Women Factory Workers in WW1

As our performance includes women in WW1 it is important for us to know specific ways in which they lived and how they contributed in the work place.
 We all have previous mis-conceptions on how women who worked were treated during the war, however it was interesting to find from the research that they were treated a lot better then originally thought. By exploring YouTube, we found a variety of videos that showed us what it was really like for the woman working in munition factories. This meant that we could then develop and change our previous scenes to become more accurate.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AD09Xfw1EOc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqV_JFlEhRM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?

• From the beginning of the war there were over 212,000 woman working. 

• By the end there was massive number of 950,000 women.

• There were over 200 women that died from explosions by the end of WW1.

• Woman were paid half the amount that men were.

• Munitionettes worked with hazardous chemicals, such as nitric and sulpheric acids, on a daily basis without any safety protection. 

Braybon, who is a historian that studies World War 1, claims that woman felt that it was a "genuinely liberating experience", because it made them feel like useful citizens and gave them the freedom which they didn't really originally have. 

Munitionettes were brilliant with what they did, without them the army would have found it difficult to produce all of those thousands of weapons and ammunition that they produced, since they made 80% of them altogether.

    

Muniontette Facts:

Lots of women were nicknamed 'Canaries'because they were exposed to a chemical called trinitrotoluene (TNT, too much exposure can cause skin to an orange/yellow color similar to the plumage of the canary bird).                                    

A day in the life of a Munition worker:

Leaving at 5.a.m for the factory, on arrival at the factory the girls change into the boiler suits and rubber shoes, A fair worker fitting the Exploder and finishing shells,                                   Clearing the screw-threads, Gauging the depth before inserting the detonator, Stenciling the destructive mark on the shell, The munitionetts wear gloves and masks to protect them from the poisons and dangerous fumes of the explosive material, Ready for the front one of the Mary Avenues of monster shells to be presented to the Huns,       Medical examination,Taking a sample of the blood,The health of the workers is carefully considered it is compulsory to wash before meals and before leaving the factory,                            

WORKING FOR VICTORY!

 - http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/1060023048