0:00:02 > 0:00:06# Pack up your troubles in your old kit bag and smile, smile, smile... #
0:00:06 > 0:00:08As every schoolchild knows,
0:00:08 > 0:00:11Britain won the First World War thanks to the millions of men
0:00:11 > 0:00:15who packed up their kit bags and went off to fight.
0:00:15 > 0:00:18# Pack up your troubles in your old kit bag... #
0:00:18 > 0:00:21But it wasn't just the men who won the war.
0:00:21 > 0:00:23Women were vital, too.
0:00:34 > 0:00:38As a historian, I've worked on Welsh women's history for 40 years.
0:00:39 > 0:00:42Now I'm meeting today's workers,
0:00:42 > 0:00:46Welsh women doing jobs that had been closed to them until the war changed
0:00:46 > 0:00:51the game. Women started feeding the nation with the Women's Land Army,
0:00:51 > 0:00:54arming the nation as munition workers...
0:00:55 > 0:00:58- Awful, isn't it? - Disturbing stuff, isn't it?
0:00:58 > 0:00:59Yeah.
0:00:59 > 0:01:03..and keeping the peace as the first women police officers.
0:01:04 > 0:01:05- Directing people...- Yeah.
0:01:05 > 0:01:08- If I don't know where I am... BOTH:- Ask a policeman.
0:01:08 > 0:01:09- Yeah.- A police officer.
0:01:09 > 0:01:11Yeah, exactly.
0:01:11 > 0:01:15I want them to understand how World War I threw open the gates
0:01:15 > 0:01:18of opportunity for women in Wales today.
0:01:26 > 0:01:27In the First World War,
0:01:27 > 0:01:32women in every street in Wales had to say goodbye to a man she loved.
0:01:40 > 0:01:42The British Government recruited
0:01:42 > 0:01:45huge numbers of men, up and down the country.
0:01:47 > 0:01:49Government propaganda stressed that mothers,
0:01:49 > 0:01:53wives and sweethearts should send their men off to war.
0:01:53 > 0:01:58# Go, for your King and your country... #
0:02:02 > 0:02:065.5 million British troops fought in the war.
0:02:07 > 0:02:10And, therefore, there was a great demand for weapons.
0:02:10 > 0:02:12And that's exactly where the women came in.
0:02:12 > 0:02:15Women moved into the munitions factories
0:02:15 > 0:02:20producing the weapons, and they made a tremendous contribution
0:02:20 > 0:02:21to the war effort.
0:02:22 > 0:02:26The Government commandeered many types of factory to produce weapons
0:02:26 > 0:02:28and called for women to work in them.
0:02:30 > 0:02:33The man driving the recruitment was David Lloyd George,
0:02:33 > 0:02:37who was Minister of Munitions from May 1915.
0:02:37 > 0:02:40Within 18 months, he became Prime Minister,
0:02:40 > 0:02:42steering Britain eventually to victory.
0:02:43 > 0:02:46Welsh women helped the British win the war.
0:02:46 > 0:02:50The Germans didn't mobilise women to anything like the extent
0:02:50 > 0:02:54the British did, so they produced less weapons
0:02:54 > 0:02:58and that's one of the reasons the Germans lost the war.
0:03:06 > 0:03:09A large proportion of Britain's weapons were made in Wales
0:03:09 > 0:03:13in 11 factories making shells and explosives.
0:03:19 > 0:03:22By the end of the war, 80% of the workforce was female.
0:03:22 > 0:03:26Welsh women happily signed up to work in the munitions factories,
0:03:26 > 0:03:29like this group at Pembrey near Llanelli.
0:03:30 > 0:03:34And here at the Queensferry factory in Flintshire.
0:03:35 > 0:03:38British weapons are still made in Wales today,
0:03:38 > 0:03:40and women are still important.
0:03:40 > 0:03:45At BAE Systems near Usk, the chief executive is a woman,
0:03:45 > 0:03:48as are half the workers on the assembly lines.
0:03:48 > 0:03:52I met two of these modern munitions workers, Ruth and Joan.
0:03:53 > 0:03:56So, bearing in mind this piece of film we're looking at
0:03:56 > 0:04:00is 100 years old, anything familiar about it?
0:04:00 > 0:04:02Some of the women wear boiler suits now, don't they?
0:04:02 > 0:04:05- I was thinking of the rubber shoes. - No, we don't wear rubber shoes.
0:04:05 > 0:04:09- No. We have got a bit more trendy shoes!- Ah, right!
0:04:09 > 0:04:12Where did the women come from before they joined the munitions factory?
0:04:12 > 0:04:15They came from other people's houses, for the most part.
0:04:15 > 0:04:17- They were domestic servants. - Oh, right.
0:04:17 > 0:04:22And they were so glad to fling off their frilly white apron,
0:04:22 > 0:04:26because they might be working in somebody's house
0:04:26 > 0:04:31for a few shillings a week, and they were there every day, every night.
0:04:31 > 0:04:33And that's what they hated about it.
0:04:33 > 0:04:38So going to the munitions factory was so liberating.
0:04:38 > 0:04:39People were very glad.
0:04:39 > 0:04:43The best wages would have been explosives and filling factories.
0:04:43 > 0:04:46- Yes, yes.- Because of the dangers.
0:04:46 > 0:04:48And our money is pretty good compared to other factories.
0:04:48 > 0:04:49Yes, it is.
0:04:49 > 0:04:52- It's very good, I would say. - You're still paid well, aren't you?
0:04:52 > 0:04:54Yeah. Again, there's the element of the danger.
0:04:54 > 0:04:57Yes, the nature of what we do, as well.
0:04:57 > 0:05:01What did they do with their money when they finished work?
0:05:01 > 0:05:06They spent money on having a good time and they were so
0:05:06 > 0:05:10buoyant and happy, people used to complain!
0:05:10 > 0:05:13They filled the pavements, going ten in a row, arm in arm.
0:05:13 > 0:05:17Some of them even went into public houses,
0:05:17 > 0:05:21which then the police start going on, "What's the world coming to?
0:05:21 > 0:05:23"Women are having half a pint of bitter,
0:05:23 > 0:05:26- "or something, in a public house." - A woman going into a pub!
0:05:26 > 0:05:29- Yeah.- Exactly! Exactly. - They had the money, too.
0:05:29 > 0:05:32- Yeah.- They had a lot of freedom then, didn't they?
0:05:32 > 0:05:34They had the freedom, they had the company.
0:05:34 > 0:05:35Definite hours.
0:05:37 > 0:05:41They could go off after work, they could get dressed up nicely.
0:05:41 > 0:05:45The favourite outfit munition workers bought was a fur coat.
0:05:45 > 0:05:46Oh, right!
0:05:47 > 0:05:50And they also... It was really fashionable
0:05:50 > 0:05:53to buy boots that went right up to their knees.
0:05:53 > 0:05:57So, knee-high leather boots, fur coats, and a big hat.
0:05:57 > 0:06:01I remember reading in a London magazine,
0:06:01 > 0:06:03a very posh lady who wrote,
0:06:03 > 0:06:05"Don't go out in a fur coat and boots.
0:06:05 > 0:06:09"You'll be mistaken for a munitions worker."
0:06:09 > 0:06:10Oh, right!
0:06:10 > 0:06:11LAUGHTER
0:06:11 > 0:06:13So, we're now filling...
0:06:13 > 0:06:16- Filling the shells. - Do you fill shells like that?
0:06:16 > 0:06:18- With a jug?- No, not with a jug.
0:06:18 > 0:06:20- Not with a jug, no.- Yeah.
0:06:21 > 0:06:24We don't manhandle the shell like that any more.
0:06:24 > 0:06:28Obviously, it's all done by machinery, which is a lot better.
0:06:28 > 0:06:31Health and safety - well, it was an unknown concept.
0:06:31 > 0:06:33They always had nursing staff.
0:06:33 > 0:06:35Yeah, we've got a nurse.
0:06:35 > 0:06:39Obviously, if there's any problems, we phone up, and go up and see him.
0:06:39 > 0:06:41- Having your...- Check-ups. - ..annual medicals.
0:06:41 > 0:06:42That's really good.
0:06:42 > 0:06:44Did you see more accidents
0:06:44 > 0:06:48at these sites because of the lack of health and safety?
0:06:48 > 0:06:50Without doubt, without doubt.
0:06:50 > 0:06:54There were some appalling and terrible accidents
0:06:54 > 0:06:56and health and safety was non-existent.
0:06:56 > 0:06:59We are fortunate, really, we know about this,
0:06:59 > 0:07:03because there was a policewoman - Gabrielle West, her name was -
0:07:03 > 0:07:08who was working in Pembrey and she kept a diary.
0:07:08 > 0:07:11Some of the things she wrote deeply disturbed me.
0:07:11 > 0:07:16"The ether in the cordite affects some of the girls.
0:07:16 > 0:07:20"It gives them headaches, hysteria, and sometimes
0:07:20 > 0:07:22"it makes them unconscious.
0:07:22 > 0:07:25"If a worker has the least tendency to epilepsy,
0:07:25 > 0:07:30"even if it's never shown itself before, the ether will bring it on."
0:07:32 > 0:07:33Disturbing stuff, isn't it?
0:07:33 > 0:07:36- Yes, yes.- It really is awful.
0:07:36 > 0:07:39And, of course, in a place where you make explosives,
0:07:39 > 0:07:42there's a great danger of just one big bang.
0:07:42 > 0:07:44- Yes.- And there was a funeral...
0:07:44 > 0:07:48Right, wait a minute. I'm not being very good... There we are.
0:07:48 > 0:07:49Oh, yeah.
0:07:49 > 0:07:51Where was this taken and when?
0:07:51 > 0:07:56This is in Swansea, but the bodies had come up from Pembrey by train.
0:07:56 > 0:07:58It's 1917.
0:07:59 > 0:08:02I had never seen the coffin of a woman
0:08:02 > 0:08:04draped in the Union Jack before.
0:08:04 > 0:08:08I'd never seen women pallbearers before.
0:08:08 > 0:08:13But for those few years of the First World War,
0:08:13 > 0:08:16women were treated both badly, in some cases,
0:08:16 > 0:08:19but also with great dignity.
0:08:19 > 0:08:22- Yeah. And respect, by the looks of that photograph, as well.- Yeah.
0:08:27 > 0:08:30The bomb helped Britain to win the war, but, of course,
0:08:30 > 0:08:33victory came at a devastating price.
0:08:36 > 0:08:39This exhibition at the National Museum in Cardiff
0:08:39 > 0:08:42is appropriately called War's Hell!
0:08:44 > 0:08:47This painting is overwhelming.
0:08:47 > 0:08:51It is packed with the horrors of war -
0:08:51 > 0:08:56fire, blood, offensive, sharp, killing weapons.
0:08:56 > 0:08:58It's the Battle of Mametz Wood -
0:08:58 > 0:09:04a battle on the Somme in which so many Welsh lives were lost.
0:09:06 > 0:09:08Commissioned by Lloyd George,
0:09:08 > 0:09:10it was a constant reminder to him
0:09:10 > 0:09:14of all the Welsh men who had died or been severely injured.
0:09:14 > 0:09:17It hung in 10 Downing Street until he left office.
0:09:24 > 0:09:27Nurses were needed to treat the wounded.
0:09:27 > 0:09:32This is a painting of professional nurses caring for wounded men
0:09:32 > 0:09:34at Cardiff Royal Infirmary.
0:09:34 > 0:09:37The painter was Margaret Lindsay Williams -
0:09:37 > 0:09:44a Welsh artist who applied to go overseas and to be a war artist,
0:09:44 > 0:09:48but she was turned down because women weren't allowed at the Front.
0:09:51 > 0:09:53Women marched through London
0:09:53 > 0:09:57demanding that their brains and energy should be better used.
0:09:57 > 0:10:03Working-class women joined industry and transport in their droves.
0:10:03 > 0:10:06Middle-class women did their bit, too.
0:10:06 > 0:10:10Margaret Lloyd George, the Prime Minister's wife, led the way.
0:10:15 > 0:10:18There was a huge amount of charity work,
0:10:18 > 0:10:21tea parties to raise money for refugees,
0:10:21 > 0:10:25and apparently to give bunches of flowers to wounded soldiers.
0:10:30 > 0:10:33In Wales, Gwendoline and Margaret Davies
0:10:33 > 0:10:36were keen to help the war effort, too.
0:10:37 > 0:10:42The Davies sisters are famous as art collectors and philanthropists.
0:10:42 > 0:10:45They collected these wonderful impressionist paintings,
0:10:45 > 0:10:48and helped to found the National Museum Of Wales.
0:10:49 > 0:10:53What is less well-known is what they did in the First World War.
0:10:55 > 0:10:57Then in their 30s,
0:10:57 > 0:11:01Gwendoline and Margaret volunteered to work with the French Red Cross,
0:11:01 > 0:11:05which operated canteens at railway stations,
0:11:05 > 0:11:08convalescent hospitals and transit camps.
0:11:08 > 0:11:11And, like all volunteers, they paid their own way.
0:11:11 > 0:11:14Even using their own funds to buy coffee,
0:11:14 > 0:11:17snacks and cigarettes to give to the troops.
0:11:19 > 0:11:21Margaret, on the right, kept a journal.
0:11:22 > 0:11:28It's unusual and it's valuable to have an account from the Front
0:11:28 > 0:11:31by a woman in war, especially by a Welsh woman.
0:11:32 > 0:11:36It's a moving account, in many ways.
0:11:36 > 0:11:38Here's one example.
0:11:38 > 0:11:43"Every day, every hour - yes, every minute, fresh faces come and go.
0:11:43 > 0:11:47"For more than three years, they've struggled on,
0:11:47 > 0:11:49"living in hourly peril of their lives.
0:11:49 > 0:11:54"From shots, from shell, from bombs or poisonous gas.
0:11:54 > 0:11:58"Do you wonder that they are grown old before their time
0:11:58 > 0:12:03"and that they have such a sad and solemn expression?"
0:12:05 > 0:12:08Life on the home front could be miserable, too.
0:12:08 > 0:12:09There wasn't enough to eat.
0:12:11 > 0:12:13Whenever food reached the shops, queues formed,
0:12:13 > 0:12:17and rationing was only introduced very late in the war.
0:12:19 > 0:12:21At the outbreak of war, astonishingly,
0:12:21 > 0:12:25Britain imported two thirds of its food -
0:12:25 > 0:12:28not just foreign crops, like tea and sugar, but even wheat.
0:12:31 > 0:12:33The Germans knew this,
0:12:33 > 0:12:38so they torpedoed British ships to try to starve out the population.
0:12:39 > 0:12:42Helpful public pronouncements were made.
0:12:43 > 0:12:48And the British had no option but to eat less and grow more.
0:12:50 > 0:12:52Shoo, shoo, shoo!
0:12:52 > 0:12:53Go on!
0:12:53 > 0:12:56Go on, get them up.
0:12:56 > 0:13:00Pat Thomas and her husband Wynn rear sheep on 180 acres
0:13:00 > 0:13:04in Carmarthenshire in the shadow of Carreg Cennen Castle.
0:13:07 > 0:13:09Get them up!
0:13:09 > 0:13:11Get them up.
0:13:11 > 0:13:15I joined her to talk about farming today and in the First World War.
0:13:15 > 0:13:18It's quite easy. It's quite easy.
0:13:18 > 0:13:19You hold it there, now.
0:13:19 > 0:13:22I will. You'll be a big, fat boy!
0:13:22 > 0:13:24- Yeah.- 'With food in short supply,
0:13:24 > 0:13:28'the Government called on farmers to be more productive.
0:13:28 > 0:13:32'For the first time, Britain created an army of female farm workers
0:13:32 > 0:13:34'called the Women's Land Army.'
0:13:35 > 0:13:38You know when we're speaking about the Land Army -
0:13:38 > 0:13:41cos obviously it's before my time - how were they recruited?
0:13:41 > 0:13:43Especially from the city, because, you know,
0:13:43 > 0:13:47they didn't have mobile phones or anything in those days, did they?
0:13:47 > 0:13:51- No.- You know, so...- They recruited using fabulous posters.
0:13:51 > 0:13:55- I've got a great one here - have a look at that one, Pat.- Yeah?
0:13:55 > 0:13:56Oh, yes, it is, isn't it?
0:13:56 > 0:13:59Beautiful, isn't it? And it says underneath,
0:13:59 > 0:14:04"God speed the plough and the woman who drives it."
0:14:04 > 0:14:07- Yeah.- So they used posters.
0:14:07 > 0:14:10They also had big recruitment meetings
0:14:10 > 0:14:13and they were always done with loads of razzmatazz.
0:14:13 > 0:14:16You'd get women riding into a town,
0:14:16 > 0:14:19- some on top of great big Shire horses...- Oh, right!
0:14:19 > 0:14:21..you'd get bands playing.
0:14:21 > 0:14:24So the bazooka, razzmatazz bands.
0:14:24 > 0:14:28People would sing patriotic songs and they'd say, "Come on,
0:14:28 > 0:14:29"your country needs you!
0:14:29 > 0:14:32"Come and work in the Women's Land Army!"
0:14:32 > 0:14:33So it was good stuff.
0:14:33 > 0:14:38So, yes, and people felt good in going and not even realising,
0:14:38 > 0:14:42I suppose, what they were going to do? To them, I suppose,
0:14:42 > 0:14:44a cow was something they saw...
0:14:44 > 0:14:46Well, they probably didn't see one, did they?
0:14:46 > 0:14:48I've got some pictures here to show you, Pat...
0:14:48 > 0:14:50- Oh, lovely.- ..on the iPad.
0:14:50 > 0:14:51Milking the cows now.
0:14:51 > 0:14:56And they happen to be outside, so they're obviously very docile cows!
0:14:56 > 0:14:57Because you wouldn't get that today!
0:14:57 > 0:15:01- You have to keep them in their stalls.- No, you wouldn't get that.
0:15:01 > 0:15:05- The three-legged...the three-legged stools.- Yeah.
0:15:05 > 0:15:08Now we're going to be threshing the corn.
0:15:08 > 0:15:10- Yes.- It takes so many people, doesn't it?
0:15:10 > 0:15:12And they're all women - they're all women.
0:15:12 > 0:15:16- Yes.- And Britain was crucially short of grain,
0:15:16 > 0:15:19so this was very important work they were doing.
0:15:19 > 0:15:20It looks quite dangerous.
0:15:20 > 0:15:22- I wonder...- That threshing machine does look dangerous.
0:15:22 > 0:15:25Yeah. I wonder where the health and safety would be today.
0:15:25 > 0:15:27I don't... Yes!
0:15:27 > 0:15:31Would you be happy with your husband having five or six Land Army girls?
0:15:31 > 0:15:33How would they fit in with your household?
0:15:33 > 0:15:34I know one thing, he'd be delighted!
0:15:36 > 0:15:38- But I'd probably give up my job then and stay home!- Yes!
0:15:41 > 0:15:44And now we're onto the spreading the manure.
0:15:44 > 0:15:46Even I can remember doing that.
0:15:46 > 0:15:50Yeah, taking out manure and putting it in big lumps.
0:15:50 > 0:15:53And then, there they are, spreading it out.
0:15:53 > 0:15:56So when you look at that, the whole field has been spread.
0:15:57 > 0:15:59And obviously they enjoyed it.
0:15:59 > 0:16:01They're all in the uniform at the moment, aren't they?
0:16:01 > 0:16:04Yes, looking very smart, aren't they?
0:16:04 > 0:16:09Yeah. Was this the type of clothes that women wore at that time?
0:16:09 > 0:16:14No. In the Land Army, for the first time, women wore trousers.
0:16:14 > 0:16:16- Yes.- It was a shock for lots of people.
0:16:16 > 0:16:20It marks an enormous change from what went on before.
0:16:20 > 0:16:23Because, still as late the 1880s,
0:16:23 > 0:16:271890s, women wore very tight corsets,
0:16:27 > 0:16:32little wasp belts, which was hugely damaging to their health.
0:16:32 > 0:16:36This is the Ladies' Guide To Health,
0:16:36 > 0:16:41and it's written by a Mr Kellogg, and it dates from the 1890s.
0:16:41 > 0:16:43- And this... - It's a very old book, isn't it?
0:16:43 > 0:16:46It is. But just one illustration,
0:16:46 > 0:16:50it'll make my point, that there is a woman's body,
0:16:50 > 0:16:52a normal woman's body,
0:16:52 > 0:16:55but this is the woman's body that's been contorted.
0:16:55 > 0:16:59They used to pull it, didn't they, to get a very thin waist.
0:16:59 > 0:17:04Somebody would have to put a knee in her back and grab the two laces.
0:17:04 > 0:17:07What it does to their internal organs...
0:17:07 > 0:17:09It is unbelievable, isn't it, when you think
0:17:09 > 0:17:13- that they were making themselves look nice...- Yes.
0:17:13 > 0:17:17..and, really, what they were doing was damage to themselves.
0:17:17 > 0:17:20- Terrible damage. - When they started wearing trousers,
0:17:20 > 0:17:23they had that freedom then, didn't they, they didn't have to...
0:17:23 > 0:17:25Life in the Women's Land Army
0:17:25 > 0:17:29- was liberating in lots of ways, wasn't it?- Oh, yes!
0:17:29 > 0:17:35It gets them out working and they're wearing sensible clothes.
0:17:35 > 0:17:37It must have been, to them,
0:17:37 > 0:17:41something I would imagine that they would have been very proud of,
0:17:41 > 0:17:43because they saw their end product, didn't they?
0:17:43 > 0:17:46I remember reading one of the adverts -
0:17:46 > 0:17:51it said you'll have no problems sleeping. If you do this job,
0:17:51 > 0:17:54you'll be exhausted at the end of the day of work.
0:17:54 > 0:17:57- It's the fresh air, you see. - It's all that lovely fresh air.
0:17:57 > 0:17:59Yeah. There's nothing like it.
0:17:59 > 0:18:01LAUGHTER
0:18:04 > 0:18:06As well as being a farmer,
0:18:06 > 0:18:10Pat Thomas is an active member of the Women's Institute,
0:18:10 > 0:18:14and a former president of her local branch in Trap, near Carmarthen.
0:18:15 > 0:18:18Yeah, we've got all beans and potatoes, and things like that,
0:18:18 > 0:18:21but nobody else in the street does.
0:18:21 > 0:18:25The Women's Institute in Britain began in the First World War
0:18:25 > 0:18:26in Wales.
0:18:26 > 0:18:28The first branch was on Anglesey,
0:18:28 > 0:18:32and it really was about jam and Jerusalem.
0:18:32 > 0:18:35Victory and the promised land of post-war Britain would only
0:18:35 > 0:18:38be achieved with good, nourishing food.
0:18:38 > 0:18:40Have you noticed that they're all wearing hats?
0:18:40 > 0:18:43- It looks to me like they're women of all ages.- Yes.
0:18:43 > 0:18:45It's hard to tell...
0:18:45 > 0:18:48The older ones get the seats in the front row, I think.
0:18:48 > 0:18:50Of course, it isn't about jam.
0:18:50 > 0:18:54But it is about food and the mobilisation of a workforce,
0:18:54 > 0:18:57to make sure that the whole nation was being fed.
0:18:59 > 0:19:01Out on the Western Front,
0:19:01 > 0:19:05more and more men were dying in the relentless shelling.
0:19:07 > 0:19:11There were fewer men to support the fighters at the Front,
0:19:11 > 0:19:14so the military decided to recruit women.
0:19:14 > 0:19:16By early 1917,
0:19:16 > 0:19:21voluntary national service was on offer to women over 20.
0:19:26 > 0:19:30One of the startling innovations of the First World War is that women
0:19:30 > 0:19:32joined all the services.
0:19:32 > 0:19:35This was a great shock to contemporaries
0:19:35 > 0:19:37to see women in uniform.
0:19:37 > 0:19:40They didn't actually fight, they didn't hold guns,
0:19:40 > 0:19:43but they were very close to the Front, and we know,
0:19:43 > 0:19:47without a doubt, that women's lives were in danger.
0:19:48 > 0:19:51They worked behind the front lines dealing with the injured,
0:19:51 > 0:19:54the transport and clerical work.
0:19:55 > 0:19:57To experience war was terrible,
0:19:57 > 0:20:00but it was also an opportunity to travel abroad,
0:20:00 > 0:20:02to live a strong independent life
0:20:02 > 0:20:04away from the narrow confines of home,
0:20:04 > 0:20:06to work alongside men,
0:20:06 > 0:20:10maybe even to see men that they had known in Britain.
0:20:12 > 0:20:14Working with the wounded was challenging,
0:20:14 > 0:20:16and the risk of bombing great.
0:20:16 > 0:20:19Annie Brewer, a military nurse from Newport,
0:20:19 > 0:20:21spent the whole war in France
0:20:21 > 0:20:24and received many medals for her courage.
0:20:24 > 0:20:30One citation applauds her coolness and total disregard of danger,
0:20:30 > 0:20:34lavishing her attention on the wounded under fire from the enemy.
0:20:36 > 0:20:39The old ideas about women being inferior to men
0:20:39 > 0:20:41were being seriously challenged.
0:20:41 > 0:20:44Everyone could see that women were just as brave,
0:20:44 > 0:20:46strong and as intelligent as men.
0:20:47 > 0:20:50The women suffered alongside the men,
0:20:50 > 0:20:52they didn't even have the vote,
0:20:52 > 0:20:58and we should be aware that most of the fighting men, ordinary men,
0:20:58 > 0:21:00didn't have the vote, either.
0:21:01 > 0:21:03Only men with property and wealth.
0:21:04 > 0:21:09Before the war, both the brand-new Labour Party and the votes for women
0:21:09 > 0:21:14campaign had fought for suffrage for all men and all women.
0:21:14 > 0:21:18Women didn't have a say in politics, the law or policing.
0:21:18 > 0:21:21Policemen treated women harshly,
0:21:21 > 0:21:24whether they were criminals or political protesters.
0:21:24 > 0:21:27And, for years, feminists had campaigned
0:21:27 > 0:21:29for female police officers.
0:21:29 > 0:21:33In 1916, the war made that possible.
0:21:35 > 0:21:40I met Gemma Wingfield at Cardiff Bay police station to talk about her job
0:21:40 > 0:21:43and the female policing pioneers of World War I.
0:21:45 > 0:21:48One of the most interesting innovations of the war was,
0:21:48 > 0:21:51for the first time, we had women police.
0:21:51 > 0:21:54What women became police officers?
0:21:54 > 0:21:56Well, it is a lovely irony.
0:21:56 > 0:21:58- They went to the Women's Suffrage Societies...- Really?
0:21:58 > 0:22:01..so you've got quite a lot of educated women.
0:22:01 > 0:22:02So, it was the young educated women.
0:22:02 > 0:22:06- Yeah, who volunteered.- They would have already had some knowledge.
0:22:06 > 0:22:08Yes. It was members of those societies
0:22:08 > 0:22:11and suffragettes who'd experienced
0:22:11 > 0:22:14some of the worst treatment at the hands of the police
0:22:14 > 0:22:18in big demonstrations in London and other demonstrations in Wales.
0:22:18 > 0:22:21So, it was sensible to go to these women,
0:22:21 > 0:22:24cos here were women who wanted to do a good job
0:22:24 > 0:22:27- and not manhandle and mistreat women.- And obviously prove
0:22:27 > 0:22:30that women could do the job of being a police officer.
0:22:30 > 0:22:32And indeed also to prove that they could do the job.
0:22:32 > 0:22:37Lots of really quite difficult tasks that they weren't trained for
0:22:37 > 0:22:41had fallen on the women, and I've used that word "trained" there.
0:22:41 > 0:22:45You were trained properly, you went through the whole procedure,
0:22:45 > 0:22:47training as a police officer.
0:22:47 > 0:22:51I think with the women who were in the police in the First World War,
0:22:51 > 0:22:53I think they said, "Here's a uniform."
0:22:53 > 0:22:56So, what was their role? Is it the same as what I do now?
0:22:56 > 0:23:00- Everything?- They did a lot of very useful, kindly things
0:23:00 > 0:23:04like saying, "Don't go down that street, it's not a good idea, Miss."
0:23:04 > 0:23:08Or, "Oh, you want go to Tonypandy? Don't get on the Swansea train."
0:23:08 > 0:23:11- You know, it's all sorts of those things.- I do a lot of that today -
0:23:11 > 0:23:14directing people, especially in city centres
0:23:14 > 0:23:17with lots of tourists coming in. So we still have similarities.
0:23:17 > 0:23:21- In my mind-set, if I don't know where I am... BOTH:- Ask a policeman.
0:23:21 > 0:23:25- A police officer. Exactly.- Exactly.
0:23:25 > 0:23:28Another reason that police were needed is that
0:23:28 > 0:23:31they had to keep order in the munitions factories.
0:23:31 > 0:23:34We are looking at this policewoman
0:23:34 > 0:23:39- inspecting all of these munitions workers...- Right.
0:23:39 > 0:23:42..to check the women coming in, check their hair,
0:23:42 > 0:23:46they'd often have - can you believe it? - cigarettes and matches
0:23:46 > 0:23:50in their hair, going into a highly dangerous area.
0:23:50 > 0:23:52It was more of a safety role, then...
0:23:52 > 0:23:55- Yep, yeah.- ..for the officers just to double-check.- Yeah.
0:23:55 > 0:23:59One of the reasons that they suddenly appointed women police
0:23:59 > 0:24:01is not just the shortage of men,
0:24:01 > 0:24:04but there was so many new laws brought in under...
0:24:04 > 0:24:05Let me show you this...
0:24:07 > 0:24:09..the Defence Of The Realm Act.
0:24:09 > 0:24:11It enabled the government to do things
0:24:11 > 0:24:14without a lot of fuss and red tape.
0:24:14 > 0:24:17Did that treat men and women differently in society?
0:24:17 > 0:24:18Absolutely.
0:24:18 > 0:24:22The new laws came down on women like a tonne of bricks
0:24:22 > 0:24:26and there's no better illustration of that than here in Cardiff.
0:24:26 > 0:24:30Because a curfew was introduced in Cardiff -
0:24:30 > 0:24:32I know of nowhere else where this happened -
0:24:32 > 0:24:37where all women had to be home, and certainly not on the streets,
0:24:37 > 0:24:40between seven at night and eight o'clock the next morning.
0:24:40 > 0:24:44- Really?- When I think of the women who lived in Cardiff,
0:24:44 > 0:24:46they were the schoolteachers in the new schools,
0:24:46 > 0:24:49it was like Cardiff High School For Girls, they'd have been arrested
0:24:49 > 0:24:52if they popped across the road to visit a friend.
0:24:52 > 0:24:54They said, "This is a moral thing,
0:24:54 > 0:24:57"because it's the prostitutes we're putting away."
0:24:57 > 0:25:00But what about the women who were going out to work?
0:25:00 > 0:25:03Cos women still had to go and work for their living.
0:25:03 > 0:25:04So, who would enforce that?
0:25:04 > 0:25:08It's all landed on the police force, many of whom were women.
0:25:08 > 0:25:10So, really, they had to impose a law
0:25:10 > 0:25:14- that was obviously against what they were, as well.- Exactly.
0:25:14 > 0:25:17When the war ended,
0:25:17 > 0:25:21the women's police force was totally disbanded.
0:25:21 > 0:25:25- In the country? - It was disbanded, but some counties
0:25:25 > 0:25:28wanted to take on women police.
0:25:28 > 0:25:33Many English counties do it, but, in Wales,
0:25:33 > 0:25:35not a single woman police officer
0:25:35 > 0:25:39throughout the whole of the interwar period.
0:25:39 > 0:25:43In fact, you don't start getting women police again
0:25:43 > 0:25:46until the beginning of the Second World War
0:25:46 > 0:25:48when Cardiganshire took them on.
0:25:48 > 0:25:51And they gave them their motorbikes and off they went.
0:25:51 > 0:25:53I've got to tell you this, Gemma,
0:25:53 > 0:25:57but Cardiff was the slowest to appoint women police.
0:25:57 > 0:26:02We don't get women police in Cardiff again until 1948.
0:26:02 > 0:26:05Really? And how many was then?
0:26:05 > 0:26:07It was one.
0:26:09 > 0:26:12Cardiff has made up for it since.
0:26:12 > 0:26:15The South Wales Constabulary is now led by a woman,
0:26:15 > 0:26:20nearly a third of its police officers are female, and, in 2015,
0:26:20 > 0:26:22it hosted an international conference
0:26:22 > 0:26:24of female police officers.
0:26:29 > 0:26:32The war finally came to an end with the Armistice
0:26:32 > 0:26:35of 11th November, 1918.
0:26:44 > 0:26:47But, for women, the celebrations were short-lived.
0:26:49 > 0:26:51When the First World War ended,
0:26:51 > 0:26:56women in Britain who had lost their jobs on the buses, and the trams,
0:26:56 > 0:26:59on the railways, in the munitions works,
0:26:59 > 0:27:02they were given a strong, clear message -
0:27:02 > 0:27:07go back to home and duty, your place is in the home.
0:27:09 > 0:27:12But a generation of young men had been wiped out.
0:27:12 > 0:27:16For 2 million women, there was little hope of home and family.
0:27:16 > 0:27:20They had to find work, and most were left with the old options -
0:27:20 > 0:27:23being a domestic servant, a shop assistant, or a waitress.
0:27:25 > 0:27:28The war did bring great political change.
0:27:28 > 0:27:31In 1918, the returning soldiers,
0:27:31 > 0:27:33the ordinary men, got the vote,
0:27:33 > 0:27:36and, at long last, women got the vote, too.
0:27:36 > 0:27:38But it was a rather mean offer for the women -
0:27:38 > 0:27:41only property owners over 30,
0:27:41 > 0:27:45but it was a start, and all women got the vote ten years later.
0:27:47 > 0:27:50The war marked the beginning of the modern world.
0:27:50 > 0:27:54Women began to see that they could do what men had traditionally done,
0:27:54 > 0:27:56even in the gruelling conditions of war.
0:27:57 > 0:28:00This is the terrible irony -
0:28:00 > 0:28:06the First World War maimed many men in body and mind, but, for women,
0:28:06 > 0:28:08it gave them the opportunity
0:28:08 > 0:28:11to stand tall for the first time in their lives.
0:28:11 > 0:28:16# Keep the home fires burning... #
0:28:16 > 0:28:18Lest we forget,
0:28:18 > 0:28:20it was our great-grandmothers
0:28:20 > 0:28:25who paved the way for Welsh women to stand tall today.
0:28:25 > 0:28:30# ..they dream of home
0:28:30 > 0:28:34# There's a silver lining
0:28:34 > 0:28:39# Through the dark clouds shining
0:28:39 > 0:28:43# Turn the dark cloud inside out
0:28:43 > 0:28:50# Till the boys come home! #