On This Day, 11 March 1918

Birmingham Daily Post

Monday 11 March 1918

BIRMINGHAM WOMEN-WORKERS

A meeting of the National federation of Women Workers was held in Birmingham Town Hall yesterday. Mr. F. W. Rudland, who presided, urged the workers to become trade unionists in order that by united action they would be better able to achieve good results.

Miss Mary Macarthur protested against the discharge of women from factories, and urged that the lessening of the hours of employment would achieve the result the Government wanted. She also protested against the militarisation of the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps for home service. She realised the necessity of discipline abroad, but she thought that many of the girls at home could be doing the work they were doing in the W.A.A.C. if they were retained to civil employment. She also urged girls, and the parents and guardians of girls, to become thoroughly acquainted with the terms of enlistment before they signed the document, as many girls had signed in ignorance of its content.