A History of Women's Lives in Liverpool by Gill Rossini

Author:Gill Rossini [Rossini, Gill]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Europe, Great Britain, General, Social Science, Women's Studies
ISBN: 9781526718099
Google: kkEBwgEACAAJ
Publisher: Pen & Sword Books Limited
Published: 2019-06-15T03:18:32+00:00

May Edge also spoke, claiming that the war had created more unemployment among women generally than among men. Other speakers included Jack Braddock, husband of Bessie Braddock who was by then a noted local politician (see Chapter Seven). Later in the month, two of the campaigners travelled to London and, before addressing a conference of the British Youth Peace Assembly, called at Downing Street and left a calling card with an appeal to Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain to donate to the relief fund for the unemployed pools workers.

It is not known how the many hundreds of Littlewoods women fared in the war with their work situations. Perhaps some were taken back, as the company turned its formidable resources to war work, making barrage balloons (1940 onwards), dinghies and munitions (1941 onwards), and aircraft parts (1942 onwards), tasks well suited to either male or female workers. Other women preferred to support the war effort ‘on the home front’, and were actively encouraged by every media. The Will’s cigarette company issued a new set of fifty collectible cards entitled Air Raid Precautions. Avidly collected by many children and adults, about one quarter of the set included images of women trying on gas masks, fire fighting, and operating ventilation machines for gas-proof chambers – tasks such as operating anti-aircraft guns were reserved for men. This and other popular forms of propaganda – women’s magazines, movies, and popular music – accustomed the population to the idea of women mobilising yet again after facing a push-back into the domestic sphere in the inter-war period. As a result, women responded well to appeals for their contribution, and in 1941 the Liverpool Daily Post reported that 400 women had just signed on at the Leece Street Labour Exchange alone (11 September).

The Compulsory Fire Watching Order for Women, came into force on 14 September 1942, compelling adult females between the ages of 20 and 45 who did not have children under the age of 14, to do their share of the fire watching. However, a significant number of women did not come forward to enlist. An article in the Liverpool Echo (13 October 1942) outlined a broadening of opportunities to do so, allowing women ‘who, for various reasons such as sickness, working late and temporary absence from the city have been prevented from registering.’ By 1943, concerns were continually raised about women on fire guard duties in ‘vulnerable parts of the city’ (Liverpool Echo, 31 December 1943) close to the River Mersey, with unsafe buildings; after a meeting between Liverpool MPs including Ellen Wilkinson, and the Liverpool Civil Defence Emergency Committee, it was decreed that women would only be required to perform Fire Guard duties (if at all) where they worked, and a determination was expressed that women must have access to suitable facilities such as adequate sleeping arrangements. There was bickering in the letters pages of the local press, one man writing in to state his opinion that ‘the agitation for many years now has been that women can do the same work as men.

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