Page 16 - Greystones Archaeological Historical Society

WOMEN IN WORLD WAR I

the terrible offence of wearing male attire (trousers I presume!)
her defence was that in order to receive a fair wage in the
industry where she worked she had been obliged to dress as a
man for two years.

The work of women throughout
World War I, buoyed by the efforts
of the Suffragette Movement,
ultimately led in 1918 to the
granting of voting rights for the
women of Britain and Ireland.
These voting rights were far from
equal however.

The efforts of the men who
fought in World War I were
rewarded by a new reduced voting
age of 19. The women however,
many of whose lives were forever
changed by the war, were given a
vote, but only the women
considered mature enough. The voting age introduced for
women was 30 years and above.

It took the United Kingdom a full ten years to introduce equal
voting rights for all in 1928. The new Irish Free State had passed
them out six years earlier by granting equal suffrage to all of its
citizens in 1922.

History would continue to give women the more silent role in
World War I.

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