The gains were not perhaps particularly revolutionary, but they were a start, but a lot of ground gained during the war was lost upon the return of the soldiers. However, there were continuing opportunities in clerical work and fresh ones in the higher professions. Women` s maternal and welfare provisions were improved in factories that hitherto failed to cater for factory acts, due to the belief that to legislate for the adult male reflected on his manhood. but perhaps the most important development in hindsight was the significant change in the belief of women, and indeed society, of what they were capable of.
?Now that they were earning on their own account, they had economic independence; now that they were working away from home,?they had social independence. Above all, in their awareness that they were performing arduous and worthwhile tasks, were living through experiences once confined only to the most adventurous males, they gained a new self-consciousness and a new sense of status.?
(Arthur Marwick, 1967, p.99)
Alan S. Milward cites A.L. Bowley in his analysis of this change,
?The economic position of women and their more complete enfranchisement, would no doubt have developed in a different manner if their claims had not been substantiated by their ability to replace men.?
(A.L. Bowley, 1930, p. 22)
However, De Groot maintains that the fact that women were still paid less than men when doing the same job increased tension between the sexes and did nothing for equality. They never attained the status of skilled workers, the real source of power in the labour hierarchy, and were consequently expendable. Many women were contented to return to their homes after the war, and very few found the opportunities to take advantage of their greater self-esteem. Their work in the munitions industry was not universally welcomed and few concessions were made regarding separate changing and washing facilities.
?There is a serious flaw in the argument that women can gain status in society taking up men` s jobs. Status in a patriarchal society is calculated according to a male-orientated measure of importance. If a job becomes essentially `women` s work`, it` s status declines, a decline highlighted by the lower pay attached to it.?
(De Groot, 2001 p 156)
The returning clerks saw their jobs had been taken by women in their absence at the front, and consequently declined to return to them as they were now cast-off jobs to be left to women, who were paid less.
?Britain witnessed perhaps the least disruption to civilian society during the war. Living standards were maintained and the centralised distribution of food supplies and rationing ensured that diet and nutrition, notably amongst the poorest in society, improved dramatically. British workers gained by the war, using their role in war production to force improved pay and conditions, as well as a greater participation in government.?
(Cawood & McKinnon- Bell, 2001, p. 53)
Arthur Marwick`s thesis, however innovative and valid, was formed almost thirty-five years ago, and revisionist historians now feel that Marwick has perhaps over emphasised change at the expense of tradition.
?Thirty years later, these excessively sanguine theories of war and society seem over-cooked. War had some profound (even positive) effects, but it is reckless to postulate an all- embracing theory of war and its effects on society. In more stable societies like Britain and France, forces of conservatism and tradition were probably equal to the challenges of war. When one studies World War One, needs to be aware not just of the forces of change. but also of the countervailing forces which constrained or absorbed change. Progress was profound, but so was the power of convention, tradition, authority, repression and nostalgia.?
(Gerard J De Groot, 2001, p.155)
De Groot further points out that the progress made by the workers depended on labour shortage, and that this power only lasted as long as the vagaries of the trade cycle were favourable. Workers willingly made sacrifices for the good of the country but `only for the duration` and De Groot finds it is hard to see a group of people who sacrificed their lives and their rights to be seen as making progress.
?War is an extraordinary event which engenders a temporary tolerance for disruption. With the armistice comes a widespread desire, amongst all classes, to return to normal. The extent to which normality is restored is the gauge of how worthwhile the sacrifice was. War is seldom fought to change society, but more often to preserve it.?
De Groot p.158-159)
In returning to the question at hand, it seems that the British people were prepared to go along with the increase in government intervention for the duration of the war, and to extricate as many concessions from the government as possible in this period, but it was only for a mutually understood period commensurate with the duration of the war. The British public were conservative in their views, and fought the war, as De Groot stated, to preserve society. Just because the government had been effective running the war, it did n` t mean they would be as effective running the peace.
?The degree of state control eventually achieved during the course of the war was striking and impressive. It encompassed all Britain` s basic industries. The British people showed remarkable readiness to accommodate themselves to the fact of this change. This readiness was not, however, extended to the question of principle. State control was not an idea whose time had come, but an exceptional measure for exceptional circumstances, to be abandoned when the world returned to its senses. The power of the responsibilities of government increase, but the nature of The State was not transformed?.
(Bourne, 1989,p. 193)
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