0:00:07 > 0:00:11We do all rely on each other and it is very close-knit up here.
0:00:13 > 0:00:15- WOMAN:- It is like a second family.
0:00:25 > 0:00:30Because there's nitro-glycerine in it, everything is done by hand.
0:00:32 > 0:00:36Without a doubt, if you work with munitions, it is a dangerous job.
0:00:38 > 0:00:42These women are tying together explosive charges for shells
0:00:42 > 0:00:44in a South Wales factory.
0:00:45 > 0:00:48It's a task little changed in nearly a century.
0:00:49 > 0:00:51During the First World War,
0:00:51 > 0:00:54the Munitionettes were the poster girls for the war effort.
0:00:54 > 0:00:59A production line of death that ended on the Western Front.
0:01:01 > 0:01:04But they were only part of an army of women workers,
0:01:04 > 0:01:07recruited to keep Britain's war machine running.
0:01:10 > 0:01:13War is usually viewed through military eyes -
0:01:13 > 0:01:16the battles, the heroic actions, the loss of life.
0:01:17 > 0:01:21But in 1914, a new front opened up - the Home Front -
0:01:21 > 0:01:25as an entire nation was drawn into the war.
0:01:25 > 0:01:27And women found their lives changed.
0:01:30 > 0:01:32What were they asked to do?
0:01:32 > 0:01:33How did they respond?
0:01:33 > 0:01:36What was their war like?
0:01:42 > 0:01:45War on the Home Front offered an opportunity
0:01:45 > 0:01:50to demonstrate that women could be as active and productive as men.
0:01:56 > 0:01:59It's commonly said that the First World War
0:01:59 > 0:02:03changed the image and status of women in British society.
0:02:03 > 0:02:05The suffrage campaigner Millicent Fawcett said,
0:02:05 > 0:02:09"It found them serfs and set them free."
0:02:09 > 0:02:14They claimed a presence in public life they'd never had before,
0:02:14 > 0:02:17but did they keep it when the war ended?
0:02:17 > 0:02:20Or was it all only for the duration?
0:02:43 > 0:02:47"Let your women keep silence in the churches,
0:02:47 > 0:02:50"for it is not permitted unto them to speak,
0:02:50 > 0:02:52"but they are commanded
0:02:52 > 0:02:56"to be under obedience, as also saith the law.
0:02:57 > 0:02:59"And if they will learn anything,
0:02:59 > 0:03:01"let them ask their husbands at home,
0:03:01 > 0:03:04"for it is shameful for women
0:03:04 > 0:03:06"to speak in the church.
0:03:07 > 0:03:10"For Adam came first, then Eve."
0:03:14 > 0:03:17To be a woman in 1914 in Britain,
0:03:17 > 0:03:21your life was defined more by what you couldn't do,
0:03:21 > 0:03:23than what you could.
0:03:23 > 0:03:25You couldn't read the lesson,
0:03:25 > 0:03:26you couldn't preach in church,
0:03:26 > 0:03:29certainly not in the pulpit.
0:03:29 > 0:03:31Indeed, you couldn't hand out the hymn books,
0:03:31 > 0:03:33take the collection,
0:03:33 > 0:03:34or even ring the bells.
0:03:34 > 0:03:36Away from church,
0:03:36 > 0:03:39if you spoke about women's rights in public
0:03:39 > 0:03:42you were likely to be jeered, or have stones thrown at you.
0:03:42 > 0:03:44Not for what you've said,
0:03:44 > 0:03:47but for having the temerity to speak in public.
0:03:47 > 0:03:49If you were arrested,
0:03:49 > 0:03:50it would be by a man -
0:03:50 > 0:03:52all police officers were male.
0:03:53 > 0:03:56Into court, the lawyers, the jury, the judge -
0:03:56 > 0:03:58all were men.
0:03:58 > 0:04:02It remained very much a man's world.
0:04:05 > 0:04:07For over a decade,
0:04:07 > 0:04:09women's suffrage campaigners
0:04:09 > 0:04:12had battled to overturn this man's world.
0:04:12 > 0:04:16They argued nothing could change in women's lives
0:04:16 > 0:04:20until they were given the right to vote in parliamentary elections.
0:04:21 > 0:04:25Women engaged in campaigns of protest and violence,
0:04:25 > 0:04:28they endured imprisonment and hunger strikes
0:04:28 > 0:04:31to force the men in government to back down.
0:04:31 > 0:04:34Nothing, it seemed, would stop the Suffragettes
0:04:34 > 0:04:37until the women had the vote.
0:04:38 > 0:04:41But then, Germany invaded Belgium.
0:04:43 > 0:04:47When war was declared in August, 1914,
0:04:47 > 0:04:50the suffrage campaigners were faced with a quandary.
0:04:50 > 0:04:54Should they support the men in government, their sworn enemy,
0:04:54 > 0:04:57and suspend their campaign for the vote?
0:04:57 > 0:05:01Something which a few months earlier would have seemed unthinkable.
0:05:03 > 0:05:06Suffragette leader, Emmeline Pankhurst,
0:05:06 > 0:05:09wasted no time coming to a decision.
0:05:09 > 0:05:11Within days of war being declared,
0:05:11 > 0:05:15she suspended their campaign of militancy with immediate effect.
0:05:17 > 0:05:20"What is the point of fighting for the vote,
0:05:20 > 0:05:23"if we have not got a country to vote in?"
0:05:25 > 0:05:29The suffrage campaigners showed a new patriotic commitment,
0:05:29 > 0:05:31by renaming their newspaper -
0:05:31 > 0:05:34The Suffragette became Britannia,
0:05:34 > 0:05:36and it bore a new motto -
0:05:36 > 0:05:40instead of "Deeds not words" it was now,
0:05:40 > 0:05:43"For King. For country. For freedom."
0:05:43 > 0:05:47Her message to her supporters was clear.
0:05:47 > 0:05:51It was time to transfer their energies to the national cause.
0:05:51 > 0:05:55OLD RECORDING: # We don't want to lose you
0:05:55 > 0:05:58# But we think you ought to go
0:05:59 > 0:06:01# For your king and your country... #
0:06:01 > 0:06:03For the first time the government looked to women
0:06:03 > 0:06:07to urge men to sign up to fight.
0:06:08 > 0:06:11# We will love you and miss you... #
0:06:11 > 0:06:13In the autumn of 1914,
0:06:13 > 0:06:16a young car painter named Percy Morter
0:06:16 > 0:06:18took his wife to the theatre.
0:06:20 > 0:06:24Topping the bill that night was Vesta Tilley.
0:06:24 > 0:06:27A woman appearing in public wearing trousers,
0:06:27 > 0:06:29posing as a man,
0:06:29 > 0:06:32was seen as indecent back then.
0:06:32 > 0:06:34But Vesta Tilley did it on stage.
0:06:34 > 0:06:36# For your king and your country
0:06:38 > 0:06:41# Both need you so... #
0:06:41 > 0:06:45When Vesta Tilley appeared wearing men's trousers at the first
0:06:45 > 0:06:48Royal Command Performance in 1912,
0:06:48 > 0:06:51Queen Mary pointedly buried her nose in her programme,
0:06:51 > 0:06:54followed by all her ladies-in-waiting.
0:06:54 > 0:06:57Public disapproval of such immodesty.
0:06:57 > 0:07:01But Vesta Tilley went down a storm with musical audiences,
0:07:01 > 0:07:03and with a war to support
0:07:03 > 0:07:06she introduced a new male character into her routine.
0:07:10 > 0:07:12Dressed as a recruiting sergeant major,
0:07:12 > 0:07:14she sang patriotic songs,
0:07:14 > 0:07:17and urged young men to enlist.
0:07:17 > 0:07:21# When people tell me that the army's not complete
0:07:21 > 0:07:23# It goes to show
0:07:23 > 0:07:26# That they don't know
0:07:26 > 0:07:29# I think the army's simply perfect - can't be beat
0:07:29 > 0:07:31# I know it's true
0:07:31 > 0:07:34# Because I do... #
0:07:34 > 0:07:37- WOMAN'S VOICE: - And then she came out off the stage
0:07:37 > 0:07:39and walked all round in the audience.
0:07:39 > 0:07:41Up and down, either side,
0:07:41 > 0:07:43down the middle and she was...
0:07:43 > 0:07:46The young men was getting up out of the theatre
0:07:46 > 0:07:48and following her back again.
0:07:48 > 0:07:50And when she got to our stall,
0:07:50 > 0:07:53where we was, she hesitated a bit
0:07:53 > 0:07:55and I don't know what happened,
0:07:55 > 0:07:57but she put her hand on my husband's shoulder,
0:07:57 > 0:08:01and as the men was all following her down,
0:08:01 > 0:08:03he got up and followed her down, too.
0:08:04 > 0:08:05# .. so let the bands play
0:08:05 > 0:08:07# And shout hooray...#
0:08:08 > 0:08:11Britain's Best Recruiting Officer had struck again!
0:08:11 > 0:08:15# I joined the Army yesterday
0:08:15 > 0:08:19# So the Army of today's all right #
0:08:20 > 0:08:24We came home that night, and I was terribly upset,
0:08:24 > 0:08:27and I said I didn't want him to go and be a soldier,
0:08:27 > 0:08:30because I didn't want to lose him.
0:08:30 > 0:08:32I didn't want him to go, at all.
0:08:33 > 0:08:35But he said, "We have to go."
0:08:35 > 0:08:39He said, "There has to be men to go and fight for the women."
0:08:39 > 0:08:42"Otherwise," he said, "where should we be?"
0:08:42 > 0:08:44# I found the colonel of the regiment in the dumps
0:08:44 > 0:08:47# I said "What for?"... #
0:08:48 > 0:08:52Percy Morter wasn't the only one caught up in Khaki Fever.
0:08:52 > 0:08:54In the first week of September alone,
0:08:54 > 0:08:57nearly 200,000 men volunteered to fight.
0:08:57 > 0:09:01And in this recruiting frenzy, for the first time ever,
0:09:01 > 0:09:03the Government targeted women.
0:09:03 > 0:09:06Mothers and daughters should put pressure on their men
0:09:06 > 0:09:08to show their manliness.
0:09:08 > 0:09:12# ..and then the band played
0:09:12 > 0:09:13# They all hoorayed
0:09:13 > 0:09:16# Kitchener looked so pleased at such delight
0:09:18 > 0:09:21# I joined the Army yesterday
0:09:21 > 0:09:25# So the Army of today's all right. #
0:09:27 > 0:09:31This is a small ad that appeared in The Times.
0:09:31 > 0:09:35"Jack FG. If you are not in khaki by the 20th,
0:09:35 > 0:09:39"I shall cut you dead. Ethel M."
0:09:40 > 0:09:42Women were perceived, traditionally,
0:09:42 > 0:09:44as the moral guardians of the nation.
0:09:44 > 0:09:46That's where their power lay.
0:09:46 > 0:09:48They might not have the vote,
0:09:48 > 0:09:50but they were expected to uphold virtue,
0:09:50 > 0:09:54and to persuade men to do what was right and proper.
0:10:04 > 0:10:09In December, 1914, war came to the Home Front.
0:10:09 > 0:10:12German warships attacked the north-east coast of England,
0:10:12 > 0:10:16targeting Hartlepool and the fashionable resort of Scarborough.
0:10:17 > 0:10:19Scores of civilians were killed,
0:10:19 > 0:10:21including women and children.
0:10:23 > 0:10:26With women now victims of enemy action,
0:10:26 > 0:10:28like the soldiers in France,
0:10:28 > 0:10:31the rallying cry became "Remember Scarborough!"
0:10:31 > 0:10:34as scores of upper- and middle-class women
0:10:34 > 0:10:37rushed to don uniform in the voluntary organisations.
0:10:38 > 0:10:41For them, it was an unrivalled opportunity
0:10:41 > 0:10:44to get out of the house, to do something useful,
0:10:44 > 0:10:46to gain independence.
0:10:58 > 0:11:01Squad! Squad, 'shun!
0:11:03 > 0:11:06First into action on the Home Front was the aristocracy -
0:11:06 > 0:11:07society ladies,
0:11:07 > 0:11:10used to using their social clout.
0:11:11 > 0:11:15Young girls joined the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry - the FANY.
0:11:16 > 0:11:20Formed before the war, and still going strong today,
0:11:20 > 0:11:21it came into its own -
0:11:21 > 0:11:24sending women as ambulance drivers to France.
0:11:26 > 0:11:29Hundreds of other volunteer organisations sprang up,
0:11:29 > 0:11:31such as the Women's Volunteer Reserve,
0:11:31 > 0:11:33ready to do their bit,
0:11:33 > 0:11:35adopting military-style uniforms,
0:11:35 > 0:11:38to command attention and respect.
0:11:38 > 0:11:43Some did skilled training in the Lady Instructors Signals Company -
0:11:43 > 0:11:47most though were cooking, cleaning and running errands.
0:11:55 > 0:11:58Keeping a watchful eye was their Honorary Colonel,
0:11:58 > 0:11:59Evelina Haverfield.
0:11:59 > 0:12:01Evelina, the daughter of a baron,
0:12:01 > 0:12:04was a determined Suffragette veteran -
0:12:04 > 0:12:09in 1910, she was arrested for punching a policeman in the face.
0:12:09 > 0:12:11When charged, she replied
0:12:11 > 0:12:16"It was not hard enough. Next time I will bring a revolver".
0:12:16 > 0:12:18Women like her were full of ideas,
0:12:18 > 0:12:20ready for action.
0:12:23 > 0:12:26The Women's Volunteer Reserve remained resolutely middle-class,
0:12:26 > 0:12:29largely because they had to buy their own uniform,
0:12:29 > 0:12:31which cost more than £2 -
0:12:31 > 0:12:34a small fortune in 1914.
0:12:36 > 0:12:40Even though there was no suggestion that a woman would ever fight,
0:12:40 > 0:12:43the image of a woman in military-style uniform
0:12:43 > 0:12:45was troubling for many.
0:12:45 > 0:12:50Yet the Women's Volunteer Reserve relished the authority it gave them,
0:12:50 > 0:12:52despite the catcalls and jeers.
0:12:52 > 0:12:54It was distinctive, purposeful,
0:12:54 > 0:12:57and very publicly part of the war effort.
0:12:57 > 0:13:00Squad, stand at ease.
0:13:06 > 0:13:10Aristocratic women had an unshakeable sense of duty,
0:13:10 > 0:13:13and were determined to set an example and take charge.
0:13:13 > 0:13:17At the same time, they cut down on their spending -
0:13:17 > 0:13:20fewer hats and dresses.
0:13:21 > 0:13:23So, just weeks into the war,
0:13:23 > 0:13:27tens of thousands of working-class women found themselves redundant.
0:13:27 > 0:13:33In response, Queen Mary decided to start her own war effort.
0:13:35 > 0:13:38Knitting is hardly a heroic act,
0:13:38 > 0:13:40but Queen Mary's Needlework Guild
0:13:40 > 0:13:42set needles clicking throughout the land,
0:13:42 > 0:13:44to keep soldiers warm,
0:13:44 > 0:13:47and for poor families who, as the Queen said,
0:13:47 > 0:13:49"Will feel the sharp pinch of war."
0:13:52 > 0:13:54After just five months of war,
0:13:54 > 0:14:00175,000 knitted articles had been delivered to St James's Palace -
0:14:00 > 0:14:05items such as dressing-gowns, pyjamas and hot-water bottle covers.
0:14:07 > 0:14:10But it quickly became obvious that all these volunteers
0:14:10 > 0:14:13might put even more women workers out of a job.
0:14:15 > 0:14:17The trade union leader Mary Macarthur
0:14:17 > 0:14:21borrowed a line from a popular song to complain that there were
0:14:21 > 0:14:25"Too many sister Susies sewing shirts for soldiers."
0:14:25 > 0:14:28The Queen had rather put her royal foot in it.
0:14:31 > 0:14:34Mary Macarthur was a women's rights campaigner,
0:14:34 > 0:14:38considered a notorious firebrand by the respectable classes.
0:14:40 > 0:14:42She led the National Union of Women Workers,
0:14:42 > 0:14:46and begged for someone "to stop those women knitting!"
0:14:47 > 0:14:51But war can throw up unlikely alliances.
0:14:53 > 0:14:55No-one was more surprised than Mary Macarthur
0:14:55 > 0:14:58when she was summoned to an audience with the Queen.
0:14:58 > 0:15:01To everyone's astonishment, they got on famously.
0:15:01 > 0:15:04Afterwards, Macarthur claimed that she had
0:15:04 > 0:15:08"positively lectured the Queen on the inequalities of the classes,
0:15:08 > 0:15:11"the injustice of it."
0:15:11 > 0:15:13The Queen, she said, had listened intently,
0:15:13 > 0:15:16and asked for suitable reading matter on the subject.
0:15:19 > 0:15:21After Mary Macarthur's visit,
0:15:21 > 0:15:23the Queen Mary Workrooms were set up,
0:15:23 > 0:15:25to offer paid work for unemployed women.
0:15:27 > 0:15:30The Queen herself spent the rest of the war supporting schemes
0:15:30 > 0:15:33to help the needy and visiting hospitals,
0:15:33 > 0:15:34earning herself the nickname
0:15:34 > 0:15:36of the Charitable Bulldozer.
0:15:38 > 0:15:42As for Mary Macarthur, her work was just beginning
0:15:42 > 0:15:45in the fight for equality for women in the workplace.
0:15:46 > 0:15:50By 1915, huge numbers of working-class women
0:15:50 > 0:15:51right across the country
0:15:51 > 0:15:54were becoming part of the war machine.
0:16:00 > 0:16:02The well-to-do and the do-gooders had seized
0:16:02 > 0:16:05the initiative in the first few months of the war.
0:16:05 > 0:16:10Close behind were women who worked for a pittance in domestic service,
0:16:10 > 0:16:12or were now unemployed.
0:16:13 > 0:16:15They were needed by the Government.
0:16:15 > 0:16:18The fighting men on the front line were short of ammunition.
0:16:23 > 0:16:27By May, 1915, only a third of the six million shells
0:16:27 > 0:16:31ordered by the Government had been delivered.
0:16:31 > 0:16:33As the nation grew more aware
0:16:33 > 0:16:36that this war was making demands like no other,
0:16:36 > 0:16:39the newspapers splashed with the Shell Scandal.
0:16:44 > 0:16:47The Prime Minister Herbert Asquith
0:16:47 > 0:16:50responded by creating a Ministry of Munitions.
0:16:50 > 0:16:54In charge was his former Chancellor, David Lloyd George.
0:16:54 > 0:16:57Lloyd George, a wily and ambitious politician,
0:16:57 > 0:17:00had always been more sympathetic to the rights of women.
0:17:00 > 0:17:02Now he saw how their desire to work
0:17:02 > 0:17:05could be integrated into the war machine.
0:17:07 > 0:17:12To further his cause, Lloyd George secretly funded a demonstration.
0:17:14 > 0:17:1730,000 women marched along the Embankment
0:17:17 > 0:17:20to demand the right to serve.
0:17:22 > 0:17:25The protest, organised by Emmeline Pankhurst,
0:17:25 > 0:17:28ended in the gardens of the Ministry of Munitions,
0:17:28 > 0:17:31where the crowd was addressed by Lloyd George himself.
0:17:32 > 0:17:36Within days, footage of the march appeared on newsreels
0:17:36 > 0:17:40in more than 3,000 cinemas across the country.
0:17:41 > 0:17:44The transformation was swift.
0:17:44 > 0:17:48In 1914, 500,000 shells were produced
0:17:48 > 0:17:51by Britain's munition factories.
0:17:51 > 0:17:55Three years later, that figure had risen to over 76 million.
0:17:57 > 0:18:01Britain became one seething munitions factory
0:18:01 > 0:18:04as vast new buildings sprung up all over the country,
0:18:04 > 0:18:07and the old arsenals expanded.
0:18:07 > 0:18:10For those women who'd previously been in domestic service,
0:18:10 > 0:18:13life as a Munitionette was liberating.
0:18:13 > 0:18:15It was sociable.
0:18:15 > 0:18:17You didn't have to be servile.
0:18:17 > 0:18:19You got away from home.
0:18:19 > 0:18:20As one woman put it,
0:18:20 > 0:18:22you felt "Let out of the cage."
0:18:25 > 0:18:28All over the country huge buildings,
0:18:28 > 0:18:30like this one in Hereford,
0:18:30 > 0:18:33were crammed with nearly a million women workers
0:18:33 > 0:18:35who'd answered Lloyd George's call to arms.
0:18:38 > 0:18:41By the end of the war, women in munition factories
0:18:41 > 0:18:44earned more than three times what they'd earned before the war
0:18:44 > 0:18:46in domestic service.
0:18:52 > 0:18:56The Munitionettes' work was essential to the war machine.
0:18:56 > 0:19:00It was a challenge to those who always argued that women were
0:19:00 > 0:19:03life-givers, not life-takers.
0:19:03 > 0:19:05The work was arduous -
0:19:05 > 0:19:0712-hour shifts -
0:19:07 > 0:19:10it was noisy, dirty, dangerous.
0:19:10 > 0:19:15And in many ways, it echoed the experience of the men in Flanders.
0:19:18 > 0:19:22Munitions factories were legitimate military targets.
0:19:22 > 0:19:24The women were regularly evacuated
0:19:24 > 0:19:28due to the threat of bombing by German Zeppelin airships and planes.
0:19:29 > 0:19:32And the risk of explosions was always present.
0:19:38 > 0:19:41Behind these concrete blast walls was a wooden hut,
0:19:41 > 0:19:42with 14 women in it -
0:19:42 > 0:19:44filling shells with TNT,
0:19:44 > 0:19:47ramming it home with a wooden mallet.
0:19:47 > 0:19:50Originally, there'd be dozens of such huts,
0:19:50 > 0:19:53as far as the eye could see.
0:19:53 > 0:19:55The purpose of these walls was chillingly practical.
0:19:55 > 0:19:58If there was an explosion,
0:19:58 > 0:20:00then there'd be not a lot left.
0:20:00 > 0:20:02But the other huts wouldn't be affected.
0:20:02 > 0:20:05And productivity could be maintained.
0:20:10 > 0:20:14The chemical compounds handled on a daily basis by the women
0:20:14 > 0:20:16were not just explosive -
0:20:16 > 0:20:18they were also highly poisonous.
0:20:20 > 0:20:23TNT caused swollen faces and horrible rashes -
0:20:23 > 0:20:27it turned the women's hands and faces yellow,
0:20:27 > 0:20:31earning them the nickname of the Canary Girls.
0:20:31 > 0:20:33You went completely yellow
0:20:33 > 0:20:36and your clothes came off you yellow.
0:20:36 > 0:20:38You never got rid of it.
0:20:38 > 0:20:39Just stayed there.
0:20:39 > 0:20:41You got more and more yellow
0:20:41 > 0:20:43and people looked at you, then.
0:20:43 > 0:20:46When you got into the bus, or a tube, or anything like that
0:20:46 > 0:20:49they sort of looked at you, they wondered what was wrong with you.
0:20:49 > 0:20:52We felt like lepers going home.
0:20:56 > 0:20:59This is Marion Constance Lotinga.
0:20:59 > 0:21:02She came to work at the Hereford Factory in 1917.
0:21:02 > 0:21:06Eight months later, just before her 30th birthday,
0:21:06 > 0:21:09she was dead from working with TNT.
0:21:09 > 0:21:12A letter to the Imperial War Museum a year later
0:21:12 > 0:21:15from her only sister says,
0:21:15 > 0:21:19"It was a bitter blow for her poor mother. She was her baby.
0:21:19 > 0:21:23"She was a lovely girl, full of life".
0:21:27 > 0:21:32Official records show 109 munition workers died from TNT poisoning
0:21:32 > 0:21:35during the war.
0:21:38 > 0:21:42Gladys Sangster was born in 1917.
0:21:42 > 0:21:46Her mother worked in a munitions factory in Banbury, Oxfordshire.
0:21:49 > 0:21:53Tell me first of all of what you know your mother did in the war.
0:21:53 > 0:21:56Well, just carefully,
0:21:56 > 0:21:59and very carefully,
0:21:59 > 0:22:04she poured the powder into the shell - the brass shell.
0:22:05 > 0:22:07She knew how dangerous it was?
0:22:07 > 0:22:09Oh, yes.
0:22:09 > 0:22:11Yes, she knew that.
0:22:11 > 0:22:16You've got to keep your wits about you, the whole of the time.
0:22:16 > 0:22:21The powder that was going into the shells - did she or the girls,
0:22:21 > 0:22:24did they know that it could possibly harm them,
0:22:24 > 0:22:26as well as explode?
0:22:26 > 0:22:28Oh, yes. They knew all right,
0:22:28 > 0:22:31but they couldn't do nothing about it.
0:22:31 > 0:22:37While she was at the factory, she became pregnant, with you?
0:22:37 > 0:22:39Yes.
0:22:39 > 0:22:42- Did she go on working? - Oh, yes. She kept on working.
0:22:42 > 0:22:45There was nothing unusual about that.
0:22:45 > 0:22:47Until you were born?
0:22:47 > 0:22:48Yes.
0:22:48 > 0:22:51- Right up to it? - Yes, right up to it.
0:22:51 > 0:22:53And when I was born, I was yellow.
0:22:55 > 0:22:57And I really was yellow.
0:22:57 > 0:23:00Did she know why you were born yellow?
0:23:00 > 0:23:05Because of the powder she swallowed as she was filling them.
0:23:05 > 0:23:08So you get a certain amount - like dust -
0:23:08 > 0:23:10blowing in the air.
0:23:12 > 0:23:16And that's how she came to swallow some of it.
0:23:16 > 0:23:18It just went through her throat.
0:23:20 > 0:23:23And probably up her nose, as well, in breathing, naturally.
0:23:25 > 0:23:26That was it.
0:23:26 > 0:23:29So you were a Canary Baby?
0:23:29 > 0:23:31I was a Canary Baby!
0:23:33 > 0:23:34SHE CHUCKLES
0:23:38 > 0:23:39As the war progressed,
0:23:39 > 0:23:43the Government began to take an interest in women workers' health.
0:23:43 > 0:23:45Not through altruism -
0:23:45 > 0:23:48a healthy workforce produced more.
0:23:48 > 0:23:51It had found many women under-nourished,
0:23:51 > 0:23:54so the works canteen was introduced.
0:23:54 > 0:23:56The women were served plain food -
0:23:56 > 0:23:58meat and potatoes -
0:23:58 > 0:24:00but this was a mealtime revolution.
0:24:00 > 0:24:04Most had never sat and been served by someone else before.
0:24:04 > 0:24:08And, at home, meat was usually reserved for men.
0:24:10 > 0:24:11Crowded into huge factories,
0:24:11 > 0:24:15it's little wonder that women munition workers craved fresh air.
0:24:17 > 0:24:19Teams from the shipyards, engineering works
0:24:19 > 0:24:21and munitions
0:24:21 > 0:24:23donned mobcaps and even shorts.
0:24:25 > 0:24:27Even more than today, many thought -
0:24:27 > 0:24:30"Women? Playing football?!"
0:24:37 > 0:24:39Many men were keen to point out
0:24:39 > 0:24:42why the women should not play.
0:24:42 > 0:24:44The British Medical Journal was worried about
0:24:44 > 0:24:46"The danger to women's organs
0:24:46 > 0:24:48"which the common experience of women
0:24:48 > 0:24:51"had, in every way, led them to protect."
0:24:53 > 0:24:57But in 1915 the men's professional game was suspended -
0:24:57 > 0:25:01the trenches had taken both players and officials,
0:25:01 > 0:25:02and the women's game flowered.
0:25:06 > 0:25:08Thousands turned out to watch.
0:25:08 > 0:25:10And the press treated them as professionals.
0:25:13 > 0:25:16On occasion, the women played men who had their hands tied
0:25:16 > 0:25:18behind their back, as a handicap -
0:25:18 > 0:25:21the keeper was allowed one hand free.
0:25:21 > 0:25:23But usually the women's teams played each other,
0:25:23 > 0:25:25sometimes with bruising intensity.
0:25:27 > 0:25:30The most successful team in the north-east of England
0:25:30 > 0:25:33was Blyth Spartans Munitions Girls.
0:25:43 > 0:25:47The north-east of England, even then, was especially football-mad,
0:25:47 > 0:25:51and a group of girls from Blyth, working on the docks there,
0:25:51 > 0:25:54were taught to play football on the local sands
0:25:54 > 0:25:56by the crew of a visiting naval ship.
0:25:57 > 0:26:02In 1917, The Blyth News announced that the town now had a ladies' team
0:26:02 > 0:26:06who were "undergoing a thorough initiation into the art
0:26:06 > 0:26:11"of controlling the elusive pigskin".
0:26:11 > 0:26:13In their first game,
0:26:13 > 0:26:1717-year-old centre-forward Bella Reay scored six goals.
0:26:17 > 0:26:20Bella was the daughter of a local pitman.
0:26:20 > 0:26:22She quickly became the star of the team,
0:26:22 > 0:26:26scoring 133 goals in one season.
0:26:26 > 0:26:28And Blyth Spartans Munitions Girls
0:26:28 > 0:26:32remained unbeaten for the two years they were together.
0:26:33 > 0:26:37She worked in the munitions factory, you know, when she was 17.
0:26:37 > 0:26:40And then decided then that they wanted to do something more
0:26:40 > 0:26:42for the war effort.
0:26:42 > 0:26:45All of the games that they ever did were all for the wounded soldiers.
0:26:45 > 0:26:48All the money they ever made,
0:26:48 > 0:26:49it was all done for charity.
0:26:49 > 0:26:51Did lots of people come to see them?
0:26:51 > 0:26:57Yes, she played anywhere from crowds of 1,000 up to 20,000 people.
0:26:57 > 0:27:00When your grandmother talked to you about football, what did she say?
0:27:00 > 0:27:02Just how good she was.
0:27:02 > 0:27:04That was the main thing, you know.
0:27:05 > 0:27:07She said, "I was good, but I knew I was good."
0:27:07 > 0:27:10We would never forget her saying that to us -
0:27:10 > 0:27:12"Oh, I knew I was good!"
0:27:12 > 0:27:14She played in the Munition Girls Cup Final, didn't she?
0:27:14 > 0:27:17- Yes, she did. Yes. - That must have been a big match.
0:27:17 > 0:27:19Yes, it was.
0:27:19 > 0:27:21That was when she got her gold medal which...
0:27:21 > 0:27:23Would you like to have a look at the gold medal she got?
0:27:27 > 0:27:28Fantastic!
0:27:28 > 0:27:31Beautiful medal, it is.
0:27:31 > 0:27:32How did she do in the final?
0:27:32 > 0:27:34Very well.
0:27:34 > 0:27:37She was, I think she was the best goal scorer in the final.
0:27:37 > 0:27:40People are surprised now to hear
0:27:40 > 0:27:42that girls played football at that time.
0:27:42 > 0:27:45- What do you think of that?- Well, because when they get on about it,
0:27:45 > 0:27:48I say, "Well, my grandma played nearly 100 years ago,
0:27:48 > 0:27:52and we're very, very proud that we are part of history, really.
0:27:52 > 0:27:56You know, because she was very, very well-known in her time.
0:27:56 > 0:27:58Everybody knew her "Woah, Bella" -
0:27:58 > 0:28:01that was what they used to shout - "Away, Bella!"
0:28:01 > 0:28:04You know, that's the thing, and it's lovely, really,
0:28:04 > 0:28:07to think that we are part of a little bit of history.
0:28:12 > 0:28:15Some Munitionettes matches continued after the war,
0:28:15 > 0:28:18sometimes attracting larger crowds than the professionals,
0:28:18 > 0:28:20who had been demobbed.
0:28:20 > 0:28:25But by 1921, the Football Association had had enough,
0:28:25 > 0:28:29and it banned the women from playing on their grounds, saying,
0:28:29 > 0:28:33"The game of football is quite unsuitable for females
0:28:33 > 0:28:36"and ought not to be encouraged."
0:28:36 > 0:28:39Women's football, like so much else,
0:28:39 > 0:28:42was only tolerable for the duration of the war.
0:28:54 > 0:28:59Gangs of working women enjoying themselves after a 12-hour shift,
0:28:59 > 0:29:02were unnerving to many people.
0:29:02 > 0:29:05Instead of being at home under father's watchful eye,
0:29:05 > 0:29:08they discovered the forerunner of Girls' Night Out.
0:29:09 > 0:29:14The press went into overdrive, with stories of "giddy factory girls"
0:29:14 > 0:29:17frittering money in pubs with men.
0:29:17 > 0:29:20The Aberdeen Journal reported that they had
0:29:20 > 0:29:24"more money in their hands than usual, and they were only too many
0:29:24 > 0:29:27"ready to help them to spend it in the wrong way."
0:29:31 > 0:29:35The Munitionettes were experiencing a liberation they hadn't expected.
0:29:35 > 0:29:37They were aping their betters -
0:29:37 > 0:29:40out and about, with a little money to spend.
0:29:40 > 0:29:42Traditionalists were outraged.
0:29:42 > 0:29:44Not for the first time in the war,
0:29:44 > 0:29:46there was a bout of moral panic.
0:29:46 > 0:29:48Women were getting out of control.
0:29:54 > 0:29:57More worldy-wise women, such as Margaret Damer Dawson,
0:29:57 > 0:30:01set out to protect women, as well as cautioning their behaviour.
0:30:02 > 0:30:05Dawson approached the Commissioner of Police in London
0:30:05 > 0:30:08for permission to create a voluntary body
0:30:08 > 0:30:11of trained and uniformed police women.
0:30:12 > 0:30:15He declared himself "not at all averse to the idea",
0:30:15 > 0:30:19as long as they remained separate from his force.
0:30:19 > 0:30:22The result was the foundation of Britain's first
0:30:22 > 0:30:24Women's Police Service, the WPS.
0:30:25 > 0:30:28Margaret Damer Dawson was a tough character.
0:30:28 > 0:30:31Her friends called her "Fighting Dawson".
0:30:31 > 0:30:34Her first recruits were mainly educated middle-class women,
0:30:34 > 0:30:37trained in first aid and a little jiu jitsu.
0:30:37 > 0:30:41But they faced a battle to be taken seriously by the men.
0:30:41 > 0:30:45When one male police officer, when asked if women would ever
0:30:45 > 0:30:48be police constables, laughed and said,
0:30:48 > 0:30:51"No, not if the war lasts 50 years".
0:30:53 > 0:30:56The WPS were not granted the power of arrest,
0:30:56 > 0:31:00and were expected to deal solely with women and children.
0:31:00 > 0:31:04Most male constables thought that Dawson's "Copperettes",
0:31:04 > 0:31:07as the Sussex Times called them, should be deployed
0:31:07 > 0:31:11only to protect Britain's men from the temptations of women.
0:31:13 > 0:31:15Prostitution was frowned on.
0:31:15 > 0:31:20And the authorities viewed it as entirely the fault of women.
0:31:20 > 0:31:24Dawson's patrols were not popular with the women they policed.
0:31:24 > 0:31:28One 14-year old girl said she'd been told off for crimping her hair,
0:31:28 > 0:31:31and "dressing up and walking about
0:31:31 > 0:31:33"in order to attract the attention of men".
0:31:37 > 0:31:40Many men disliked having to deal with women.
0:31:40 > 0:31:43Especially in the factories.
0:31:43 > 0:31:48By 1917, the Rotherwas Munitions plant in Hereford employed
0:31:48 > 0:31:51nearly 4,000 women workers.
0:31:51 > 0:31:53Many were rowdy and tough.
0:31:53 > 0:31:55When disputes arose, managers,
0:31:55 > 0:32:01more used to obedient wives and daughters, had no idea what to do.
0:32:01 > 0:32:04The Prime Minister David Lloyd George turned to
0:32:04 > 0:32:07Margaret Damer Dawson's women police.
0:32:07 > 0:32:11He deployed nearly a thousand of them to keep order
0:32:11 > 0:32:13in the munitions factories.
0:32:13 > 0:32:18Policewoman Gabrielle West kept a diary, describing her experiences.
0:32:20 > 0:32:23Her initial impressions of the workers
0:32:23 > 0:32:27at the Pembrey Munitions Factory in South Wales were not favourable.
0:32:27 > 0:32:30"They are full of socialistic theory
0:32:30 > 0:32:33"and very great on getting up strikes.
0:32:33 > 0:32:36"But they are easily influenced by a little oratory,
0:32:36 > 0:32:40"and go back to work like lambs when you shout at them long enough".
0:32:40 > 0:32:44Rather than being a social leveller, as it's often portrayed,
0:32:44 > 0:32:48life in the munitions factories relied on the class system
0:32:48 > 0:32:49to maintain law and order.
0:32:53 > 0:32:55Within weeks of the war ending,
0:32:55 > 0:32:58the Metropolitan Police announced plans to train women
0:32:58 > 0:33:01to become paid constables for the first time.
0:33:02 > 0:33:06What followed was humiliation for Margaret Damer Dawson.
0:33:06 > 0:33:09Her officers were rejected as candidates -
0:33:09 > 0:33:13dismissed as "vinegary spinsters" and "blighted middle-aged fanatics"
0:33:13 > 0:33:16who wanted to "purify" the male police.
0:33:17 > 0:33:21As a final blow, Dawson was ordered to wind down the WPS.
0:33:25 > 0:33:31Margaret Damer Dawson died in 1920, aged 45, of a heart attack,
0:33:31 > 0:33:34it was said, brought on by the hostility she faced
0:33:34 > 0:33:36from the male police establishment.
0:33:37 > 0:33:40She'd tried so hard to gain acceptance.
0:33:40 > 0:33:42Just before she died,
0:33:42 > 0:33:45she got to the heart of the problem of policing women.
0:33:45 > 0:33:47"In the realm of morals", she said,
0:33:47 > 0:33:51"we have not advanced beyond Adam and Eve".
0:33:58 > 0:34:00But at least Eve could go to work,
0:34:00 > 0:34:05and women on the Home Front were now celebrated in popular song.
0:34:05 > 0:34:07MUSIC: "Women's Work" by Tom Clare.
0:34:07 > 0:34:11# ..with his ship so grey, and his army fighting far away
0:34:11 > 0:34:15# All the boys have gone
0:34:15 > 0:34:20# So the girls today carry on with the work in the morning
0:34:23 > 0:34:27# Oh the conductorette without much fuss
0:34:27 > 0:34:29# Just do their level best for us
0:34:29 > 0:34:33# But they don't push people off the bus
0:34:33 > 0:34:36# When it's raining hard in the morning
0:34:39 > 0:34:42# Oh the girls have shown surprising gifts
0:34:42 > 0:34:45# From railways now they work the lifts
0:34:45 > 0:34:49# If they'd only do the work in shifts
0:34:49 > 0:34:53# They would get such a crowd in the morning... #
0:34:53 > 0:34:58Images of this new British workforce reached as far as the frontline,
0:34:58 > 0:35:01thanks to "Smokes For Soldiers" -
0:35:01 > 0:35:04a campaign to keep the troops supplied with tobacco.
0:35:06 > 0:35:09Carreras slipped a patriotic card into packets
0:35:09 > 0:35:14of Black Cat cigarettes, each depicting a pretty war worker.
0:35:14 > 0:35:18Here we have a road sweeper,
0:35:18 > 0:35:21and then there's the woman stoker.
0:35:24 > 0:35:29There's a mechanic, and there are also coal workers.
0:35:31 > 0:35:35And then, there's the Lady Gamekeeper.
0:35:37 > 0:35:41Smokes For Soldiers was the pet project of Lady Denman.
0:35:41 > 0:35:44She'd been a supporter of the women's suffrage movement,
0:35:44 > 0:35:48but now her passion was to keep our boys supplied with tobacco.
0:35:50 > 0:35:54At the time, smoking was regarded as beneficial to health.
0:35:54 > 0:35:56Sending out cigarettes was seen as equal
0:35:56 > 0:35:58to sending out food or medicine.
0:35:59 > 0:36:02The scheme proved wildly successful,
0:36:02 > 0:36:07shipping over 265 million cigarettes to the front.
0:36:07 > 0:36:10And the Carreras cigarette cards were an added treat.
0:36:12 > 0:36:16On the back of each card, there's a description:
0:36:16 > 0:36:21"The Woman Gamekeeper is a distinct novelty in the English country life.
0:36:21 > 0:36:24"Quite a number of sportswomen have taken up this work
0:36:24 > 0:36:28"for the duration of the war, and in this they are proving themselves
0:36:28 > 0:36:30"thoroughly capable and efficient".
0:36:31 > 0:36:35There are 50 of these in total - and they're a marvellous record
0:36:35 > 0:36:40of what women were doing on the Home Front, for the men away at war.
0:36:50 > 0:36:56# And did those feet in ancient times
0:36:56 > 0:37:01# Walk upon England's mountains green... #
0:37:02 > 0:37:05Women the length and breadth of Britain
0:37:05 > 0:37:08now felt themselves part of the Home Front.
0:37:08 > 0:37:13# ..on England's pleasant pastures seen?
0:37:13 > 0:37:18# And did the countenance divine
0:37:18 > 0:37:24# Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
0:37:24 > 0:37:29# And was Jerusalem builded here
0:37:29 > 0:37:33# Among those dark satanic mills? #
0:37:35 > 0:37:42The first Women's Institute in Britain opened on Anglesey in 1915.
0:37:42 > 0:37:46The organisation quickly took root, responding to the demands of war.
0:37:46 > 0:37:51It found its leader in the Smokes For Soldiers mastermind,
0:37:51 > 0:37:53Lady Denman,
0:37:53 > 0:37:57who kept chickens within squawking distance of Buckingham Palace.
0:37:59 > 0:38:02Trudie Denman was passionate about poultry.
0:38:02 > 0:38:06Now she swapped cigarettes for eggs.
0:38:06 > 0:38:10Countrywomen were to meet and act collectively, to get involved
0:38:10 > 0:38:15in food production rather than just subsisting on the land.
0:38:15 > 0:38:17Yes, jam-making was involved,
0:38:17 > 0:38:21but a quiet revolution was taking place in their lives.
0:38:27 > 0:38:29Right, we've got one leg.
0:38:30 > 0:38:33There's the nose. Everything's all right here.
0:38:34 > 0:38:38All right, sweetheart, good girl. Yes, you're a good girl.
0:38:41 > 0:38:43You're doing very well indeed.
0:38:43 > 0:38:45- Come on, Nelly.- Oh!
0:38:47 > 0:38:51Come on, darling, come on, take a little breath, there's a good boy.
0:38:51 > 0:38:54Come on, give it a wash! That's right.
0:38:57 > 0:38:59Beyond the estates of the wealthy,
0:38:59 > 0:39:03the countryside wasn't an easy place to live.
0:39:03 > 0:39:07Unlike now, it was unmechanised and backward-looking.
0:39:08 > 0:39:13For half a century, agriculture in Britain had been in decline,
0:39:13 > 0:39:15mainly due to cheaper foreign imports.
0:39:16 > 0:39:19The life of a farmer's wife was physically exhausting,
0:39:19 > 0:39:23frequently lonely, and often on the edge of poverty -
0:39:23 > 0:39:26a pre-war report said that women in the countryside
0:39:26 > 0:39:30are the class most likely to go insane.
0:39:30 > 0:39:33But now, for the first time in living memory,
0:39:33 > 0:39:35home-grown food was needed, and profitable.
0:39:40 > 0:39:45In 1917, events on the Home Front took a dramatic turn.
0:39:47 > 0:39:49German U-boats targeted supply ships,
0:39:49 > 0:39:52in a bid to starve Britain into submission.
0:39:54 > 0:39:56Dire warnings were issued
0:39:56 > 0:39:59that the nation had only a few weeks' supply of wheat in reserve.
0:40:00 > 0:40:04The result was the formation of the Women's Land Army.
0:40:09 > 0:40:13After much cajoling, 23,000 women joined up,
0:40:13 > 0:40:15to put food on the nation's tables.
0:40:18 > 0:40:22And wearing smocks and gaiters, many felt liberated
0:40:22 > 0:40:25from the servility and loneliness of domestic service.
0:40:32 > 0:40:36The propaganda value of the Land Army ultimately outweighed
0:40:36 > 0:40:39its contribution to food production.
0:40:39 > 0:40:43The image of a girl behind the plough had lasting resonance,
0:40:43 > 0:40:47and country women began to take charge of their own livelihoods.
0:40:47 > 0:40:50As an enraptured Dorchester Chronicle put it,
0:40:50 > 0:40:53"Here is a dawning of a new era for womankind,
0:40:53 > 0:40:56"and therefore, the human race!"
0:41:08 > 0:41:10Growing up in the North-East of England,
0:41:10 > 0:41:14I remember the shipyards as the exclusive domain of men.
0:41:16 > 0:41:18They still are, where they survive.
0:41:20 > 0:41:25But in January 1916, when conscription was introduced,
0:41:25 > 0:41:26more women than ever were needed
0:41:26 > 0:41:30to take on skilled men's work in industry.
0:41:30 > 0:41:34The yards, the forges, the engineering works,
0:41:34 > 0:41:38were made to open their gates to women, by war.
0:41:38 > 0:41:41Skilled men feared that their prized status would be threatened
0:41:41 > 0:41:44by unskilled women working alongside them,
0:41:44 > 0:41:48doing the same job and being paid less.
0:41:48 > 0:41:51Entrenched attitudes and prejudices were at play.
0:41:51 > 0:41:55Men were expected to be the breadwinners, supporting a family.
0:41:55 > 0:41:59Women were thought to have more modest running costs -
0:41:59 > 0:42:02"tea and toast are cheaper than beer and beefsteaks",
0:42:02 > 0:42:04said one factory foreman.
0:42:04 > 0:42:07A strong conviction remained that people should be paid
0:42:07 > 0:42:10not for what they did, but for who they were.
0:42:14 > 0:42:19Equal pay was never mentioned - the Government wasn't concerned -
0:42:19 > 0:42:21all it wanted was to increase production.
0:42:23 > 0:42:27Its answer was a policy known as "dilution".
0:42:27 > 0:42:29This meant splitting a skilled man's work
0:42:29 > 0:42:32into two or three component parts,
0:42:32 > 0:42:35to be divided up between two or three women.
0:42:37 > 0:42:39The unions accepted dilution,
0:42:39 > 0:42:43on the understanding that it was only for the duration.
0:42:43 > 0:42:45Once the war was over, and the men returned,
0:42:45 > 0:42:49all agreed that everything would revert back to normal.
0:42:50 > 0:42:52The women worked hard during the war,
0:42:52 > 0:42:55but so did the men and their trade unions,
0:42:55 > 0:42:57to safeguard their skilled positions,
0:42:57 > 0:43:00and maintain their higher pay.
0:43:00 > 0:43:03The fear was the feminisation of the workforce,
0:43:03 > 0:43:07and that would mean less money, because women always had been,
0:43:07 > 0:43:11and they thought, always would be, cheaper to employ.
0:43:28 > 0:43:33By 1916, wounded men were coming home in overwhelming numbers,
0:43:33 > 0:43:35in urgent need of medical attention.
0:43:36 > 0:43:40Britain's small band of professional nurses were joined by
0:43:40 > 0:43:45nursing assistants from the Voluntary Aid Detachment - the VADs.
0:43:45 > 0:43:48The professional nurses bitterly resented
0:43:48 > 0:43:51the "gently-bred young ladies" who volunteered.
0:43:53 > 0:43:56But the sheer number of soldiers requiring care
0:43:56 > 0:43:58soon swept aside such objections.
0:44:03 > 0:44:04Across the country,
0:44:04 > 0:44:07public buildings and private residences were offered up
0:44:07 > 0:44:13or commandeered for use as auxiliary hospitals, staffed mainly by VADs.
0:44:14 > 0:44:20In 1917, Lady Stamford offered Dunham Massey to the Red Cross.
0:44:20 > 0:44:24Her daughter Lady Jane Grey worked here as a VAD.
0:44:25 > 0:44:27It could be grisly work,
0:44:27 > 0:44:31with the operating table tucked in next to the Grand Staircase.
0:44:32 > 0:44:37Lady Jane remembered helping remove a bullet from a soldier's brain.
0:44:40 > 0:44:45I was given the job of shining a torch into the hole
0:44:45 > 0:44:47once they'd made the hole in the brain,
0:44:47 > 0:44:51and so I held the torch in front and saw the bullet
0:44:51 > 0:44:54being extracted by the surgeon.
0:44:54 > 0:44:56It was very interesting!
0:45:00 > 0:45:06By 1918, more than 70,000 VADs had played a crucial part
0:45:06 > 0:45:08in the war effort.
0:45:08 > 0:45:12In a man's world, they were the perfect women - volunteers,
0:45:12 > 0:45:17not wanting equal pay, and not demanding a new kind of job.
0:45:17 > 0:45:20Theirs was the traditional caring role -
0:45:20 > 0:45:24they were non-threatening - plucky, but lovable.
0:45:24 > 0:45:27Women doctors, on the other hand,
0:45:27 > 0:45:29evoked a very different kind of response.
0:45:32 > 0:45:36There were just over 500 qualified female doctors in Britain
0:45:36 > 0:45:37at the outbreak of war.
0:45:39 > 0:45:43Their options were narrow. They could only treat women and children.
0:45:44 > 0:45:47Male professors were known to bar female medical students
0:45:47 > 0:45:51from anatomy lectures, which featured the naked male body.
0:45:52 > 0:45:55But some managed to make their mark,
0:45:55 > 0:45:59such as the outstanding Elsie Inglis.
0:45:59 > 0:46:03The moment war was declared, Elsie headed for the War Office
0:46:03 > 0:46:06at Edinburgh Castle, and saw a senior official.
0:46:06 > 0:46:12She told him she could supply 1,000 trained women doctors and nurses
0:46:12 > 0:46:14for service overseas.
0:46:14 > 0:46:16The response?
0:46:16 > 0:46:19"Dear lady, go home and sit still."
0:46:21 > 0:46:25Like Elsie, two other remarkable women doctors had been active
0:46:25 > 0:46:28in the suffrage movement:
0:46:28 > 0:46:31Flora Murray and Louisa Garrett Anderson,
0:46:31 > 0:46:36the daughter of the first woman to qualify as a doctor in Britain.
0:46:36 > 0:46:40Together, they now founded the Women's Hospital Corps.
0:46:40 > 0:46:44After watching them successfully run hospitals in France,
0:46:44 > 0:46:48the British War Office gritted its teeth and offered them
0:46:48 > 0:46:52a large military hospital, with over 500 beds, in London.
0:46:53 > 0:46:57They accepted immediately, and revealed their growing confidence
0:46:57 > 0:47:02by insisting it must be entirely staffed by women.
0:47:02 > 0:47:06The new hospital was sited in Endell Street, in Covent Garden.
0:47:06 > 0:47:08The building had previously been a notorious workhouse -
0:47:08 > 0:47:13thought to be the workhouse in Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist.
0:47:13 > 0:47:16When the women arrived there, they hardly got a warm welcome.
0:47:16 > 0:47:18"Good God..."
0:47:18 > 0:47:21said the colonel in charge of converting the building, "..women!"
0:47:24 > 0:47:28New staff were told that skill levels acceptable from a man
0:47:28 > 0:47:30would not be accepted from a woman.
0:47:30 > 0:47:32They had to do better.
0:47:35 > 0:47:39It was a very, very busy hospital throughout the war.
0:47:39 > 0:47:43Their main intake was from ambulance trains which came in,
0:47:43 > 0:47:45into the main railway stations,
0:47:45 > 0:47:48from Dover usually. Often late at night,
0:47:48 > 0:47:52a convoy of ambulances would arrive in this courtyard,
0:47:52 > 0:47:56and there would be 80, 100 men to be triaged and dealt with,
0:47:56 > 0:48:00and often quite a few of them had to go to theatre immediately.
0:48:00 > 0:48:04They had a lot of serious cases - these weren't convalescent soldiers,
0:48:04 > 0:48:07these were soldiers requiring a lot of treatment.
0:48:07 > 0:48:10One of the great features of the hospital was not just
0:48:10 > 0:48:13the clinical side, it was the actual atmosphere.
0:48:13 > 0:48:15What was special about it?
0:48:15 > 0:48:21They laid special emphasis on getting the men recovered
0:48:21 > 0:48:24psychologically from the traumas they'd seen.
0:48:24 > 0:48:28And every effort was made to make the atmosphere
0:48:28 > 0:48:31of these rather grim buildings congenial.
0:48:31 > 0:48:36The courtyard had flowers regularly tended by the gardeners,
0:48:36 > 0:48:39the wards had fresh flowers in them, changed regularly
0:48:39 > 0:48:43by a team of volunteers, there were sports days,
0:48:43 > 0:48:48there were demonstrations by champion boxers.
0:48:48 > 0:48:51It was a very varied programme of entertainment.
0:48:51 > 0:48:54The hospital did have the word "suffragette" attached to it.
0:48:54 > 0:48:59Yes, it did, because Flora Murray and Louisa Garrett Anderson
0:48:59 > 0:49:03had been very prominent in Mrs Pankhurst's organisation.
0:49:03 > 0:49:07Flora Murray was actually Mrs Pankhurst's personal physician,
0:49:07 > 0:49:10and Anderson had spent time in Holloway,
0:49:10 > 0:49:12having thrown a brick through a window.
0:49:12 > 0:49:16So they were well-known, and many, many of their staff
0:49:16 > 0:49:19were also supporters of the suffrage movement.
0:49:19 > 0:49:24But these women had shown themselves capable of running a hospital,
0:49:24 > 0:49:27a large military hospital,
0:49:27 > 0:49:30they'd shown themselves to be capable of treating
0:49:30 > 0:49:33really very serious medical and surgical problems,
0:49:33 > 0:49:38and of successfully treating male patients,
0:49:38 > 0:49:41and this was something that had not been proved before.
0:49:41 > 0:49:42And what is more,
0:49:42 > 0:49:45they had shown it would happen without civilisation collapsing.
0:49:49 > 0:49:54More than 26,000 men were treated at Endell Street Military Hospital.
0:49:54 > 0:49:57Many needed major abdominal and cranial surgery.
0:49:58 > 0:50:03In 1917, in recognition of their pioneering work,
0:50:03 > 0:50:08both Flora Murray and Louisa Garrett Anderson were awarded CBEs.
0:50:09 > 0:50:11The legacy of Endell Street
0:50:11 > 0:50:14is that men could be treated by women doctors.
0:50:14 > 0:50:19Only one patient ever said he wouldn't be treated by a female.
0:50:19 > 0:50:22And after a few days, he changed his mind,
0:50:22 > 0:50:25and asked his mother if he'd be allowed to stay a little longer.
0:50:25 > 0:50:28"The whole hospital is a triumph for women",
0:50:28 > 0:50:30wrote another patient home,
0:50:30 > 0:50:34"incidentally, it is a triumph for suffragettes".
0:50:34 > 0:50:39By 1917, women were involved in almost every area of life
0:50:39 > 0:50:41on the Home Front.
0:50:41 > 0:50:44# When the post girl comes upon the scenes
0:50:44 > 0:50:47# In the early morn like fairy queens
0:50:47 > 0:50:52# For their knocks are soft for they know what it means
0:50:52 > 0:50:55# To disturb baby boy in the morning... #
0:50:55 > 0:50:59It turned out there was little that women couldn't do.
0:50:59 > 0:51:02# Though the jobs they've got may not remain
0:51:02 > 0:51:06# When the time comes round we shan't complain
0:51:06 > 0:51:11# For they'll be their old sweet selves once again
0:51:11 > 0:51:17# When the boys come home in the morning... #
0:51:33 > 0:51:37But Britain's women were still denied the right to vote -
0:51:37 > 0:51:41the very issue that sat at the heart of the Suffragettes' campaigning.
0:51:49 > 0:51:51Deep within the all-male Parliament,
0:51:51 > 0:51:55there existed a place which epitomised the status of women
0:51:55 > 0:51:58in public life - the Ladies' Gallery.
0:52:01 > 0:52:05The original Ladies' Gallery was destroyed by bombing
0:52:05 > 0:52:08in the Second World War, but today's press gallery
0:52:08 > 0:52:10occupies a similar position.
0:52:12 > 0:52:15It was a cramped space, hot and stuffy.
0:52:15 > 0:52:17And there was a metal lattice grille
0:52:17 > 0:52:21which obstructed the view of the House of Commons below.
0:52:21 > 0:52:23Though it was originally installed
0:52:23 > 0:52:27so that the men below would not be distracted by the ladies above.
0:52:27 > 0:52:31The Suffragettes regarded it as a symbolic cage,
0:52:31 > 0:52:34which separated them from the business of politics.
0:52:39 > 0:52:42Before the war, Winston Churchill argued that
0:52:42 > 0:52:47"Women are well represented by their fathers, brothers and husbands".
0:52:48 > 0:52:51But many of those men were overseas now
0:52:51 > 0:52:53and potentially ineligible to vote.
0:52:55 > 0:52:59The Government contemplated changing the law on voting qualifications.
0:53:00 > 0:53:04And the suffrage campaigners scented a chance to press their case
0:53:04 > 0:53:06to include women.
0:53:09 > 0:53:11The new Prime Minister was David Lloyd George.
0:53:11 > 0:53:14He offered a more sympathetic ear to the campaigners -
0:53:14 > 0:53:19no-one knew better what invaluable work they'd done in the factories.
0:53:19 > 0:53:22Emmeline Pankhurst was pragmatic.
0:53:22 > 0:53:25She urged him to speed the legislation and said,
0:53:25 > 0:53:29"Whatever can be passed in war circumstances,
0:53:29 > 0:53:30"we are ready to accept."
0:53:33 > 0:53:35On the 19th June 1917,
0:53:35 > 0:53:40the Ladies' Gallery was packed with women eager to hear the Commons
0:53:40 > 0:53:44debating a new bill - The Representation of the People.
0:53:46 > 0:53:49Even the most optimistic couldn't have predicted
0:53:49 > 0:53:50the outcome of the vote.
0:53:52 > 0:53:5455 against.
0:53:54 > 0:53:58385 in favour.
0:53:58 > 0:54:01The tide had finally turned.
0:54:04 > 0:54:09The Representation of the People Act became law in 1918.
0:54:09 > 0:54:13It granted the vote to women over 30 who were householders
0:54:13 > 0:54:16or the wives of householders, or graduates.
0:54:17 > 0:54:22The First World War had delivered a partial victory for Britain's women.
0:54:22 > 0:54:26There's no escaping the fact that MPs saw the vote for women
0:54:26 > 0:54:28as a prize rather than a right.
0:54:28 > 0:54:34As one woman put it, "Rather like a biscuit given to a performing dog
0:54:34 > 0:54:38"that has just done its tricks particularly well".
0:54:38 > 0:54:41The majority of the women who worked in the factories were under 30
0:54:41 > 0:54:45and not householders, so they remained without a vote.
0:54:59 > 0:55:03One reminder of that tumultuous time is hidden away
0:55:03 > 0:55:07in the basement of the Houses of Parliament.
0:55:12 > 0:55:14A few weeks after the vote,
0:55:14 > 0:55:18the notorious grille which had caged in women in the Ladies Gallery
0:55:18 > 0:55:20was quietly removed.
0:55:25 > 0:55:27Here's a section of it -
0:55:27 > 0:55:31a symbol of the struggle by women to achieve their rights.
0:55:31 > 0:55:35Its removal cost a modest £5.
0:55:48 > 0:55:51Fighting officially ended across Western Europe
0:55:51 > 0:55:54on the 11th of November 1918.
0:55:56 > 0:56:00For many women war workers, the celebrations were short-lived.
0:56:02 > 0:56:07A week after the Armistice, 6,000 Munitionettes marched on Parliament
0:56:07 > 0:56:11demanding "immediate guarantees for the future".
0:56:11 > 0:56:16According to the Times, they were "loudly cheered by soldiers".
0:56:16 > 0:56:20But the phrase "only for the duration" was coming home to roost.
0:56:22 > 0:56:27By the end of 1918, only a third of adult women were in employment -
0:56:27 > 0:56:29the same as before the war.
0:56:29 > 0:56:31Within a dozen years,
0:56:31 > 0:56:36their wages were less than half those of men in the same industries.
0:56:36 > 0:56:39The clock had struck midnight.
0:56:39 > 0:56:41The Cinderellas were no longer in the limelight.
0:56:41 > 0:56:43They were at home, by the hearth.
0:56:49 > 0:56:52The lot of women was to be carers once more,
0:56:52 > 0:56:55to return to a traditional, maternal role.
0:56:57 > 0:57:01A Ministry of Labour leaflet made clear the Government's position.
0:57:01 > 0:57:04"A call comes again to the women of Britain,
0:57:04 > 0:57:07"a call happily not to make shells.
0:57:07 > 0:57:12"But to help renew the homes of England, to sew and to mend,
0:57:12 > 0:57:17"to cook and to clean and to rear babies in health and happiness".
0:57:20 > 0:57:25The Union leader Mary Macarthur was caustic in her analysis.
0:57:25 > 0:57:29"The new world looks uncommonly like the old one", she said.
0:57:29 > 0:57:31But there had been a shift.
0:57:31 > 0:57:35Women had been on the public stage, in the media,
0:57:35 > 0:57:39shouldered responsibility, tasted independence.
0:57:39 > 0:57:44Not as queens, saints or martyrs, but as ordinary women.
0:57:44 > 0:57:47They could now think of themselves differently.
0:57:49 > 0:57:53Three years after the Armistice, the suffrage campaigner
0:57:53 > 0:57:56and academic Maude Royden climbed to the pulpit
0:57:56 > 0:57:59here in St Botolph's in the City of London.
0:58:00 > 0:58:04The first woman in the Church of England to preach from the pulpit.
0:58:05 > 0:58:10A woman in the pulpit had been unimaginable before the war.
0:58:10 > 0:58:14But now, women from all backgrounds had experienced
0:58:14 > 0:58:18a taste of public life, and held their own in the workplace.
0:58:18 > 0:58:23Their own lives had become entwined with national events.
0:58:23 > 0:58:27Having proved what they could do, for the duration of the war,
0:58:27 > 0:58:31they emerged to press the case that they always should do it.
0:58:33 > 0:58:37And continue the struggle for fairness and equality.