Munitionette

painted by Stanhope Forbes, 1918.|322x322px Munitionettes were British women employed in munitions factories during the time of the First World War.

painted by Stanhope Forbes, 1918.|322x322px Munitionettes were British women employed in munitions factories during the time of the First World War.

History

Early in the war, the United Kingdom's munitions industry found itself having difficulty producing the amount of weapons and ammunition needed by the country's armed forces. In response to the crisis, known as the Shell Crisis of 1915, the British government passed the Munitions of War Act 1915 to increase government oversight and regulation of the industry. The newly created Ministry of Munitions regulated wages, hours and employment conditions in munitions factories. It also forced the factories to admit more women as employees, because so many of the nation's men were engaged in fighting in the war and male labour was in short supply. Historian Angela Woollacott has estimated that approximately one million women were working in munitions industries by mid 1918. She suggests that a greater number of women worked in munitions than in the Voluntary Aid Detachment, the Women's Land Army or other such organisations. Historian Deborah Thom suggests that many workers had previous experience of factory work, though few had made munitions. But the specific type of the work was considered different: historian Patrica Fara notes that 90% of women who went into engineering trades entered domains not previously regarded as suitable for women, and most of these were employed in munitions works manufacturing cordite and TNT. Some large firms greatly increased their workforce during the war: the number of employees at Birmingham Small Arms' (BSA) increased from 3,500 to 13,000 and at Austin in Longbridge from 2,800 in 1914 to 20,000 in 1918, many of these extra workers were women. Some women entering munitions work did so seeking better pay and fewer working hours than were customary in domestic service, pubs and laundries. Employers in these industries complained about losing their staff to munitions factories. The national munitions factory in Gretna, which was the largest industrial site in the world at the time, recorded that 36% of its workers had previously been in domestic service. The Gretna Girls was a collective nickname given to women munition workers at HM Factory Gretna in World War One. By June 1917, roughly 80% of the weaponry and ammunition used by the British army during World War I was being made by munitionettes.

Further reading

Cook, Bernard. Women and War: a Historical Encyclopedia from Antiquity to the Present, Volume 1: ABC-CLIO, 2006. Print.

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