The Women of World War One


The Women of World War One

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To be a woman in 1914 in Britain,

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your life was defined more by what you couldn't do than what you could.

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You couldn't read the lesson, you couldn't preach in church,

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certainly not in the pulpit.

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Indeed, you couldn't hand out the hymnbooks, take the collection,

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or even ring the bells.

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Away from church, if you spoke about women's rights in public,

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you were likely to be jeered, or have stones thrown at you

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not for what you said,

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but for having the temerity to speak in public.

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If you were arrested, it would be by a man -

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all police officers were male.

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Into court, the lawyers, the jury, the judge, all were men.

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It remained very much a man's world.

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For over a decade, women's suffrage campaigners

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had battled to overturn this man's world.

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They argued nothing could change in women's lives

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until they were given the right to vote in parliamentary elections.

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Women engaged in campaigns of protest and violence.

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They endured imprisonment and hunger strikes

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to force the men in government to back down.

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Nothing, it seemed, would stop the suffragettes

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until women had the vote.

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But then, Germany invaded Belgium.

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When war was declared in August 1914,

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the suffrage campaigners were faced with a quandary.

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Should they support the men in government, their sworn enemy,

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and suspend their campaign for the vote?

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Something which a few months earlier would've seemed unthinkable.

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The Militant Suffragette Organisation

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was the women's social and political union

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led by Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughter Cristabel.

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Its motto - "Deeds not Words."

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They saw violent action as a necessity

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and they resorted to bombings and arson to get their case heard.

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Many spent time in prison

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and were subjected to brutal treatment and force feeding

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in response to their angry demands for a vote.

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Then the declaration of war intervened.

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Emmeline Pankhurst wasted no time coming to a decision.

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Within days of war being declared,

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she suspended their campaign of militancy with immediate effect.

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The suffrage campaigners showed their new patriotic commitment

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by renaming their newspaper -

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The Suffragette became Britannia and it bore a new motto.

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Instead of "Deeds not Words," it was now -

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"For King, For Country, For Freedom."

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"What is the point of fighting for the vote," asked Mrs Pankhurst,

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"if we have not got a country to vote in?"

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She was a pragmatist.

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Her message to her supporters was clear -

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it was time to transfer their energies to the national cause.

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In December 1914, war came to the Home Front.

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German warships attacked the north-east coast of England,

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targeting Hartlepool and the fashionable resort of Scarborough.

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Scores of civilians were killed, including women and children.

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With women now victims of enemy action,

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like the soldiers in France,

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the rallying cry became "Remember Scarborough!,"

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as scores of upper and middle-class women

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rushed to don uniform in the voluntary organisations.

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or them, it was an unrivalled opportunity

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to get out of the house, to do something useful,

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to gain independence.

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Squad!

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Squad, attention!

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First into action on the Home Front was the aristocracy -

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society ladies, used to using their social clout.

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Their young girls joined the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry.

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Formed before the war, and still going today,

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it now came into its own,

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sending women as ambulance drivers to France.

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Hundreds of other volunteer organisations sprang up,

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such as the Women's Volunteer Reserve, ready to do their bit,

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adopting military-style uniforms to command attention and respect.

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Some did skilled training in the Lady Instructors Signals Company.

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Most, though, were cooking, cleaning and running errands.

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Squad!

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Squad, attention!

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Keeping a watchful eye

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was their Honorary Colonel, Evelina Haverfield.

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Evelina, the daughter of a baron,

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was a determined suffragette veteran -

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in 1910, she was arrested for punching a policeman in the face.

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When charged, she replied, "It was not hard enough.

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"Next time I will bring a revolver".

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Women like her were full of ideas, ready for action.

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The Women's Volunteer Reserve remained resolutely middle-class,

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largely because they had to buy their own uniform,

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which cost more than £2 - a small fortune in 1914.

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Even though there was no suggestion that a woman would ever fight,

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the image of a woman in military-style uniform

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was troubling for many.

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Yet the Women's Volunteer Reserve relished the authority it gave them,

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despite the catcalls and jeers.

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It was distinctive, purposeful

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and very publicly part of the war effort.

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Squad, stand at ease.

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The war brought working class women to the public attention

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in paid, often industrial work,

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that men had left for the front line in France.

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# There came John Bull with his ship so grey

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# And his army fighting far away

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# All the boys have gone

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# So the girls today

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# Carry on with the work in the morning

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# The conductorettes without much fuss

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# Just do their level best for us

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# But they don't push people off the bus

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# When it's raining hard in the morning. #

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Over one million were engaged in war work across Britain.

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# The girls have shown surprising gifts

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# On the railways now they work the lifts

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# If they'd only do the work in shifts

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# They would get such a crowd in the morning. #

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Beautifully illustrated cigarette cards

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celebrated the variety of their work.

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They were doing what had previously been considered solely men's work.

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Getting paid the same as men was out of the question.

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Skilled men feared that their prized status

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would be threatened by unskilled women working alongside them

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doing the same job and being paid less.

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Entrenched attitudes and prejudice were at play.

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Men were expected to be the breadwinners, supporting a family.

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Women were thought to have more modest running costs.

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"Tea and toast are cheaper than beer and beefsteaks,"

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said one factory foreman.

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A strong conviction remained that people should be paid

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not for what they did, but for who they were.

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During the First World War,

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many women worked on factory production lines

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assembling planes, tanks and making ammunition for the war effort.

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Crowded together in factories,

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they discovered a new sense of team spirit

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and it worked as well on the football pitch

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as it did on the shop floor.

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Women's football was a novelty, rather shocking.

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Teams from the shipyards, engineering works and munitions

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donned mobcaps and shorts to general amazement.

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Even more than today, many thought, "Women? Playing football?"

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Many men were keen to point out why the women should not play.

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The British Medical Journal was worried about the danger to women's

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"organs which the common experience of women

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"had in every way led them to protect."

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But in 1915, the men's professional game was suspended -

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the trenches had taken both players and officials

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and the women's game flowered.

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Most of the women's games

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were to raise funds for soldiers and their families,

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a Christmas Day Match in 1917, watched by a crowd of 10,000,

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raised £600 for wounded soldiers -

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the equivalent of more than £25,000 today.

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One occasion, the women played men

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who had their hands tied behind their backs as a handicap.

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The keeper was allowed one hand free.

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But usually, the women's teams played each other,

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sometimes with bruising intensity.

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The most successful team in the north-east of England was

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Blyth Spartans Munitions Girls.

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In their first game,

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17-year-old centre-forward Bella Reay scored six goals.

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Bella was the daughter of a local pitman.

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She quickly became the star of the team,

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scoring 133 goals in one season.

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And Blyth Spartans Munitions Girls remained unbeaten

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for the two years they were together.

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She worked in the munitions factory, you know, when she was 17.

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And they decided then that they wanted to do something

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more for the war effort.

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All of the games that they ever did were all for the wounded soldiers -

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all the money they ever made, it was all done for charity.

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Did lots of people come to see them?

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Yes, she played anywhere from crowds of 1,000 up to 20,000 people.

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When your grandmother talked to you about football, what did she say?

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Just how good she was. That was the main thing, you know.

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She said, "I was good, but I knew I was good."

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We will never forget her saying that to us, "Oh, I knew I was good."

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She played in the Munition Girls Cup Final, didn't she?

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-Yes, she did, yes.

-That must have been a big match.

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Yes, it was. That was when she got her gold medal.

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Which, would you like to have a look at the medal she got?

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Fantastic!

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Beautiful medal, it is.

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How did she do in the final?

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Very well. I think she was the best goal scorer in the final.

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People are surprised now to hear

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that girls played football at that time.

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What do you think of that?

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Well when because when they go on about it,

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I say, "Well, my grandma played nearly 100 years ago,"

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and we're very, very proud that we are part of history, really,

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you know because she was very, very well-known in her time.

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Everybody knew her -

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"Whoa, Bella", that was what they used to shout, "Away, Bella!"

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You know that that's the thing, and it's lovely really to think

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that we are part of a little bit of history.

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By 1921 the Football Association had had enough

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and it banned the women from playing on their grounds,

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saying, "The game of football is quite unsuitable for females

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"and ought not to be encouraged."

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Women's football, like so much else,

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was only tolerable for the duration of the war.

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During the First World War,

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many working class women had their first taste of social freedom.

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Instead of being at home under father's watchful eye,

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they discovered the forerunner of girl's night out.

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The press went into overdrive, with stories of

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"giddy factory girls" frittering money in pubs with men.

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The Aberdeen Journal reported that they had

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"more money in their hands than usual, and there were only too many

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"ready to help them to spend it in the wrong way."

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The munitionettes were experiencing a liberation they hadn't expected.

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They were aping their betters -

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out and about, with a little money to spend.

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Traditionalists were outraged.

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Not for the first time in the war, there was a bout of moral panic.

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Women were getting out of control.

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More worldy-wise women, such as Margaret Damer Dawson,

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set out to protect women, as well as cautioning their behaviour.

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Dawson approached the Commissioner of Police in London for permission

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to create a voluntary body of trained and uniformed police women.

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He declared himself "not at all averse to the idea,"

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as long as they remained separate from his force.

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The result was the foundation

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of Britain's first Women's Police Service, the WPS.

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Margaret Damer Dawson was a tough character.

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Her friends called her "Fighting Dawson."

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Her first recruits were mainly educated middle-class women,

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trained in first aid and a little jujitsu.

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But they faced a battle to be taken seriously by the men.

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One male police officer,

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when asked if women would ever be police constables,

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laughed and said "No, not if the war lasts 50 years".

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The WPS were not granted the power of arrest

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and were expected to deal solely with women and children.

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Most male constables thought that Dawson's "Copperettes,"

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as the Sussex Times called them, should be deployed only

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to protect Britain's men from the temptations of women.

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Dawson's patrols were not popular with the women they policed.

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One 14-year-old girl said she'd been told off for crimping her hair,

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and "dressing up and walking about

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"in order to attract the attention of men."

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Many men disliked having to deal with women,

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especially in the factories,

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where huge numbers now worked making munitions.

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Many of the women were rowdy and tough.

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When disputes arose,

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managers, more used to obedient wives and daughters,

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had no idea what to do.

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The Prime Minister, David Lloyd George,

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turned to Margaret Damer Dawson's women police.

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He deployed nearly 1,000 of them

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to keep order in the munitions factories.

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Policewoman Gabrielle West kept a diary describing her experiences.

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Her initial impressions of the workers

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at the Pembrey Munitions Factory in South Wales were not favourable.

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"They are full of socialistic theory

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"and very great on getting up strikes.

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"But they are easily influenced by a little oratory,

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"and go back to work like lambs when you shout at them long enough."

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Rather than being a social leveller, as it's often portrayed,

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life in the munitions factories

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relied on the class system to maintain law and order.

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Within weeks of the war ending,

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the Metropolitan Police announced plans to train women

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to become paid constables for the first time.

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What followed was humiliation for Margaret Damer Dawson.

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Her well-trained and capable volunteers

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were rejected as candidates -

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resented by male constables as too well educated and confident.

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As a final blow, Dawson was ordered to wind down the WPS.

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Margaret Damer Dawson died in 1920, aged 45

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of a heart attack, it was said, brought on by the hostility

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she faced from the male police establishment.

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She'd tried so hard to gain acceptance.

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Just before she died,

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she got to the heart of the problem of policing women.

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"In the realm of morals,"

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she said, "we have not advanced beyond Adam and Eve."

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Machine guns and artillery in the First World War

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caused terrible injuries.

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Wounded men were coming home in overwhelming numbers

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in urgent need of medical attention.

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Britain's small band of professional nurses were joined by

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nursing assistants from the Voluntary Aid Detachment - the VADs.

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Across the country, public buildings and private residences were

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offered up or commandeered for use as auxiliary hospitals.

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In 1917, Lady Stamford offered Dunham Massey to the Red Cross.

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Her daughter, Lady Jane Grey, worked here as a VAD.

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It could be grisly work,

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with the operating table tucked in next to the grand staircase.

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Lady Jane remembered helping remove a bullet from a soldier's brain.

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"I was given the job of shining a torch into the hole

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"once they'd made the hole in the brain,

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"and so I held the torch in front

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"and saw the bullet being extracted by the surgeon.

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"It was very interesting."

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By 1918, more than 70,000 VADs

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had played a crucial part in the war effort.

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In a man's world, they were the perfect women -

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volunteers, not wanting equal pay and not demanding a new kind of job.

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Theirs was the traditional caring role -

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they were non-threatening - plucky, but lovable.

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Women doctors, on the other hand,

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evoked a very different kind of response.

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Before the war,

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qualified female doctors treated only women and children.

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But the war gave two pioneering women the chance to change that -

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Flora Murray, and Louisa Garrett Anderson,

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the daughter of the first woman to qualify as a doctor in Britain.

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Together, they now founded the Women's Hospital Corps.

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After watching them successfully run hospitals in France,

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the British War Office gritted its teeth

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and offered them a large military hospital with over 500 beds

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in Endell Street, London.

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They accepted immediately, and revealed their growing confidence

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by insisting it must be entirely staffed by women.

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New staff were told that skill levels acceptable from a man

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would not be accepted from a woman.

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They had to do better.

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They laid special emphasis on getting the men recovered psychologically

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from the traumas they'd seen.

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And every effort was made

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to make the atmosphere of these rather grim buildings congenial.

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The courtyard had flowers regularly tended by the gardeners,

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the wards had fresh flowers in them,

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changed regularly by a team of volunteers.

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There were sports days, there were demonstrations by champion boxers.

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It was a very varied programme of entertainment.

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The hospital did have the word suffragette attached to it?

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Yes, it did, because Flora Murray and Louisa Garrett Anderson

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had been very prominent in Mrs Pankhurst's organisation.

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Flora Murray was actually Mrs Pankhurst's personal physician

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and Anderson had spent time in Holloway,

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having thrown a brick through a window.

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So they were well-known and many, many of their staff

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were also supporters of the suffrage movement.

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But these women had shown themselves capable of running a hospital,

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a large military hospital,

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they'd shown themselves to be capable of treating

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really very serious medical and surgical problems,

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and of successfully treating male patients,

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and this was something that had not been proved before.

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And what is more,

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they had shown that it would happen without civilisation collapsing.

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More than 26,000 men were treated at Endell Street Military Hospital.

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Many needed major surgery.

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In 1917, in recognition of their pioneering work,

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both Flora Murray and Louisa Garrett Anderson were awarded CBEs.

0:22:400:22:45

The legacy of Endell Street

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is that men could be treated by women doctors.

0:22:500:22:53

Only one patient ever said he wouldn't be treated by a female.

0:22:530:22:57

And after a few days, he changed his mind,

0:22:570:23:00

and asked his mother if he'd be allowed to stay a little longer.

0:23:000:23:04

"The whole hospital is a triumph for women,"

0:23:040:23:06

wrote another patient home.

0:23:060:23:08

"Incidentally, it is a triumph for suffragettes."

0:23:080:23:12

As the First World War neared its end,

0:23:270:23:29

women were involved in almost every area of life on the Home Front.

0:23:290:23:33

But Britain's women were still denied the right to vote -

0:23:350:23:38

the very issue that sat at the heart of the suffragettes' campaigning.

0:23:380:23:43

Deep within the all-male Parliament,

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there existed a place which

0:23:450:23:47

epitomised the status of women in public life -

0:23:470:23:50

the Ladies' Gallery.

0:23:500:23:51

The original Ladies' Gallery

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was destroyed by bombing in the Second World War,

0:23:570:24:00

but today's press gallery occupies a similar position.

0:24:000:24:03

It was a cramped space, hot and stuffy.

0:24:060:24:09

And there was a metal lattice grille which obstructed the view

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of the House of Commons below.

0:24:130:24:15

Though it was originally installed

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so that the men below would not be distracted by the ladies above.

0:24:160:24:21

The suffragettes regarded it as a symbolic cage

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which separated them from the business of politics.

0:24:250:24:28

In 1908, suffrage campaigners padlocked themselves to the

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gallery's grille in protest at their exclusion from Parliament.

0:24:350:24:41

The grille was removed with the women still attached.

0:24:410:24:44

After their release, it was immediately reinstalled

0:24:440:24:49

and there it remained, physically and symbolically excluding women

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from the world of politics.

0:24:530:24:54

Before the war, Winston Churchill argued that

0:24:560:24:59

"women are well represented by their fathers, brothers and husbands."

0:24:590:25:04

But many of those men were overseas now

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and potentially ineligible to vote.

0:25:080:25:10

The Government contemplated changing the law on voting qualifications.

0:25:120:25:16

And the suffrage campaigners scented a chance

0:25:160:25:20

to press their case to include women.

0:25:200:25:23

The new Prime Minister was David Lloyd George.

0:25:260:25:29

He offered a more sympathetic ear to the campaigners -

0:25:290:25:32

no-one knew better what invaluable work they'd done in the factories.

0:25:320:25:37

Emmeline Pankhurst was pragmatic.

0:25:370:25:40

She urged him to speed the legislation and said,

0:25:400:25:43

"Whatever can be passed in war circumstances,

0:25:430:25:46

"we are ready to accept."

0:25:460:25:48

On the 19th of June 1917,

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the Ladies' Gallery was packed with women

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eager to hear the Commons debating a new bill -

0:25:550:25:59

The Representation of the People.

0:25:590:26:02

Even the most optimistic couldn't have predicted

0:26:030:26:06

the outcome of the vote.

0:26:060:26:08

55 against...

0:26:090:26:12

385 in favour.

0:26:120:26:16

The tide had finally turned.

0:26:160:26:19

The Representation of the People Act became law in 1918.

0:26:220:26:27

It granted the vote to women over 30 who were householders

0:26:270:26:30

or the wives of householders, or graduates.

0:26:300:26:33

The First World War had delivered a partial victory for Britain's women.

0:26:350:26:39

There's no escaping the fact that MPs saw

0:26:390:26:42

the vote for women as a prize rather than as a right.

0:26:420:26:46

As one woman put it,

0:26:460:26:48

"rather like a biscuit given to a performing dog

0:26:480:26:51

"that has just done its tricks particularly well".

0:26:510:26:55

The majority of the women who worked in the factories

0:26:550:26:58

were under 30 and not householders, so they remained without a vote.

0:26:580:27:03

One reminder of that tumultuous time is hidden away

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in the basement of the Houses of Parliament.

0:27:130:27:17

A few weeks after the vote, the notorious grille

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which had caged in women in the Ladies' Gallery was quietly removed.

0:27:220:27:26

Here's a section of it -

0:27:310:27:33

a symbol of the struggle by women to achieve their rights.

0:27:330:27:37

BELLS PEAL

0:27:390:27:41

Fighting officially ended across Western Europe

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on 11th of November 1918.

0:27:470:27:51

For many women war workers, the celebrations were short-lived.

0:27:510:27:55

The government encouraged them to return to their traditional roles

0:27:550:27:59

as mothers and wives, relinquishing the independence tolerated

0:27:590:28:03

during the war.

0:28:030:28:05

A Ministry of Labour leaflet made clear the Government's position.

0:28:060:28:11

"A call comes again to the women of Britain,

0:28:110:28:14

"a call happily not to make shells

0:28:140:28:17

"but to help renew the homes of England, to sew and to mend,

0:28:170:28:21

"to cook and to clean

0:28:210:28:24

"and to rear babies in health and happiness."

0:28:240:28:28

But now women from all backgrounds had experienced

0:28:290:28:33

a taste of public life and held their own in the workplace.

0:28:330:28:37

Their own lives had become entwined with national events.

0:28:370:28:42

Having proved what they could do for the duration of the war,

0:28:420:28:47

they emerged to press the case that they always should do it

0:28:470:28:51

and continue the struggle for fairness and equality.

0:28:510:28:55

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