Munitionettes : The Canary Girls of the Great War

The Munitionettes focuses on the lives of a special group of women and girls in the lead-up to and during the First World War. It is, in part, the social history of the hundreds of thousands of forgotten heroines who also became known as the Canary Girls and endeavours to highlight these women’s essential input in support of the armed forces during the First World War, which has largely been overlooked.Here, you will find descriptions of the experiences of young women in the specifically built munition factories in their own words as they speak to us from history. It looks at working practices and the place of women in society, all of which are utterly alien in today’s world. The book focuses on the many hardships, sacrifices, injuries and the kind of working conditions these women endured against a background of prejudice and suspicion in this truly male-dominated world. It illustrates that even without encouragement and very little support from society in general, the women gave of themselves for their country.The book also shows how women workers gained respect for themselves for a brief period after the First World War; however short-lived this period was, it was the beginning of change for all women.