In the First World War millions of people died as the Allies, consisting mainly of Great Britain, France and Russia fought the Central Powers, who included Germany and Austria-Hungary. Women’s lives in Britain, on the Home Front, were changed significantly by the First World War. Some of these changes shaped woman’s standing for the following decades while other changes were not permanent or worsened their position in British society. The following five sources all contain individual information about how woman’s lives were affected during the years of 1914-1918 and the years afterwards.

Women replaced male soldiers after the start of World War 1. Women were very far away from equal status to men also the activities of the Suffragettes, who despite having the simple aim of giving better rights, often who often angered politicians with their demonstrations; this is supported by Source A1. Source A1 also informs us of the gaps created in employment due to the war. We are made aware of the fact that after the war women had proved themselves to be equally capable as men. The Suffragettes, primarily led by Emmeline Pankhurst often organized many forms of protests in order to gain the vote but called off the proceeding due to the outbreak of the Great War. After the war however women’s contribution to the war effort had given a sense of independence while changing many stereotypical male views of them staying within the confines of their household or simply working in low-paid domestic service. This is proven by Herbert Asquith who proposed giving women the vote having denied it in the years before the war. Therefore women were rewarded with the vote, they were ‘given some form of political representation’ but unfortunately the reason the previous statement is so vague is because they had be over 30 years of age meaning biased still was very much present.

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