Women's Work In Ww1 Australia Essay

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World War I, a crucial event in the history of not only Australia, but the world, occurred from July 28th, 1914 and ceased on the 11th of November, 1918. During these four years, the role of women within Australian society was modified and changed for history. Throughout WWI, women had various jobs including providing medical aid and support to the men who were fighting in the war. This evolved into women completing engineering work and crucial public roles such as working as police, transport conductors and firefighters, as a vast majority of the men that would usually complete these jobs were fighting in the war and were unable to fulfil their occupation. This new physical asset to the role of women changed the way they were seen from then …show more content…

Occupations such as public transport conductors, police, firefighters, bank ‘tellers’ and clerks, were all roles that needed to be fulfilled by women whilst the men were away and fighting for Australia. This is evident through the article titled Women’s work in World War I, as it states that these jobs were crucial for the continuum of society, thus females were required to take over men 's jobs during this period. This was not only a benefit to the role of women at the time as they moved away from their usual domestic work, but it again impacted the job opportunities in the future of Australian society as women were now eligable to apply for a job in this field of public assistance. Furthermore, from 1914, women were permitted to help in factories and even take part in the construction of weaponry for WWI. As depicted in the photograph of women building bombs and missiles, women were asked to work in munitions factories due to the high demand of weaponry because of the war. Despite the initial resistance in hiring females to complete ‘male’ work such as this, the need for workers became urgent and these factories became the largest single employer of women during 1918, as stated in the article titled ‘Women’s Work in World War I’. This specific impact on the role of women because of WWI is what allowed society to slowly move away from the gender-specific jobs, as following WWI, women were allowed to stay within this field of work and take it as a career path. This crucial impact on the jobs of the female population in Australia has lead society to its current state, and without the opportunities for these careers for women which became available during WWI, such as