Women at work

Before the war broke out the majority of working class women held positions in domestic service or in the textil industry.

At the beginning of the war, some social sectors were still reticent to have women in factories. Many male workers, the trade unions and some factory owners claimed that women were unskilled and that they could accept lower wages by taking men´s jobs away.

But the situation changed because of conscription. As they were needed, women were taken out of the domestic sphere into a man´s world. They filled the gaps left by volunteers and later conscripted servicemen, many of them taking on jobs once believed to be too hard for women.

Many women were mobilised in unprecedented number on both sides not only as nurses but also to join the workforce in public transport, civil service, engineering, surface work at coal mines, police, as clerks and as land workers. But the vast majority of them were employed in munitions factories.