Munitionettes at work and play

By 1918, estimates historian Angela Woollacott, one million women worked in munitions factories. This makes it significantly more populous that other women’s groups, including nurses and other aid. They produced some 80% of ammunition by June 1917, making them indispensable during the First World War. But who were these women? What did their lives look like?

In her interviews, Caroline provides several anecdotes, giving us insight into the life of a “munitionette”. The work was hard, with long hours and few breaks, not to mention dangerous enough to cause serious injury. While munitions and engineering were male-dominated environments, many of these women were not unused to dangerous workplaces. The last century had seen factory production revolutionise how and where people worked, with many women working in large mills and factories, or producing matchboxes and envelopes, or hemming at home in “sweated trades”. Otherwise, working-class women were employed in service, sometimes living isolated and strict lives. As Deborah Thom argues, the change in women’s work during the First World War was less about ‘novelty’ and a radical improvement in ‘the capabilities or skills of women’, but rather a change in how large groups of women were managed. Caroline, for example, worked under Lilian Barker, a pioneer for women in engineering. She also remembered being encouraged to join a local trade union by male workers, where she became an active member from the age of 18. Were women entering male-dominated fields? Certainly. But was this a complete transformation for the lives working-class women? Not quite.

Where change was happening, however, was in the social life of munition factories. The Ministry for Munitions encouraged exercise, games and dancing for the women in their factories, citing health and morale as key reasons. These were not new inventions, however, as factory owners had previously encouraged male employees to form cricket and football teams. This created a shared camaraderie and a loyalty to their factory, many of which gave their names to the earliest football teams like Arsenal and West Ham. Munitionette football teams were immensely popular, with top teams like the Dick Kerr FC from Preston and the Sterling Ladies FC from Dagenham drawing large crowds. Their matches helped raise money for wounded soldiers, thus gaining early support from the FA. Players from the Sterling Ladies FC were nicknamed the “Dagenham Invincibles” as they never lost a match, while Dick Kerr FC won 746 out of 800 games. Women’s football had been gaining traction for years before 1914, but by 1918 it had become a country-wide spectator sport.

After 1918, however, attitudes surrounding women’s work and play was changing. This was not the sudden removal of all women from manufacturing and sports clubs as sometimes portrayed, but women’s freedoms were changing. In 1918, women over 30 who reached a property qualification were granted the vote, while working-class women saw their football clubs banned and places of work close or alter. In 1921, the FA banned women’s football, declaring it ‘unsuitable for females’. The ban would not be lifted until 1969.