1 00:00:00,120 --> 00:00:05,040 Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio. 2 00:00:05,800 --> 00:00:09,360 Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to This Day in History Class, a 3 00:00:09,440 --> 00:00:13,280 Speaker 1: show that uncovers a little bit more about history every day. 4 00:00:15,360 --> 00:00:19,239 Speaker 1: I'm Gabelusier, and today we're talking about the impact of 5 00:00:19,280 --> 00:00:22,480 Speaker 1: the First World War on the lives of British women. 6 00:00:33,159 --> 00:00:38,040 Speaker 1: The day was August twenty ninth, nineteen fourteen. The Women's 7 00:00:38,040 --> 00:00:43,599 Speaker 1: Defense Relief Corps or WDRC was established in Britain. It 8 00:00:43,680 --> 00:00:46,760 Speaker 1: was one of three women's auxiliary units to be formed 9 00:00:46,760 --> 00:00:49,920 Speaker 1: in the early months of World War One. The other 10 00:00:50,000 --> 00:00:54,320 Speaker 1: two were both nursing organizations, the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry 11 00:00:54,480 --> 00:00:58,520 Speaker 1: and the Voluntary Aid Detachment, but the Women's Defense Relief 12 00:00:58,560 --> 00:01:02,560 Speaker 1: Corps had a much broad It was founded by Missus 13 00:01:02,640 --> 00:01:06,280 Speaker 1: Dawson Scott with the goal of inducing women to undertake 14 00:01:06,400 --> 00:01:10,160 Speaker 1: industrial and farming jobs so that more able bodied men 15 00:01:10,360 --> 00:01:13,560 Speaker 1: would be free to fight on the front lines. It 16 00:01:13,640 --> 00:01:16,800 Speaker 1: was a fairly radical concept at the time, as most 17 00:01:16,840 --> 00:01:21,200 Speaker 1: British wives and mothers were not expected nor encouraged to 18 00:01:21,280 --> 00:01:24,559 Speaker 1: work outside the home, and the women who did work 19 00:01:24,640 --> 00:01:28,040 Speaker 1: prior to the war were limited mostly to domestic service 20 00:01:28,200 --> 00:01:33,600 Speaker 1: or textile manufacturing, nothing as high stakes as producing live munitions. 21 00:01:34,800 --> 00:01:39,480 Speaker 1: Women's rights organizations had initially opposed Britain's involvement in the war, 22 00:01:39,840 --> 00:01:42,319 Speaker 1: but once it was clear the country would join the fight, 23 00:01:42,600 --> 00:01:46,520 Speaker 1: they quickly lent their support. In fact, just one day 24 00:01:46,680 --> 00:01:50,400 Speaker 1: after Britain declared war on Germany, a suffrage journal called 25 00:01:50,520 --> 00:01:54,360 Speaker 1: Common Cause reflected that quote, in the midst of this 26 00:01:54,560 --> 00:01:58,040 Speaker 1: time of terrible anxiety and grief, it is some little 27 00:01:58,080 --> 00:02:01,200 Speaker 1: comfort to think that our large org organization, which has 28 00:02:01,240 --> 00:02:05,320 Speaker 1: been completely built up during past years to promote women's suffrage, 29 00:02:05,720 --> 00:02:08,440 Speaker 1: can be used to help our country through the period 30 00:02:08,520 --> 00:02:13,560 Speaker 1: of strain and sorrow. Common Cause wasn't the only group 31 00:02:13,639 --> 00:02:16,200 Speaker 1: to connect the fight for women's suffrage to the fight 32 00:02:16,240 --> 00:02:20,160 Speaker 1: against Germany. Many women saw the war as an opportunity 33 00:02:20,240 --> 00:02:23,240 Speaker 1: to improve their standing on the home front, and Missus 34 00:02:23,360 --> 00:02:26,919 Speaker 1: Dawson Scott was one of them. One of her goals 35 00:02:26,960 --> 00:02:30,120 Speaker 1: with the WDRC was to prove that women were just 36 00:02:30,160 --> 00:02:33,320 Speaker 1: as loyal, capable, and ready to serve their country as 37 00:02:33,360 --> 00:02:36,400 Speaker 1: men were, and that as a consequence, they were just 38 00:02:36,440 --> 00:02:40,760 Speaker 1: as deserving of the full rights of citizenship. Missus Scott 39 00:02:40,840 --> 00:02:42,920 Speaker 1: started the corps at the end of the first month 40 00:02:42,919 --> 00:02:46,320 Speaker 1: of fighting, and with the full support of British war minister, 41 00:02:46,639 --> 00:02:51,560 Speaker 1: Lord Kitchener. Thousands of women joined up, many of whom 42 00:02:51,600 --> 00:02:56,280 Speaker 1: were the wives, mothers, and sisters of enlisted soldiers. At first, 43 00:02:56,320 --> 00:02:59,519 Speaker 1: all of the members acted as substitutes for male employees, 44 00:03:00,000 --> 00:03:04,800 Speaker 1: making their places as clerks, field hands, ticket takers, police officers, 45 00:03:04,880 --> 00:03:09,280 Speaker 1: postal workers, and bus drivers. The Corps made particular headway 46 00:03:09,400 --> 00:03:12,720 Speaker 1: in the agricultural sector, where they helped build a network 47 00:03:12,760 --> 00:03:16,240 Speaker 1: of casual female labor for farmers to hire as needed. 48 00:03:16,919 --> 00:03:19,960 Speaker 1: The Women's Land Army would later develop from the Corps 49 00:03:20,160 --> 00:03:23,240 Speaker 1: to carry on this agricultural work, and by the end 50 00:03:23,280 --> 00:03:25,880 Speaker 1: of the war, the group had deployed more than nine 51 00:03:25,960 --> 00:03:30,680 Speaker 1: thousand women to work the soil. In nineteen fifteen, the 52 00:03:30,800 --> 00:03:35,360 Speaker 1: conflict intensified, and the dire need for artillery shells spurred 53 00:03:35,400 --> 00:03:39,600 Speaker 1: many women into munitions factories. A job on the assembly 54 00:03:39,680 --> 00:03:43,160 Speaker 1: line paid well, although women still earned less than men, 55 00:03:43,720 --> 00:03:47,600 Speaker 1: but the work itself was stressful and dangerous. Many of 56 00:03:47,640 --> 00:03:51,640 Speaker 1: the women spent long hours packing shells with TNT, and 57 00:03:51,680 --> 00:03:55,480 Speaker 1: their close contact with this toxic chemical wound up staining 58 00:03:55,520 --> 00:03:58,760 Speaker 1: their skin and hair a bright shade of yellow, earning 59 00:03:58,800 --> 00:04:03,360 Speaker 1: them the nickname the Canary Girls. The die effect thankfully, 60 00:04:03,560 --> 00:04:06,960 Speaker 1: was temporary, and while some workers reportedly gave birth to 61 00:04:07,240 --> 00:04:11,240 Speaker 1: bright yellow babies, the little one's color was also said 62 00:04:11,280 --> 00:04:16,040 Speaker 1: to gradually fade. Far more serious and permanent was the 63 00:04:16,160 --> 00:04:19,239 Speaker 1: risk of amputation that the women faced with every shell 64 00:04:19,320 --> 00:04:22,719 Speaker 1: they handled. Once a shell was packed with powder, a 65 00:04:22,760 --> 00:04:25,279 Speaker 1: worker had to place a detonator in the top and 66 00:04:25,320 --> 00:04:28,520 Speaker 1: then tap it down into place, and if they tapped 67 00:04:28,600 --> 00:04:33,159 Speaker 1: just a little too hard, it would explode. These incidents 68 00:04:33,240 --> 00:04:37,840 Speaker 1: resulted in missing hands, burns, and blindness, and in several factories, 69 00:04:37,920 --> 00:04:42,839 Speaker 1: the blasts even proved fatal. Despite the inherent danger, the 70 00:04:42,839 --> 00:04:46,200 Speaker 1: Women's Defense Relief Corps continued to do vital work in 71 00:04:46,240 --> 00:04:50,679 Speaker 1: the civic sector, but in nineteen sixteen, the organization also 72 00:04:50,760 --> 00:04:55,719 Speaker 1: added a second division, a semi military or good Citizen Division. 73 00:04:56,720 --> 00:04:59,680 Speaker 1: Its aim was to recruit women for the armed forces, 74 00:05:00,160 --> 00:05:02,880 Speaker 1: train them to protect themselves and their loved ones in 75 00:05:02,920 --> 00:05:06,640 Speaker 1: the event of an invasion. Members serving in the Semi 76 00:05:06,680 --> 00:05:09,640 Speaker 1: Military Division were taught how to handle a weapon and 77 00:05:09,680 --> 00:05:15,719 Speaker 1: were trained in marching, scouting, and marksmanship. The WDRC also 78 00:05:15,800 --> 00:05:19,800 Speaker 1: inspired the formation of other women's organizations, such as the 79 00:05:19,839 --> 00:05:25,640 Speaker 1: Women's Army Auxiliary Corps or WAAC. It was founded in 80 00:05:25,680 --> 00:05:28,760 Speaker 1: December of nineteen sixteen as a way for women to 81 00:05:28,760 --> 00:05:32,960 Speaker 1: support the war more directly. Members were allowed to officially 82 00:05:33,080 --> 00:05:37,200 Speaker 1: enlist in the army and to perform support tasks including cooking, 83 00:05:37,360 --> 00:05:42,640 Speaker 1: clerical work, and driving, just like with the WDRC before it. 84 00:05:42,839 --> 00:05:45,599 Speaker 1: The goal was to have women step into these roles 85 00:05:45,720 --> 00:05:48,120 Speaker 1: so that more male soldiers could be sent to fight 86 00:05:48,120 --> 00:05:51,520 Speaker 1: in the trenches, except instead of serving their country on 87 00:05:51,560 --> 00:05:54,960 Speaker 1: the home front, these women donned uniforms and served on 88 00:05:55,000 --> 00:05:59,520 Speaker 1: the front lines in France and Belgium. In total, more 89 00:05:59,560 --> 00:06:02,839 Speaker 1: than a one hundred thousand women joined Britain's armed forces 90 00:06:02,920 --> 00:06:05,920 Speaker 1: during the war, and well over a million women joined 91 00:06:05,960 --> 00:06:10,040 Speaker 1: the country's workforce. The majority of them left their jobs 92 00:06:10,080 --> 00:06:13,800 Speaker 1: when the war ended. The auxiliary units all disbanded and 93 00:06:13,839 --> 00:06:19,280 Speaker 1: the munitions factories ceased production. Women and other occupations were 94 00:06:19,400 --> 00:06:23,600 Speaker 1: unsurprisingly pushed out to make room for returning male soldiers, 95 00:06:24,000 --> 00:06:27,880 Speaker 1: and as life slowly returned to normal, British society began 96 00:06:27,920 --> 00:06:33,400 Speaker 1: to compel women back into their traditional roles. Overall, the 97 00:06:33,440 --> 00:06:37,080 Speaker 1: war didn't result in the liberation that many British women 98 00:06:37,080 --> 00:06:40,599 Speaker 1: had hoped for, but it was hardly a wash. Nine 99 00:06:40,600 --> 00:06:43,480 Speaker 1: months before the war ended, the British government passed the 100 00:06:43,560 --> 00:06:47,599 Speaker 1: nineteen eighteen Representation of the People Act, giving about eight 101 00:06:47,600 --> 00:06:50,120 Speaker 1: and a half million women over the age of thirty 102 00:06:50,360 --> 00:06:54,039 Speaker 1: the right to cast a ballot. Then, ten years after that, 103 00:06:54,560 --> 00:06:57,440 Speaker 1: suffrage was extended to all women over the age of 104 00:06:57,480 --> 00:07:02,839 Speaker 1: twenty one, giving them the same voting rights as men. Nonetheless, 105 00:07:03,160 --> 00:07:06,240 Speaker 1: many British women struggled to return to their old lives 106 00:07:06,279 --> 00:07:08,600 Speaker 1: after the war and found it hard to give up 107 00:07:08,600 --> 00:07:12,040 Speaker 1: the independence they had found from earning their own wage. 108 00:07:12,600 --> 00:07:15,000 Speaker 1: They kept that sense of loss in mind when the 109 00:07:15,040 --> 00:07:18,640 Speaker 1: next World War rolled around all too soon, and when 110 00:07:18,720 --> 00:07:21,440 Speaker 1: the needs of wartime put them on equal footing with 111 00:07:21,520 --> 00:07:25,480 Speaker 1: men once again. That time they made sure the changes 112 00:07:25,640 --> 00:07:34,160 Speaker 1: were permanent. I'm Gay Blues Yay, and hopefully you now 113 00:07:34,240 --> 00:07:37,920 Speaker 1: know a little more about history today than you did yesterday. 114 00:07:38,720 --> 00:07:40,480 Speaker 1: If you'd like to keep up with the show, you 115 00:07:40,520 --> 00:07:44,240 Speaker 1: can follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at TDI 116 00:07:44,800 --> 00:07:48,400 Speaker 1: HC Show, and if you have any comments or suggestions, 117 00:07:48,560 --> 00:07:50,880 Speaker 1: feel free to send them my way by writing to 118 00:07:50,960 --> 00:07:55,880 Speaker 1: this day at iHeartMedia dot com. Thanks to Kasby Bias 119 00:07:55,960 --> 00:07:58,520 Speaker 1: for producing the show, and thanks to you for listening. 120 00:07:58,880 --> 00:08:01,800 Speaker 1: I'll see you back here again tomorrow for another day 121 00:08:02,120 --> 00:08:03,160 Speaker 1: in history class.