What was the impact of the war on women’s lives?

Did World War One actually improve women´s way of life? The war did offer women better opportunities in the labor market. Women start replacing men in the working class, between 1914 and 1918. An estimated two million women replaced men in employment. This led as a result an increase in the proportion of women in total employment from 24 per cent in July 1914 to 37 per cent in November 1918.

The war leaved valuable legacies in women. It opened up a wider range of occupations to female workers and helped the collapse of traditional women employment, particularly domestic service. For the middle classes, the decline of domestic servants was facilitated by the rise of domestic appliance, such as cockers, electric irons and  and vacuum cleaners.

The number of women in the Civil Service increased from 33,000 in 1911 to 102,000 by 1921. The advantages of  these alternative employments over domestic service were: wages were higher, better conditions, and independent enhance.

Another mayor fact that occur in the same year was that Annie McVicar became a councilor for the Wellington City Council- Wellington firts female councilor.

Trade unionism proved to be the second legacy of the war. Female worcker had been less unionism than men. This was because they tended to do part time work and to work in smaller firms. World War One forced unions to deal with the issue of women workers. The scale of women´s employment could no longer be denied and rising levels of women left unmarried or widowed by the war forced the hands of the stablished union.

The pressures of employment, combined with the need to perform housework in straitened circumstances and the inadequacy of socil services exacted a higher price.The return fulltime domestic was not, however, voluntary.

Women were also devided, with single and widowed women claiming a prior right to employment over married women.

In 1917, the government became aware of the need to call an election. The problems was that, according to the law, only men who had been resident in the country for 12 months prior to the elections were entitle to vote, affectively disenfranchising a large number of troops who had been serving overseas. This dilemma forced Parliament to revise the franchise.In 1918, the women over the age of 21 were finally alowed to vote.

Finally, the war was a key element in the grating of the franchise to women over the age of 30 years who held property in 1918.

In this way we can see how much the impact if Wolrd War One affect women´s life.