even ring the bells. | 0:00:36 | 0:00:38 | |
Away from church, if you spoke about women's rights in public, | 0:00:38 | 0:00:42 | |
you were likely to be jeered, or have stones thrown at you | 0:00:42 | 0:00:45 | |
not for what you said, | 0:00:45 | 0:00:47 | |
but for having the temerity to speak in public. | 0:00:47 | 0:00:51 | |
If you were arrested, it would be by a man - | 0:00:51 | 0:00:53 | |
all police officers were male. | 0:00:53 | 0:00:57 | |
Into court, the lawyers, the jury, the judge, all were men. | 0:00:57 | 0:01:02 | |
It remained very much a man's world. | 0:01:02 | 0:01:05 | |
For over a decade, women's suffrage campaigners | 0:01:08 | 0:01:12 | |
had battled to overturn this man's world. | 0:01:12 | 0:01:15 | |
They argued nothing could change in women's lives | 0:01:15 | 0:01:19 | |
until they were given the right to vote in parliamentary elections. | 0:01:19 | 0:01:23 | |
Women engaged in campaigns of protest and violence. | 0:01:25 | 0:01:29 | |
They endured imprisonment and hunger strikes | 0:01:29 | 0:01:31 | |
to force the men in government to back down. | 0:01:31 | 0:01:34 | |
Nothing, it seemed, would stop the suffragettes | 0:01:34 | 0:01:38 | |
until women had the vote. | 0:01:38 | 0:01:40 | |
But then, Germany invaded Belgium. | 0:01:42 | 0:01:44 | |
When war was declared in August 1914, | 0:01:47 | 0:01:50 | |
the suffrage campaigners were faced with a quandary. | 0:01:50 | 0:01:53 | |
Should they support the men in government, their sworn enemy, | 0:01:53 | 0:01:57 | |
and suspend their campaign for the vote? | 0:01:57 | 0:02:00 | |
Something which a few months earlier would've seemed unthinkable. | 0:02:00 | 0:02:04 | |
The Militant Suffragette Organisation | 0:02:06 | 0:02:09 | |
was the women's social and political union | 0:02:09 | 0:02:11 | |
led by Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughter Cristabel. | 0:02:11 | 0:02:15 | |
Its motto - "Deeds not Words." | 0:02:15 | 0:02:19 | |
They saw violent action as a necessity | 0:02:19 | 0:02:23 | |
and they resorted to bombings and arson to get their case heard. | 0:02:23 | 0:02:27 | |
Many spent time in prison | 0:02:30 | 0:02:32 | |
and were subjected to brutal treatment and force feeding | 0:02:32 | 0:02:35 | |
in response to their angry demands for a vote. | 0:02:35 | 0:02:39 | |
Then the declaration of war intervened. | 0:02:39 | 0:02:41 | |
Emmeline Pankhurst wasted no time coming to a decision. | 0:02:47 | 0:02:52 | |
Within days of war being declared, | 0:02:52 | 0:02:54 | |
she suspended their campaign of militancy with immediate effect. | 0:02:54 | 0:02:59 | |
The suffrage campaigners showed their new patriotic commitment | 0:02:59 | 0:03:03 | |
by renaming their newspaper - | 0:03:03 | 0:03:05 | |
The Suffragette became Britannia and it bore a new motto. | 0:03:05 | 0:03:10 | |
Instead of "Deeds not Words," it was now - | 0:03:10 | 0:03:14 | |
"For King, For Country, For Freedom." | 0:03:14 | 0:03:17 | |
"What is the point of fighting for the vote," asked Mrs Pankhurst, | 0:03:19 | 0:03:22 | |
"if we have not got a country to vote in?" | 0:03:22 | 0:03:25 | |
She was a pragmatist. | 0:03:25 | 0:03:26 | |
Her message to her supporters was clear - | 0:03:26 | 0:03:29 | |
it was time to transfer their energies to the national cause. | 0:03:29 | 0:03:33 | |
In December 1914, war came to the Home Front. | 0:03:47 | 0:03:52 | |
German warships attacked the north-east coast of England, | 0:03:52 | 0:03:55 | |
targeting Hartlepool and the fashionable resort of Scarborough. | 0:03:55 | 0:04:00 | |
Scores of civilians were killed, including women and children. | 0:04:00 | 0:04:04 | |
With women now victims of enemy action, | 0:04:06 | 0:04:09 | |
like the soldiers in France, | 0:04:09 | 0:04:11 | |
the rallying cry became "Remember Scarborough!," | 0:04:11 | 0:04:14 | |
as scores of upper and middle-class women | 0:04:14 | 0:04:17 | |
rushed to don uniform in the voluntary organisations. | 0:04:17 | 0:04:20 | |
or them, it was an unrivalled opportunity | 0:04:20 | 0:04:24 | |
to get out of the house, to do something useful, | 0:04:24 | 0:04:27 | |
to gain independence. | 0:04:27 | 0:04:29 | |
Squad! | 0:04:41 | 0:04:42 | |
Squad, attention! | 0:04:42 | 0:04:43 | |
First into action on the Home Front was the aristocracy - | 0:04:44 | 0:04:49 | |
society ladies, used to using their social clout. | 0:04:49 | 0:04:52 | |
Their young girls joined the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry. | 0:04:53 | 0:04:57 | |
Formed before the war, and still going today, | 0:04:57 | 0:05:00 | |
it now came into its own, | 0:05:00 | 0:05:02 | |
sending women as ambulance drivers to France. | 0:05:02 | 0:05:06 | |
Hundreds of other volunteer organisations sprang up, | 0:05:06 | 0:05:09 | |
such as the Women's Volunteer Reserve, ready to do their bit, | 0:05:09 | 0:05:14 | |
adopting military-style uniforms to command attention and respect. | 0:05:14 | 0:05:19 | |
Some did skilled training in the Lady Instructors Signals Company. | 0:05:19 | 0:05:24 | |
Most, though, were cooking, cleaning and running errands. | 0:05:24 | 0:05:27 | |
Squad! | 0:05:31 | 0:05:32 | |
Squad, attention! | 0:05:32 | 0:05:34 | |
Keeping a watchful eye | 0:05:36 | 0:05:38 | |
was their Honorary Colonel, Evelina Haverfield. | 0:05:38 | 0:05:41 | |
Evelina, the daughter of a baron, | 0:05:41 | 0:05:43 | |
was a determined suffragette veteran - | 0:05:43 | 0:05:46 | |
in 1910, she was arrested for punching a policeman in the face. | 0:05:46 | 0:05:51 | |
When charged, she replied, "It was not hard enough. | 0:05:51 | 0:05:55 | |
"Next time I will bring a revolver". | 0:05:55 | 0:05:58 | |
Women like her were full of ideas, ready for action. | 0:05:58 | 0:06:02 | |
The Women's Volunteer Reserve remained resolutely middle-class, | 0:06:05 | 0:06:09 | |
largely because they had to buy their own uniform, | 0:06:09 | 0:06:11 | |
which cost more than £2 - a small fortune in 1914. | 0:06:11 | 0:06:17 | |
Even though there was no suggestion that a woman would ever fight, | 0:06:17 | 0:06:22 | |
the image of a woman in military-style uniform | 0:06:22 | 0:06:25 | |
was troubling for many. | 0:06:25 | 0:06:27 | |
Yet the Women's Volunteer Reserve relished the authority it gave them, | 0:06:27 | 0:06:32 | |
despite the catcalls and jeers. | 0:06:32 | 0:06:34 | |
It was distinctive, purposeful | 0:06:34 | 0:06:36 | |
and very publicly part of the war effort. | 0:06:36 | 0:06:40 | |
Squad, stand at ease. | 0:06:40 | 0:06:41 | |
The war brought working class women to the public attention | 0:06:44 | 0:06:47 | |
in paid, often industrial work, | 0:06:47 | 0:06:49 | |
that men had left for the front line in France. | 0:06:49 | 0:06:53 | |
# There came John Bull with his ship so grey | 0:06:53 | 0:06:56 | |
# And his army fighting far away | 0:06:56 | 0:06:59 | |
# All the boys have gone | 0:06:59 | 0:07:02 | |
# So the girls today | 0:07:02 | 0:07:03 | |
# Carry on with the work in the morning | 0:07:03 | 0:07:07 | |
# The conductorettes without much fuss | 0:07:11 | 0:07:14 | |
# Just do their level best for us | 0:07:14 | 0:07:17 | |
# But they don't push people off the bus | 0:07:17 | 0:07:20 | |
# When it's raining hard in the morning. # | 0:07:20 | 0:07:23 | |
Over one million were engaged in war work across Britain. | 0:07:23 | 0:07:27 | |
# The girls have shown surprising gifts | 0:07:27 | 0:07:30 | |
# On the railways now they work the lifts | 0:07:30 | 0:07:33 | |
# If they'd only do the work in shifts | 0:07:33 | 0:07:36 | |
# They would get such a crowd in the morning. # | 0:07:36 | 0:07:42 | |
Beautifully illustrated cigarette cards | 0:07:42 | 0:07:44 | |
celebrated the variety of their work. | 0:07:44 | 0:07:47 | |
They were doing what had previously been considered solely men's work. | 0:07:47 | 0:07:52 | |
Getting paid the same as men was out of the question. | 0:07:52 | 0:07:57 | |
Skilled men feared that their prized status | 0:07:57 | 0:08:00 | |
would be threatened by unskilled women working alongside them | 0:08:00 | 0:08:03 | |
doing the same job and being paid less. | 0:08:03 | 0:08:07 | |
Entrenched attitudes and prejudice were at play. | 0:08:07 | 0:08:11 | |
Men were expected to be the breadwinners, supporting a family. | 0:08:11 | 0:08:14 | |
Women were thought to have more modest running costs. | 0:08:14 | 0:08:18 | |
"Tea and toast are cheaper than beer and beefsteaks," | 0:08:18 | 0:08:21 | |
said one factory foreman. | 0:08:21 | 0:08:23 | |
A strong conviction remained that people should be paid | 0:08:23 | 0:08:26 | |
not for what they did, but for who they were. | 0:08:26 | 0:08:30 | |
During the First World War, | 0:08:38 | 0:08:39 | |
many women worked on factory production lines | 0:08:39 | 0:08:42 | |
assembling planes, tanks and making ammunition for the war effort. | 0:08:42 | 0:08:47 | |
Crowded together in factories, | 0:08:47 | 0:08:49 | |
they discovered a new sense of team spirit | 0:08:49 | 0:08:52 | |
and it worked as well on the football pitch | 0:08:52 | 0:08:55 | |
as it did on the shop floor. | 0:08:55 | 0:08:56 | |
Women's football was a novelty, rather shocking. | 0:08:58 | 0:09:01 | |
Teams from the shipyards, engineering works and munitions | 0:09:04 | 0:09:08 | |
donned mobcaps and shorts to general amazement. | 0:09:08 | 0:09:11 | |
Even more than today, many thought, "Women? Playing football?" | 0:09:11 | 0:09:16 | |
Many men were keen to point out why the women should not play. | 0:09:24 | 0:09:28 | |
The British Medical Journal was worried about the danger to women's | 0:09:28 | 0:09:31 | |
"organs which the common experience of women | 0:09:31 | 0:09:34 | |
"had in every way led them to protect." | 0:09:34 | 0:09:37 | |
But in 1915, the men's professional game was suspended - | 0:09:40 | 0:09:44 | |
the trenches had taken both players and officials | 0:09:44 | 0:09:47 | |
and the women's game flowered. | 0:09:47 | 0:09:49 | |
Most of the women's games | 0:09:51 | 0:09:53 | |
were to raise funds for soldiers and their families, | 0:09:53 | 0:09:56 | |
a Christmas Day Match in 1917, watched by a crowd of 10,000, | 0:09:56 | 0:10:01 | |
raised £600 for wounded soldiers - | 0:10:01 | 0:10:04 | |
the equivalent of more than £25,000 today. | 0:10:04 | 0:10:08 | |
One occasion, the women played men | 0:10:10 | 0:10:11 | |
who had their hands tied behind their backs as a handicap. | 0:10:11 | 0:10:15 | |
The keeper was allowed one hand free. | 0:10:15 | 0:10:17 | |
But usually, the women's teams played each other, | 0:10:17 | 0:10:20 | |
sometimes with bruising intensity. | 0:10:20 | 0:10:22 | |
The most successful team in the north-east of England was | 0:10:23 | 0:10:27 | |
Blyth Spartans Munitions Girls. | 0:10:27 | 0:10:30 | |
In their first game, | 0:10:33 | 0:10:35 | |
17-year-old centre-forward Bella Reay scored six goals. | 0:10:35 | 0:10:40 | |
Bella was the daughter of a local pitman. | 0:10:40 | 0:10:43 | |
She quickly became the star of the team, | 0:10:43 | 0:10:45 | |
scoring 133 goals in one season. | 0:10:45 | 0:10:49 | |
And Blyth Spartans Munitions Girls remained unbeaten | 0:10:49 | 0:10:52 | |
for the two years they were together. | 0:10:52 | 0:10:56 | |
She worked in the munitions factory, you know, when she was 17. | 0:10:56 | 0:11:01 | |
And they decided then that they wanted to do something | 0:11:01 | 0:11:04 | |
more for the war effort. | 0:11:04 | 0:11:05 | |
All of the games that they ever did were all for the wounded soldiers - | 0:11:05 | 0:11:08 | |
all the money they ever made, it was all done for charity. | 0:11:08 | 0:11:12 | |
Did lots of people come to see them? | 0:11:12 | 0:11:14 | |
Yes, she played anywhere from crowds of 1,000 up to 20,000 people. | 0:11:14 | 0:11:20 | |
When your grandmother talked to you about football, what did she say? | 0:11:20 | 0:11:24 | |
Just how good she was. That was the main thing, you know. | 0:11:24 | 0:11:28 | |
She said, "I was good, but I knew I was good." | 0:11:28 | 0:11:30 | |
We will never forget her saying that to us, "Oh, I knew I was good." | 0:11:30 | 0:11:34 | |
She played in the Munition Girls Cup Final, didn't she? | 0:11:34 | 0:11:38 | |
-Yes, she did, yes. -That must have been a big match. | 0:11:38 | 0:11:41 | |
Yes, it was. That was when she got her gold medal. | 0:11:41 | 0:11:44 | |
Which, would you like to have a look at the medal she got? | 0:11:44 | 0:11:47 | |
Fantastic! | 0:11:50 | 0:11:51 | |
Beautiful medal, it is. | 0:11:51 | 0:11:53 | |
How did she do in the final? | 0:11:53 | 0:11:55 | |
Very well. I think she was the best goal scorer in the final. | 0:11:55 | 0:11:59 | |
People are surprised now to hear | 0:11:59 | 0:12:02 | |
that girls played football at that time. | 0:12:02 | 0:12:05 | |
What do you think of that? | 0:12:05 | 0:12:06 | |
Well when because when they go on about it, | 0:12:06 | 0:12:08 | |
I say, "Well, my grandma played nearly 100 years ago," | 0:12:08 | 0:12:11 | |
and we're very, very proud that we are part of history, really, | 0:12:11 | 0:12:15 | |
you know because she was very, very well-known in her time. | 0:12:15 | 0:12:19 | |
Everybody knew her - | 0:12:19 | 0:12:20 | |
"Whoa, Bella", that was what they used to shout, "Away, Bella!" | 0:12:20 | 0:12:24 | |
You know that that's the thing, and it's lovely really to think | 0:12:24 | 0:12:27 | |
that we are part of a little bit of history. | 0:12:27 | 0:12:30 | |
By 1921 the Football Association had had enough | 0:12:34 | 0:12:39 | |
and it banned the women from playing on their grounds, | 0:12:39 | 0:12:43 | |
saying, "The game of football is quite unsuitable for females | 0:12:43 | 0:12:47 | |
"and ought not to be encouraged." | 0:12:47 | 0:12:50 | |
Women's football, like so much else, | 0:12:50 | 0:12:52 | |
was only tolerable for the duration of the war. | 0:12:52 | 0:12:56 | |
During the First World War, | 0:13:09 | 0:13:11 | |
many working class women had their first taste of social freedom. | 0:13:11 | 0:13:15 | |
Instead of being at home under father's watchful eye, | 0:13:15 | 0:13:19 | |
they discovered the forerunner of girl's night out. | 0:13:19 | 0:13:22 | |
The press went into overdrive, with stories of | 0:13:23 | 0:13:27 | |
"giddy factory girls" frittering money in pubs with men. | 0:13:27 | 0:13:32 | |
The Aberdeen Journal reported that they had | 0:13:32 | 0:13:34 | |
"more money in their hands than usual, and there were only too many | 0:13:34 | 0:13:38 | |
"ready to help them to spend it in the wrong way." | 0:13:38 | 0:13:41 | |
The munitionettes were experiencing a liberation they hadn't expected. | 0:13:45 | 0:13:49 | |
They were aping their betters - | 0:13:49 | 0:13:51 | |
out and about, with a little money to spend. | 0:13:51 | 0:13:54 | |
Traditionalists were outraged. | 0:13:54 | 0:13:57 | |
Not for the first time in the war, there was a bout of moral panic. | 0:13:57 | 0:14:00 | |
Women were getting out of control. | 0:14:00 | 0:14:02 | |
More worldy-wise women, such as Margaret Damer Dawson, | 0:14:08 | 0:14:12 | |
set out to protect women, as well as cautioning their behaviour. | 0:14:12 | 0:14:17 | |
Dawson approached the Commissioner of Police in London for permission | 0:14:17 | 0:14:21 | |
to create a voluntary body of trained and uniformed police women. | 0:14:21 | 0:14:26 | |
He declared himself "not at all averse to the idea," | 0:14:26 | 0:14:30 | |
as long as they remained separate from his force. | 0:14:30 | 0:14:33 | |
The result was the foundation | 0:14:33 | 0:14:35 | |
of Britain's first Women's Police Service, the WPS. | 0:14:35 | 0:14:40 | |
Margaret Damer Dawson was a tough character. | 0:14:40 | 0:14:42 | |
Her friends called her "Fighting Dawson." | 0:14:42 | 0:14:45 | |
Her first recruits were mainly educated middle-class women, | 0:14:45 | 0:14:48 | |
trained in first aid and a little jujitsu. | 0:14:48 | 0:14:52 | |
But they faced a battle to be taken seriously by the men. | 0:14:52 | 0:14:55 | |
One male police officer, | 0:14:55 | 0:14:57 | |
when asked if women would ever be police constables, | 0:14:57 | 0:15:01 | |
laughed and said "No, not if the war lasts 50 years". | 0:15:01 | 0:15:04 | |
The WPS were not granted the power of arrest | 0:15:07 | 0:15:10 | |
and were expected to deal solely with women and children. | 0:15:10 | 0:15:14 | |
Most male constables thought that Dawson's "Copperettes," | 0:15:14 | 0:15:18 | |
as the Sussex Times called them, should be deployed only | 0:15:18 | 0:15:22 | |
to protect Britain's men from the temptations of women. | 0:15:22 | 0:15:26 | |
Dawson's patrols were not popular with the women they policed. | 0:15:26 | 0:15:29 | |
One 14-year-old girl said she'd been told off for crimping her hair, | 0:15:29 | 0:15:34 | |
and "dressing up and walking about | 0:15:34 | 0:15:36 | |
"in order to attract the attention of men." | 0:15:36 | 0:15:39 | |
Many men disliked having to deal with women, | 0:15:44 | 0:15:47 | |
especially in the factories, | 0:15:47 | 0:15:49 | |
where huge numbers now worked making munitions. | 0:15:49 | 0:15:53 | |
Many of the women were rowdy and tough. | 0:15:53 | 0:15:56 | |
When disputes arose, | 0:15:56 | 0:15:58 | |
managers, more used to obedient wives and daughters, | 0:15:58 | 0:16:01 | |
had no idea what to do. | 0:16:01 | 0:16:04 | |
The Prime Minister, David Lloyd George, | 0:16:06 | 0:16:08 | |
turned to Margaret Damer Dawson's women police. | 0:16:08 | 0:16:11 | |
He deployed nearly 1,000 of them | 0:16:11 | 0:16:14 | |
to keep order in the munitions factories. | 0:16:14 | 0:16:18 | |
Policewoman Gabrielle West kept a diary describing her experiences. | 0:16:18 | 0:16:23 | |
Her initial impressions of the workers | 0:16:24 | 0:16:27 | |
at the Pembrey Munitions Factory in South Wales were not favourable. | 0:16:27 | 0:16:31 | |
"They are full of socialistic theory | 0:16:31 | 0:16:34 | |
"and very great on getting up strikes. | 0:16:34 | 0:16:36 | |
"But they are easily influenced by a little oratory, | 0:16:36 | 0:16:40 | |
"and go back to work like lambs when you shout at them long enough." | 0:16:40 | 0:16:44 | |
Rather than being a social leveller, as it's often portrayed, | 0:16:44 | 0:16:48 | |
life in the munitions factories | 0:16:48 | 0:16:50 | |
relied on the class system to maintain law and order. | 0:16:50 | 0:16:53 | |
Within weeks of the war ending, | 0:16:57 | 0:16:59 | |
the Metropolitan Police announced plans to train women | 0:16:59 | 0:17:02 | |
to become paid constables for the first time. | 0:17:02 | 0:17:05 | |
What followed was humiliation for Margaret Damer Dawson. | 0:17:05 | 0:17:09 | |
Her well-trained and capable volunteers | 0:17:09 | 0:17:12 | |
were rejected as candidates - | 0:17:12 | 0:17:14 | |
resented by male constables as too well educated and confident. | 0:17:14 | 0:17:19 | |
As a final blow, Dawson was ordered to wind down the WPS. | 0:17:19 | 0:17:24 | |
Margaret Damer Dawson died in 1920, aged 45 | 0:17:27 | 0:17:30 | |
of a heart attack, it was said, brought on by the hostility | 0:17:30 | 0:17:35 | |
she faced from the male police establishment. | 0:17:35 | 0:17:39 | |
She'd tried so hard to gain acceptance. | 0:17:39 | 0:17:42 | |
Just before she died, | 0:17:42 | 0:17:44 | |
she got to the heart of the problem of policing women. | 0:17:44 | 0:17:47 | |
"In the realm of morals," | 0:17:47 | 0:17:49 | |
she said, "we have not advanced beyond Adam and Eve." | 0:17:49 | 0:17:53 | |
Machine guns and artillery in the First World War | 0:18:02 | 0:18:05 | |
caused terrible injuries. | 0:18:05 | 0:18:07 | |
Wounded men were coming home in overwhelming numbers | 0:18:11 | 0:18:15 | |
in urgent need of medical attention. | 0:18:15 | 0:18:18 | |
Britain's small band of professional nurses were joined by | 0:18:18 | 0:18:21 | |
nursing assistants from the Voluntary Aid Detachment - the VADs. | 0:18:21 | 0:18:26 | |
Across the country, public buildings and private residences were | 0:18:33 | 0:18:37 | |
offered up or commandeered for use as auxiliary hospitals. | 0:18:37 | 0:18:42 | |
In 1917, Lady Stamford offered Dunham Massey to the Red Cross. | 0:18:42 | 0:18:48 | |
Her daughter, Lady Jane Grey, worked here as a VAD. | 0:18:48 | 0:18:53 | |
It could be grisly work, | 0:18:53 | 0:18:56 | |
with the operating table tucked in next to the grand staircase. | 0:18:56 | 0:19:00 | |
Lady Jane remembered helping remove a bullet from a soldier's brain. | 0:19:00 | 0:19:05 | |
"I was given the job of shining a torch into the hole | 0:19:07 | 0:19:12 | |
"once they'd made the hole in the brain, | 0:19:12 | 0:19:15 | |
"and so I held the torch in front | 0:19:15 | 0:19:17 | |
"and saw the bullet being extracted by the surgeon. | 0:19:17 | 0:19:20 | |
"It was very interesting." | 0:19:20 | 0:19:23 | |
By 1918, more than 70,000 VADs | 0:19:25 | 0:19:28 | |
had played a crucial part in the war effort. | 0:19:28 | 0:19:32 | |
In a man's world, they were the perfect women - | 0:19:32 | 0:19:35 | |
volunteers, not wanting equal pay and not demanding a new kind of job. | 0:19:35 | 0:19:41 | |
Theirs was the traditional caring role - | 0:19:41 | 0:19:44 | |
they were non-threatening - plucky, but lovable. | 0:19:44 | 0:19:49 | |
Women doctors, on the other hand, | 0:19:49 | 0:19:51 | |
evoked a very different kind of response. | 0:19:51 | 0:19:53 | |
Before the war, | 0:19:56 | 0:19:57 | |
qualified female doctors treated only women and children. | 0:19:57 | 0:20:02 | |
But the war gave two pioneering women the chance to change that - | 0:20:02 | 0:20:07 | |
Flora Murray, and Louisa Garrett Anderson, | 0:20:07 | 0:20:11 | |
the daughter of the first woman to qualify as a doctor in Britain. | 0:20:11 | 0:20:15 | |
Together, they now founded the Women's Hospital Corps. | 0:20:15 | 0:20:19 | |
After watching them successfully run hospitals in France, | 0:20:20 | 0:20:24 | |
the British War Office gritted its teeth | 0:20:24 | 0:20:26 | |
and offered them a large military hospital with over 500 beds | 0:20:26 | 0:20:30 | |
in Endell Street, London. | 0:20:30 | 0:20:34 | |
They accepted immediately, and revealed their growing confidence | 0:20:34 | 0:20:37 | |
by insisting it must be entirely staffed by women. | 0:20:37 | 0:20:41 | |
New staff were told that skill levels acceptable from a man | 0:20:41 | 0:20:46 | |
would not be accepted from a woman. | 0:20:46 | 0:20:48 | |
They had to do better. | 0:20:48 | 0:20:50 | |
They laid special emphasis on getting the men recovered psychologically | 0:20:55 | 0:21:00 | |
from the traumas they'd seen. | 0:21:00 | 0:21:03 | |
And every effort was made | 0:21:03 | 0:21:05 | |
to make the atmosphere of these rather grim buildings congenial. | 0:21:05 | 0:21:11 | |
The courtyard had flowers regularly tended by the gardeners, | 0:21:11 | 0:21:15 | |
the wards had fresh flowers in them, | 0:21:15 | 0:21:18 | |
changed regularly by a team of volunteers. | 0:21:18 | 0:21:21 | |
There were sports days, there were demonstrations by champion boxers. | 0:21:21 | 0:21:27 | |
It was a very varied programme of entertainment. | 0:21:27 | 0:21:30 | |
The hospital did have the word suffragette attached to it? | 0:21:30 | 0:21:34 | |
Yes, it did, because Flora Murray and Louisa Garrett Anderson | 0:21:34 | 0:21:39 | |
had been very prominent in Mrs Pankhurst's organisation. | 0:21:39 | 0:21:43 | |
Flora Murray was actually Mrs Pankhurst's personal physician | 0:21:43 | 0:21:47 | |
and Anderson had spent time in Holloway, | 0:21:47 | 0:21:49 | |
having thrown a brick through a window. | 0:21:49 | 0:21:52 | |
So they were well-known and many, many of their staff | 0:21:52 | 0:21:55 | |
were also supporters of the suffrage movement. | 0:21:55 | 0:21:58 | |
But these women had shown themselves capable of running a hospital, | 0:21:58 | 0:22:04 | |
a large military hospital, | 0:22:04 | 0:22:06 | |
they'd shown themselves to be capable of treating | 0:22:06 | 0:22:10 | |
really very serious medical and surgical problems, | 0:22:10 | 0:22:13 | |
and of successfully treating male patients, | 0:22:13 | 0:22:16 | |
and this was something that had not been proved before. | 0:22:16 | 0:22:20 | |
And what is more, | 0:22:20 | 0:22:21 | |
they had shown that it would happen without civilisation collapsing. | 0:22:21 | 0:22:25 | |
More than 26,000 men were treated at Endell Street Military Hospital. | 0:22:28 | 0:22:33 | |
Many needed major surgery. | 0:22:33 | 0:22:36 | |
In 1917, in recognition of their pioneering work, | 0:22:36 | 0:22:40 | |
both Flora Murray and Louisa Garrett Anderson were awarded CBEs. | 0:22:40 | 0:22:45 | |
The legacy of Endell Street | 0:22:48 | 0:22:50 | |
is that men could be treated by women doctors. | 0:22:50 | 0:22:53 | |
Only one patient ever said he wouldn't be treated by a female. | 0:22:53 | 0:22:57 | |
And after a few days, he changed his mind, | 0:22:57 | 0:23:00 | |
and asked his mother if he'd be allowed to stay a little longer. | 0:23:00 | 0:23:04 | |
"The whole hospital is a triumph for women," | 0:23:04 | 0:23:06 | |
wrote another patient home. | 0:23:06 | 0:23:08 | |
"Incidentally, it is a triumph for suffragettes." | 0:23:08 | 0:23:12 | |
As the First World War neared its end, | 0:23:27 | 0:23:29 | |
women were involved in almost every area of life on the Home Front. | 0:23:29 | 0:23:33 | |
But Britain's women were still denied the right to vote - | 0:23:35 | 0:23:38 | |
the very issue that sat at the heart of the suffragettes' campaigning. | 0:23:38 | 0:23:43 | |
Deep within the all-male Parliament, | 0:23:43 | 0:23:45 | |
there existed a place which | 0:23:45 | 0:23:47 | |
epitomised the status of women in public life - | 0:23:47 | 0:23:50 | |
the Ladies' Gallery. | 0:23:50 | 0:23:51 | |
The original Ladies' Gallery | 0:23:56 | 0:23:57 | |
was destroyed by bombing in the Second World War, | 0:23:57 | 0:24:00 | |
but today's press gallery occupies a similar position. | 0:24:00 | 0:24:03 | |
It was a cramped space, hot and stuffy. | 0:24:06 | 0:24:09 | |
And there was a metal lattice grille which obstructed the view | 0:24:09 | 0:24:13 | |
of the House of Commons below. | 0:24:13 | 0:24:15 | |
Though it was originally installed | 0:24:15 | 0:24:16 | |
so that the men below would not be distracted by the ladies above. | 0:24:16 | 0:24:21 | |
The suffragettes regarded it as a symbolic cage | 0:24:21 | 0:24:25 | |
which separated them from the business of politics. | 0:24:25 | 0:24:28 | |
In 1908, suffrage campaigners padlocked themselves to the | 0:24:31 | 0:24:35 | |
gallery's grille in protest at their exclusion from Parliament. | 0:24:35 | 0:24:41 | |
The grille was removed with the women still attached. | 0:24:41 | 0:24:44 | |
After their release, it was immediately reinstalled | 0:24:44 | 0:24:49 | |
and there it remained, physically and symbolically excluding women | 0:24:49 | 0:24:53 | |
from the world of politics. | 0:24:53 | 0:24:54 | |
Before the war, Winston Churchill argued that | 0:24:56 | 0:24:59 | |
"women are well represented by their fathers, brothers and husbands." | 0:24:59 | 0:25:04 | |
But many of those men were overseas now | 0:25:05 | 0:25:08 | |
and potentially ineligible to vote. | 0:25:08 | 0:25:10 | |
The Government contemplated changing the law on voting qualifications. | 0:25:12 | 0:25:16 | |
And the suffrage campaigners scented a chance | 0:25:16 | 0:25:20 | |
to press their case to include women. | 0:25:20 | 0:25:23 | |
The new Prime Minister was David Lloyd George. | 0:25:26 | 0:25:29 | |
He offered a more sympathetic ear to the campaigners - | 0:25:29 | 0:25:32 | |
no-one knew better what invaluable work they'd done in the factories. | 0:25:32 | 0:25:37 | |
Emmeline Pankhurst was pragmatic. | 0:25:37 | 0:25:40 | |
She urged him to speed the legislation and said, | 0:25:40 | 0:25:43 | |
"Whatever can be passed in war circumstances, | 0:25:43 | 0:25:46 | |
"we are ready to accept." | 0:25:46 | 0:25:48 | |
On the 19th of June 1917, | 0:25:50 | 0:25:52 | |
the Ladies' Gallery was packed with women | 0:25:52 | 0:25:55 | |
eager to hear the Commons debating a new bill - | 0:25:55 | 0:25:59 | |
The Representation of the People. | 0:25:59 | 0:26:02 | |
Even the most optimistic couldn't have predicted | 0:26:03 | 0:26:06 | |
the outcome of the vote. | 0:26:06 | 0:26:08 | |
55 against... | 0:26:09 | 0:26:12 | |
385 in favour. | 0:26:12 | 0:26:16 | |
The tide had finally turned. | 0:26:16 | 0:26:19 | |
The Representation of the People Act became law in 1918. | 0:26:22 | 0:26:27 | |
It granted the vote to women over 30 who were householders | 0:26:27 | 0:26:30 | |
or the wives of householders, or graduates. | 0:26:30 | 0:26:33 | |
The First World War had delivered a partial victory for Britain's women. | 0:26:35 | 0:26:39 | |
There's no escaping the fact that MPs saw | 0:26:39 | 0:26:42 | |
the vote for women as a prize rather than as a right. | 0:26:42 | 0:26:46 | |
As one woman put it, | 0:26:46 | 0:26:48 | |
"rather like a biscuit given to a performing dog | 0:26:48 | 0:26:51 | |
"that has just done its tricks particularly well". | 0:26:51 | 0:26:55 | |
The majority of the women who worked in the factories | 0:26:55 | 0:26:58 | |
were under 30 and not householders, so they remained without a vote. | 0:26:58 | 0:27:03 | |
One reminder of that tumultuous time is hidden away | 0:27:09 | 0:27:13 | |
in the basement of the Houses of Parliament. | 0:27:13 | 0:27:17 | |
A few weeks after the vote, the notorious grille | 0:27:19 | 0:27:22 | |
which had caged in women in the Ladies' Gallery was quietly removed. | 0:27:22 | 0:27:26 | |
Here's a section of it - | 0:27:31 | 0:27:33 | |
a symbol of the struggle by women to achieve their rights. | 0:27:33 | 0:27:37 | |
BELLS PEAL | 0:27:39 | 0:27:41 | |
Fighting officially ended across Western Europe | 0:27:44 | 0:27:47 | |
on 11th of November 1918. | 0:27:47 | 0:27:51 | |
For many women war workers, the celebrations were short-lived. | 0:27:51 | 0:27:55 | |
The government encouraged them to return to their traditional roles | 0:27:55 | 0:27:59 | |
as mothers and wives, relinquishing the independence tolerated | 0:27:59 | 0:28:03 | |
during the war. | 0:28:03 | 0:28:05 | |
A Ministry of Labour leaflet made clear the Government's position. | 0:28:06 | 0:28:11 | |
"A call comes again to the women of Britain, | 0:28:11 | 0:28:14 | |
"a call happily not to make shells | 0:28:14 | 0:28:17 | |
"but to help renew the homes of England, to sew and to mend, | 0:28:17 | 0:28:21 | |
"to cook and to clean | 0:28:21 | 0:28:24 | |
"and to rear babies in health and happiness." | 0:28:24 | 0:28:28 | |
But now women from all backgrounds had experienced | 0:28:29 | 0:28:33 | |
a taste of public life and held their own in the workplace. | 0:28:33 | 0:28:37 | |
Their own lives had become entwined with national events. | 0:28:37 | 0:28:42 | |
Having proved what they could do for the duration of the war, | 0:28:42 | 0:28:47 | |
they emerged to press the case that they always should do it | 0:28:47 | 0:28:51 | |
and continue the struggle for fairness and equality. | 0:28:51 | 0:28:55 |