20 Vintage Photos of Women At Work During WWI

By | May 15, 2016

Before World War I, less than 10 percent of the female population were actively employed. They typically played the role of the homemaker. As men left their jobs to serve their country in war overseas, women took over. By the outbreak of the war, the number of working women had risen three fold.

Members of the Women's Land Army smile as they raise tools while climbing over a gate, 1916.
ww1 women at work 1

Members of the women's police service, 1916.
ww1 women at work 2

Women replace the traditionally male porters at Marylebone Station in London during the First World War.
ww1 women at work 3

Five ambulance drivers of the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY) at Calais, January 1917.
ww1 women at work 4

A young woman in an armaments factory, circa 1916.
ww1 women at work 5

Women's Army recruits drilling, May 1917.
ww1 women at work 6

A motorcyclist with the Women's Royal Flying Corps. on a Clyno motorcycle combination, circa 1916.
ww1 women at work 7

Women working in an engineering shop, 1917.
ww1 women at work 8

A line of bus conductorettes marching into their depot for the start of a day's work, Spetember 1917.

ww1 women at work 9

Women war workers feed the charcoal kilns used for purifying sugar at a refinery in Scotland, circa 1916.
ww1 women at work 10

Lady navvies pushing loaded wheel barrows in Coventry, 1917.
ww1 women at work 11

Members of the Women's Fire Brigade on a fire drill with hoses and extingushers at full force, 1916.
ww1 women at work 12

Members of the Women's Fire Brigade with their Chief Officer, March 1916.
ww1 women at work 13

A female mechanic works under an automobile while performing repairs to the vehicle, 1917.
ww1 women at work 14

A group of nurses at Hamworth Hall which served as a Red Cross Hospital, 1915.
ww1 women at work 15

Women in a Vickers factory making shell casings, 1915.
ww1 women at work 16

Women at Vickers fitting interior tubes inside the shell casings, 1914.
ww1 women at work 17

Two women sweeping the road in Chiswick, London, 1914.
ww1 women at work 18

A member of the Women Porters at Marylebone Station giving a Great Central Railways carriage a thorough clean, circa 1914.
ww1 women at work 19

A munitions worker welding at a workbench, circa 1915.
ww1 women at work 20

H/T Telegraph