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Difficult Years 1910-1919
The suffragettes, though, were only one unhappy segment of a society in crisis.
The biggest single problem was inflation, which hit the workers hardest because
their wages were fixed. In consequence, the trade unions doubled their
membership and the country reeled under a series of strikes …
Initially, there was enthusiastic support for the war effort, and the necessary
transformation of peacetime production was swift and complete. The needs of war
naturally brought about many of the changes that had been fought for by the
trade unions. There was full employment, and over 700,000 women took to
munitions work and ship-building in response to recruiting campaigns organised
by the suffragettes leaders … Women also served as nurses, many working in
field hospitals, and they stood in for their bosses in the office. By 1918,
nearly five million women held paid employment …
It was impossible to turn the clock back and return to the pre-war innocence,
and rationally no one really wished to. Too much had changed. For women, the
difficult years had proved beyond question that they were capable of exercising
fully the responsibilities of citizenship …