Almost half a million men, many of whom were in the workforce, in Britain were deployed to fight in World War I, leaving the women to take care of things on the home front. Due to the government's resistance to mobilise women, they had to satisfy their eagerness to help by pursuing nursing and voluntary work. Women become active in many other areas of economic life such as transport, agriculture and clerical work. To fill the gap left by a generation of fighting men, more than a million women replaced men in the workforce between 1914 and 1918. Women worked across the economy, from traditional female roles like domestic service and clerical work to paid labour including train cleaners and railway workers.
The hoards of female munition workers, the 'munitionette', perhaps made the greatest impact on the wartime economy. In 1914 there were 212 000 female munitions workers and by the end of 1918 there were nearly a million. There was no shortage of women willing to take their place in the munitions factories, despite the treacherous working conditions, because the pay was two to three times what could be earned in domestic service.
However, women could not replace men altogether as there were certain areas in which women tended not to work. These areas included driving trains, the iron and steel industry, shipbuilding, accounting and architecture.
'A munitions worker is as important as the soldier in the trenches and on her his life depends...' Instructions issued to munitionettes at Woolwich Arsenal.