To what extent were women's lives already changing before World War One?
This Smartboard lesson is provided for teachers to adapt and use either as a whole class, teacher led lesson or as a resource for students to use either online or from printouts.
Key Stage 4 History
Learning Aims and Outcomes
· Students will use primary evidence to help in their understanding of women's lives in the period leading up to WW1
· Students will be able to demonstrate skills in assessing and using primary evidence, such as the creation of criteria
· Students will have a more secure basis on which to judge the effects of WW1 and the suffrage movement on women's lives
Relates to:
· History B (EDEXCEL)- Unit 3 Schools History Project Source Enquiry The impact of war on society The situation of women in 1914
· History B (AQA) Unit 3 Historical Enquiry 4 The changing role and status of women in
Britain since 1900.
· History B (OCR) A972 British Depth Study How was British society changed 1890 -
1918. What was the social, economic and legal status of women in the 1890s
?
From www.heritageexplore.org.uk Created by English Heritage - National Monuments Record

To what extent were women's lives already changing before World War One?
Women's lives were different after World War One - one important change being that they were allowed to vote.
But when did women's lives begin to change? Were they already changing before the war?
In order to answer this question we will look at evidence to help us build up a better picture of how women from different social backgrounds lived in the period leading up to it - the late Victorian and
Edwardian periods (1880s - 1914).

Look carefully at the following photographs. They were all taken during the late Victorian (1880s - 1900) or Edwardian period (1901 -
1914) and show real women going about their daily lives.
For each photograph note down;
· What the women are doing
· If they are working, what job they are doing
· Describe their clothing and surroundings; are they are rich or poor?
· Anything else it tells you about women's lives
Use the table on the next slide or the recording sheet for your notes you can copy the small images into the sheet.

Image Description Job Rich or Poor More

Employees at work in the Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre factory in Coventry in July 1897. These were skilled, indoor jobs.

Two nurses at Cheyne Hospital for Sick and Incurable Children, Chelsea, Greater London in 1893

The three Miss Bromleys with their bicycles in Byfield, Northamptonshire, in 1904

A female swimming session at the Peoples Palace in the Mile End Road, Stepney, Greater
.
London in 1888

Agnes Maitland, the second Principal of Somerville College, Oxford in 1895.

A busy street scene in Cheapside, London around 1900 . Women are walking alone and in groups. Some of them would have been out shopping. Shops are advertising goods designed to appeal to women.

A group of young girls training to be domestic servants at Headington Domestic
Training School, Oxford in 1913. The school trained girls to serve in the best houses in the city.

Rows of women sitting at sewing machines making various items of clothing for the Cellular Clothing Company in Swindon in 1902.

A tennis match in Buckinghamshire some time between 1896 and 1920

A crowd gathers to listen to a small band on the beach at Margate between 1890 and
1910. Seaside resorts became much more popular after the building of railways.

The Comptometer room at the Stratford Co-operative Society in 1914, showing girls and boys working on model 'E' comptometers. The comptometer was invented in
1887 and was the first successful manual calculating machine.

A gym class at West Heath School for Young Ladies, Richmond upon Thames, taken some time after 1900.

Two female workers standing beside a tank of boiling brine in a salt works in Droitwich,
Worcestershire between 1880 - 1900

Students should now have gathered basic evidence from each photograph.
The next step is to give students more information to help them relate the images to changes that were happening to women at this time. Information will be found in text books and in the teacher's notes and related links sections of the activity.
Ask students to write down changes which will be used to draw up a class list of statements on the whiteboard.
The statements on the next slide could be used as prompts.

To what extent were women's lives already changing before World War One?
Middle class women began to visit department stores to buy clothes instead of ordering from a catalogue.
Women's clothing changed to allow them to lead more active lives
Women began to take up new leisure activities
New inventions created new jobs for women to do
Train travel allowed women to be more independent

The following slides have a number of differentiated extension activities aimed at giving students the opportunity to look at documentary sources to add to the evidence from the photographs .

Extension Work 1 - Find out more from the census
•Ask students to look at the table on the next slide. This shows changes in the proportions of women employed in a variety of occupations (the numbers are women as a proportion of all employed people over the age of 12, men and women, in that trade). The information was gathered in the censuses of 1861 - 1911.
•The figures are taken from a larger table which is part of the 1911 census General report .
The whole document, along with the reports from other census years can be found on the
Vision of Britain website
•Ask students what evidence can be drawn from the figures. Does any of this evidence confirm or challenge the evidence they drew from the photographs?
Students could write an essay using the Key question for a title. 'To what extent were women's lives already changing before World War One?' They must decide which point of view they wish to adopt and use evidence from the photos and census to back it up
•Women's lives were already changing before World War One.
•Women's lives did not change before World War One

Proportions of Females in certain Occupations, 1861-1911 -The proportions of females in certain occupations, and their variations at successive censuses from 1861, may be seen from the following table, ...... These tables relate to the whole country, but it may be pointed out that the numbers of the two sexes in certain occupations vary considerably in different localities.
Occupations Proportions of Females per 1,000 Persons occupied.
1861 1871 1881 1891 1901 1911
Agriculture
Schoolmasters, Teachers, Professors,
Lecturers
Photographers
Laundry and Washing Service
Commercial or Business Clerks
Telegraph, Telephone—Service (including
Government)
Earthenware, China, Porcelain—Manufacture
Paper Manufacture
Cotton Manufacture
Wool and Worsted Manufacture
Hosiery Manufacture
Drapers, Linen Drapers, Mercers (shop)
Straw—Plait, Hat, Bonnet Manufacture
70 59 47 40 33 29
725 741 727 740 745 727
66 147 197 234 257 297
990 987 981 964 957 931
5 16 33 72 153 245
82 76 236 291 406 522
311 354 384 385 392 421
417 395 444 401 366 312
567 598 620 609 628 614
461 513 561 557 582 571
468 468 533 629 713 735
208 257 349 433 504 560
921 926 903 814 737 666

Extension Work 2 - What was the role of
WW1 in changing women's lives?
Ask students to search Heritage Explorer for more images.
· they should use the keyword 'women' and do a search on the period Victorian plus one on the period Edwardian
·they can make copies of any that add more evidence in support of, or to challenge, the statement 'Women's lives were already changing before World War One'
·they must give reasons.
Use the teaching activity How did WWI change the role of women in Britain? to allow students to find more information.
Students could then consider a third viewpoint for their essay question, 'World War One accelerated a change in women's lives that started before the war'.

Extension Work 3 Women's clothing
Read through this description of clothing worn by working women in 1911 - from a longer article called 'Dress at the time of the 1911 census' by Jayne Shrimpton.
Popular dress
The busy working woman in 1911 needed respectable but practical clothing for everyday wear and better garments for weekends - a modified version of high fashion. The smart tailor-made outfit was the mainstay of the female wardrobe and comprised an ankle-length skirt and long, matching jacket. Active women adapted the restricting ‘hobble’ shape and wore their skirts at least the width of a stride, extra fullness created by gores and pleats. Different blouses offered variety, either plain, or with neat tucks, round necklines or collars, including a masculine-style shirt and tie version, popular with younger women; dressier blouses featured a higher neckline, lace collars or panels, or were layered over a chemisette. More formal one-piece , of different fabrics and colours to suit the season or occasion, emphasised the fashionable high waistline. Hair was drawn up above a parting into wide, full waves or soft curls above the temples. Heads were covered outdoors and even ordinary hats were broad-brimmed and decorated with flowers and ribbons. Gloves, ‘modern’ handbags on long cords and one-inch heeled buttoned boots or shoes ornamented with bows or buckles were standard accessories.
• Look for images of women's clothing on Heritage Explorer (search on keywords women, clothing and period Edwardian) and find examples of the different styles described above - look on the next page for some images to start you off. Copy the photographs into a power point presentation and label the fashion details.
• Do the photographs agree with the description? Are there any women in the photographs who are wearing different clothes if so who are they and why do you think this was so?
Link Dress at the time of the 1911 census

Extension Work 4 The effects of Department Stores on the lives of women
• Send students to The Fashion for Shopping web pages on the English Heritage website
• Ask them to read and note down any interesting/shocking quotations such as;
In 1894 the drapery union called this (shop) work 'The Slavery of the Counter'. Lady Jeune's 1895 article,
'The Ethics of Shopping' condemned the exploitation and physical conditions that ruined the health of young women assistants.
Wo men making the actual goods were often worse off, as the 1895 Co-operative Women's Guild enquiry found female apprentice milliners and dressmakers under 18 in its 104 Co-operative Stores received no wages at all.
As early as 1855, 'The Sempstress' carried an article on how rich young ladies could help working women by refusing to shop at any 'emporium' where 'one gets such delightful bargains' and asking why the goods were so cheap
• Use as basis for discussion/ debate/essay question
- the last quote in particular could be related to current issues with cheap labour/sweatshops and shops selling very cheap clothing
More resources;
- Heritage Explorer search Department Store
- English Heritage web pages Visible in Stone

Useful links to further information
The National Archive (TNA) website Living in 1901 provides images and documents about the lives of women in different occupations, including typists and telephone operators.
The Women's History pages on the EH website provides more information about women's lives and work. Follow the links to Visible in Stone and
Women's Rights
The Vision of Britain website can provide more detailed information and statistics about certain occupations or women's occupations in your local area. It is also useful to look at the 1921 Census General report to see if the proportion of women working continued to rise after WW1 - NB the detailed tables are not yet included but there are useful statements and figures
The 1911 census website has all of the other censuses as well as articles on topics such as’ What women wore in 1911’
.