ABSTRACT
The demands made by the war on the national economy were extraordinary and indeed unprecedented. In 1914, Britain’s army was miniscule, intended mainly for fighting small-scale colonial wars. Hence the remarkable demands made by the Great War not only on the manpower needed to oppose the large enemy armies, but also on the munitions industry. The Labour Party suffered more from ideological doubts: for some on the left, the war was a quarrel between imperialist powers in which innocent workers on both sides would be used as cannon-fodder. Women’s contribution to the war effort was widely praised, and it was clear that this had to be recognised by the granting at last of the vote. Working-class women had always worked before the war, of course, both before marriage and often after marriage once free from family commitments; they continued to do so during the war though often at better rates of pay and earning more than before.
