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    66 Vintage Photographs Documenting British Women at Work During World War I

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    During World War I, large numbers of women were recruited into jobs vacated by men who had gone to fight in the war. New jobs were also created as part of the war effort, for example in munitions factories.

    The high demand for weapons resulted in the munitions factories becoming the largest single employer of women during 1918. Though there was initial resistance to hiring women for what was seen as ‘men’s work’, the introduction of conscription in 1916 made the need for women workers urgent. Around this time, the government began coordinating the employment of women through campaigns and recruitment drives.
    Here’s a collection from UBC Library Digital Collections consists of vintage photographs of British women at work during World War I.

    General view of brass fittings shop
    Women inspecting motor engine parts
    Women loading nitrate of soda into a skip
    Women straightening and bending steel girder
    Women painting steel work
    Women operating radial drilling machines, drilling holes in girders
    Women copper banding t60 pdr shrapnel
    Women taping planes
    Women in charge of electric motor
    View of canteen at munitions factory
    Women wheeling away earth excavated for the installation of hydraulic pumps
    Woman driving O.E.T. crane
    Women operating radial drills, drilling valve covers and strainer plates for weed boxes for marine engines
    Women stacking wood
    Women painting War Office vehicles
    Women cleaning windows
    Woman acting as helper at punching and shearing machine
    Women transporting rough castings to the General Store
    Women engaged in labouring work in dressing shop
    Woman are with cores for ingot mould
    Woman at battery drills, drilling angles and T bars for ribs of airship sheds
    Woman operating vertical drilling machines, drilling angles for connections to ribs of airship sheds
    Women operating circular saw, cutting steel bar
    Woman operating a Sunderland gear planer, gear cutting
    Woman driving 20 ton O.E.T. crane
    Women inserting and packing tubes in condensors for marine engines
    Women machining Admiralty electrical fittings
    General view of women engaged on small parts for boilers and condensors
    Workers preparing for the construction of concrete ships
    Railway workers cleaning carriages
    Railway workers unloading goods from train
    Women railway workers painting and decorating
    Mine net workers wiring the floats together
    W.R.N.S. fitting a mine
    Women testing a mine with air presssure
    W.R.N.S. instructor at respirator and mask drill for military recruits
    Railway worker pulling signal box levers
    Window cleaners
    Girl operating stitching machine in Leicestershire boot factory
    British women moulding and finishing stoneware taps at terra cotta works in Leicestershire
    British woman winding cotton from spools on to rollers at lace factory in Nottingham
    British women working in lace factory in Nottingham
    British women working in tannery in Nottingham
    British women in Nottingham tannery drawing skins from the lime pit
    British women cleaning locomotive in Midlands
    British women in glass factory cutting shop near Birmingham
    British women in glass factory near Birmingham
    British women painting planes at aeroplane factory near Birmingham
    British woman splicing airplane joints in aeroplane factory near Birmingham
    British women aeroplane workers near Birmingham welding frame tugs for planes
    British women working in chemical laboratory near Manchester
    Chemical works near Manchester – British women chemical workers in the Midlands
    British women chemical workers in the Midlands taking limestone from stock, loading and wheeling barrows of lime to wagons
    British rubber workers in Lancashire spreading machine for coaling canvas for tire making
    British women rubber workers in Lancashire fixing studded tires
    British women asbestos workers in factory in Lancashire
    British women oil workers in Lancashire moulding cakes
    British women rubber workers in Lancashire making mouth-pieces for gas masks
    British women rubber workers in Lancashire forming the foundation for the tread
    British women millers in Lancashire packing flour
    British women millers in Lancashire filling sacks with Government Flour
    British women Glass Workers
    British Women Glass Workers in a factory in Lancashire – Plaster house workers
    With the British Navy in wartime – Working a machine to extract the metal from the rubbish
    The Royal tour in the North Eastern Countries – The King chatting to some of the munitions girls
    Mechanic
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