WOMEN ON WAR WORK

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 47, 20 November 1918, Page 9

WOMEN ON WAR WORK

SIX MILLION IN UNITED KINGDOM Fully 0,000,000 women in the United Kingdom are engaged "in whole-time work, much of wliicli, in one way or another, is essential to the war,'" Mr. Harold Begbie, tho English journalist and novelist, writes in a Ixiiulon newspaper. "In three years 621,080 women were added to the pa; rolls of England's munition factories," he asserts. Incomplete figures which he had compiled showing the number of women in various trades and occupations follow:— Metals, chemical, and textile trades 2,708,000 Admiralty, dockyards, ordnance, ete 210,000 Finance, banking, commerce .... 016,000 Transport, including trains 111,000 Local authorities service 231,000 Agriculture (not including 1913 recruits) 71,000 Hospitals 61,000 Civil Service (including Post Office) 190,000 Ilotels, taverns, theatres, etc, .. 207,000 In addition, there are nearly 200,000 women employed in a eorvice of a military nature, such as the Queen Mary's Auxiliary Corps and th« Women's Naval iScrvicc. "Our Amazons," Sir. Begbie says, "have saved us. We could not have continued the struggle without their help. They have not only enabled millions of men to he enrolled in the Army; they have doubled and trebled the national output of munitions of war. "Behind the pretty girls in attractive uniforms, who are doing piost useful work, there are millions of women toiling in the sweat of their brows from morning to night, at. work either so hard that it was thought before 1914 no wol pian could perform it,, or so dangerous that no man ever dreamed of asking a woman to <lo it. The spirit in which these women have como forward to take the places of men is beyond praise. They have been li steadying influence in trade disputes. They have shown the utmost courage in moments of danger or. panic. Many "of them'are doing exceedingly hard work or extremely monotonous work. Their physical endurance has equalled their powers of nervous resistance to fatigue. Their morality has been superior to that of men."