The Guardian, 11 November 2018: For many women on the home front, the war years became a springboard to liberation. But with peace came the backlash. Sheila Rowbotham writes.
Between 1914 and 1918, the lives of millions of women in Britain were overturned by the first world war. Its impact reached into every aspect of existence, from the dramatic to the humdrum.
Former domestic servants became window cleaners, gas fitters and crane drivers. They moved into the munitions factories, where their faces turned yellow and their hair green from the chemicals. They braved explosions and poisonous substances to serve their country – and to earn higher pay.