ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the experiences of female replacement workers at the gasworks, and their contributions to the war effort. While the war generated industrial opportunities for women, it presents new challenges for the lady demons. The chapter explores the gas industry's participation in the reconstruction debates over post-war housing. The wartime preoccupation with food supplies and the rising cost of living cast new importance on the promotional work of the gas industry. Another wartime advertisement connected gas fires to health, hygiene and physical recovery. H. H. Creasey monitored the housing conferences, quoting the high-profile housing experts, to bolster arguments that gas appliances were both cost effective and labour-saving in working-class homes. The years of war and reconstruction transformed the gas industry in a number of ways. Throughout the war years, the numbers of female gas employees increased in all areas of the business, as female labourers proved themselves capable of even the most arduous tasks.
