100 likes | 268 Views
100 years later. British Women in WW1 1914-18. A time of change. Before 1914 – women did not have the vote; After 1918 – some women did have the vote (not all until 1928); During WW1 women worked in a wider range of occupations including munitions and other war related work;
E N D
100 years later British Women in WW1 1914-18
A time of change • Before 1914 – women did not have the vote; • After 1918 – some women did have the vote (not all until 1928); • During WW1 women worked in a wider range of occupations including munitions and other war related work; • Women also broke new ground in occupations previously not open to them.
Vera Brittain • Born 29th December 1893, Newcastle; • Attended Somerville College, Oxford to study English Literature; • Worked as a VAD during WW1 • Her brother, fiance and two close friends were killed • She later wrote ‘Testament of Youth’ • Died in 1970
Dorothy L Sayers • Born, Oxford, 13th June 1893 • Read Modern Languages at Somerville College, Oxford. • Writer and dramatist, died 1957
Edith Cavell • Born 4th December 1865, Norfolk • A nurse in Brussels in 1914, training Belgian nurses • Arrested for helping allied servicemen escape from Belgium • Executed by firing squad on 12th October 1915 "I realise that patriotism is not enough. I must have no hatred or bitterness towards anyone".
Constance Coltman • Read history at Somerville College, Oxford; • Trained for ministry at Mansfield College, Oxford (1st female student) • Ordained 17th September 1917 into the Congregational Union of England and Wales • Life long pacifist
Maude Royden • Born 23rd November 1876; • Studied at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford • Anglican lay preacher, suffragist and pacifist • Died 30th July 1956
Women’s suffrage • Partial – 1918: aged over 30 years (men could vote if over 21); • Full - 1928
Dorothy L Sayers • Perhaps it is no wonder that women were the first at the Cradle and the last at the Cross. They had never known a man like this Man—there never has been another. A prophet and teacher who never nagged at them, never flattered or coaxed or patronized; who never made arch jokes about them, never treated them as ‘the women, God help us’ or ‘the ladies, God bless them!’; who rebuked without querulousness and praised without condescension; who took their arguments seriously; who never mapped out their sphere for them, never urged them to be feminine or jeered at them for being female; who had no axe to grind and no uneasy male dignity to defend; who took them as he found them and was completely unself-conscious. There is no act, no sermon, no parable in the whole Gospel that borrows its pungency from female perversity; nobody could possibly guess from the words or deeds of Jesus that there was anything ‘funny’ about woman’s nature.”