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Details of what is contained within this collection.
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List of the organisations founded during the war and those that affected the war effort.
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The below essays are provided to introduce users to the material available in this archive, and to explain its importance to the study of women during World War I, their active role in contributing to the war effort and the suffrage movement. Each essay contains links that take you straight to the document being referenced within the archive (provided your institution has access to this material).
Introduction: “A Change in Attitude: The Women’s Work Collection of the Imperial War Museum” PDF
Professor Susan R. Grayzel, Professor of History and Director of the Sarah Isom Center for Women and Gender Studies, University of Mississippi
By examining the letters and reports, pamphlets and newspaper clippings, researchers will be able to see the broad scope of women’s activities and their growing acceptance by the wartime state. When the Imperial War Museum was established in 1917, a Women’s War Subcommittee was created by Agnes Conway. The bulk of what would become the Women’s Work Collection was compiled by volunteers, and students, researchers and future historians will find materials ranging from papers detailing government policy towards women’s wartime labour to such things as the citations for all women decorated and honoured for their wartime service by the British government.
Patriotism and Duty: The Women’s Work Collection at the Imperial War Museum PDF
Mary Wilkinson, Head of Acquisitions and Cataloguing Services in the Department of Printed Books
The suggestion to create a war museum was made in 1917 by Charles ffoulkes, curator for the Armouries in the Tower of London and the Women’s Work Subcommittee was established. The first report laid down the objective of exhibits and the formation of a record of the war activities of women by means of a collection of photographs, pamphlets and manuscript reports from all women’s organisations and outstanding private individuals. The section’s first big solo moment came in April 1918, when Whitechapel Art Gallery agreed to host an exhibition of women’s work and, in the six weeks it was opened, the exhibition saw 82,000 visitors. The subcommittee was the first to appoint an official British woman war artist and in May 1918 and Victoria Monkhouse began to sketch women in traditional male jobs, such as window-cleaners and postwomen, which can be found within the collection. Although the bulk of the documentary material was added to the library in 1921, it went largely unnoticed for over forty years until David Mitchell made use of it for his book Women on the Warpath.
Women and the Medical Services in World War One PDF
Professor Joanna Bourke, Professor of History, Birkbeck College, University of London
The work of women as doctors, nurses, orderlies, ambulance drivers, and even 'hand-holders', was essential. They worked at all levels, except in the immediate front lines. One of the earlier women's organisations involved in providing medical services to the troops was Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service. It was established during the Crimean war when 40 nurses were chosen to help in base hospitals, and by the end of World War I, 2,223 women had enrolled. One of the most radical positions women could adopt during wartime involved donning nurses' uniforms and setting off for the front lines. The image of the white-uniformed and angelic nurse paired with the unshaven, filthy male straight from the trenches was powerful. The work and responsibilities of female doctors increased dramatically during the war as male colleagues left for service in the Royal Army Medical Corps and, as a consequence, hospitals were increasingly prepared to offer women a wider range of jobs. By 1918, 40% of medical students were women.
Female Patriotism in the Great War PDF
Professor Nicoletta F. Gullace, University of New Hampshire
Scholars studying the history of women during World War I have varied greatly in their assessment of the degree, sincerity and importance of female patriotism. The most problematic expectation for women was the widely held idea that they should encourage their men to enlist, but no aspect of women's patriotic contribution to the war effort has received more attention than their enlistment in formerly male occupations. Among the photographs and documents in the Imperial War Museum Collection are pictures of women engaged in some of the most dangerous types of female medical work.
Suffrage and Political Activity PDF
Dr Laura E. Nym Mayhall, Associate Professor and Acting Chair, Catholic University of America
Around the turn of the century, new groups of suffragists emerged from within domestic opposition to Britain's persecution of war with the South African Republics and, while many continued to use the methods developed in the 19th century, some groups garnered both more attention and more controversy through their campaign tactics, often resorting to violence, resulting in the government's clamp down on all suffragists. When Britain declared war on Germany, the differences were temporarily set aside and all suffragists embraced some form of service to the nation during the war. Voting rights were ceded to certain women, those over 30 who already possessed the local government vote and those married to men who possessed it, in 1917 as a result of many soldiers unable to fulfil their residency requirements. The Representation Act of 1918 resulted in significant changes in the structure and organisation of the women's suffrage societies after the war and many suffragists campaigned to extend the vote and include legal equality for married women in the areas of guardianship of children, income tax and property.
Medical Services – International Organisations PDF
Dr Kaarin Michaelsen, University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Women were initially barred from working with the Royal Army Medical Corps and turned to international organisations, like the French and British Red Cross Societies, which offered unprecedented opportunities to demonstrate their existing skill. The largest and most established international medical service organisation employing British women during World War I was the Red Cross, many women serving in hospitals close to the front line. Their contributions to the war effort extended beyond serving under the direction of international medical service organisations and many female physicians developed, staffed and led their own voluntary organisations. In the post-war years many of the Red Cross' Voluntary Aid Detachments tried to turn the horrors they witnessed to positive ends, involving themselves in the international pacifist movement and ardently supporting charities for demobilised soldiers.
Women’s Military Service in the First World War PDF
Dr Lucy Noakes, University of Brighton
As men went off to war, women took up work in munitions factories and other areas of heavy industry, most dramatically the auxiliary corps. The determination of the War Office to maintain gender divisions and exclude female labour from the military sphere resulted in the appearance of volunteer female paramilitary organisations such as the Women's Auxiliary Force, the Home Service Corps and the British Service Corps, the largest being the Women's Volunteer Reserve. The introduction of male conscription in 1916 led to a renewed examination of women's wartime role and in particular a debate on the possibility of conscripting women for war work. Although the expansion of women's work and their uniformed work with the military threatened to undermine the division between male and female war experience, the control and regulation of every aspect of women's work meant that these boundaries were largely maintained.
Women and Work in Wartime Britain PDF
Dr Deborah Thom, Robinson College, Cambridge
Gender came to the forefront of public discussion and reinforced the notion that women were inherently deficient as workers as they were inhibited by their family responsibilities, were physically weaker and lacked a tradition of work expertise, resulting in the largest single category of women's work to be in the domestic service and textile industries. Despite this, women contributed a substantial amount to the wartime economy, especially in merchandised mass production factories making munitions.
Women’s Voluntary Organisations in World War I PDF
Dr Jacqueline de Vries, Ausburg College, Minneapolis
The flood of volunteers in 1914 to help with the war effort was immediate and necessary. Women were the main volunteers in hundreds of supply depots, service as collection and distribution centres for donations of clothes, bandages, medicines and other comfort. World War I was often characterised as a turning point in class relations and a catalyst to the decline of aristocratic privilege as many of these women turned their social position and wealth towards war services. The overwhelming response of Britain's voluntary organisations proved critical to the war effort. Despite years of planning, the British Army was quite unprepared for the strain on resources.
Women and Religious Organisations in World War I PDF
Dr Jacqueline de Vries, Ausburg College, Minneapolis
At all levels of Victorian Society, women were more likely than men to be actively involved in church or chapel, making up the majority of membership in most Christian denomination. They funnelled their religious impulses into one of the many religiously affiliated social service and charity organisations, many of which are profiled in the Women and Work Collection. Many of Britain's religious organisations were run by women and the war offered them the opportunity to expand their mission beyond the usual rescue and charity work.
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