Teachers
Wives and MothersWork and LeisurePolitics and PacifismQuiz

Work and Leisure

Any Johnson

Find out about how women's employment and leisure opportunities were affected by the First and Second World Wars.

Read the fact file, look at some original photographs then print the sources and try the worksheets.

What do you think?

  • What sort of personality do you think Amy Johnson might have had?
  • What do you think women liked or disliked abut working in the Gas industry?
  • Why did so many women do voluntary work in the Second World War?

Printable worksheets and source material:

Amy Johnson:
worksheet | source material

Gas Workers:
worksheet | source material

Voluntary Work:
worksheet | source material

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  1. Amy Johnson was a teenager during the First World War when women enjoyed greater freedom socially and economically. After the war she attended Sheffield University and lived away from home for the first time. She enjoyed her social life and activities such as going to dances and listening to the gramophone.
  2. However Amy was still expected to take a low paid job as a secretary, which bored her. She used her leisure time to qualify as a pilot becoming the first woman to fly to Australia in 1930. In the Second World War her hobby became part of the war effort as she enlisted in the Air Transport Auxiliary and flew aircraft from factories to RAF bases.
  3. During the Second World War many women took over the jobs of men who had been called up to fight the war. Women working in the gas industry proved they could do the same jobs as men including emptying the purifiers. This meant digging out rock hard oxide and carrying it away in sacks or wheelbarrows.
  4. Photos from the Second World War show the female staff at WC Holmes -a gas factory near Huddersfield. However after the war was over and all the men came back from fighting women were expected to leave or take an office job.
  5. In the Second World War many middle class women were involved in voluntary work. This became a large part of the war effort in the Armed Forces and in areas such as nursing and civil defence. Women drove ambulances, became Air Raid Wardens, Fire Guards and gave emergency first aid.
  6. Nellie Paxman and Elsie May Harling were both ordinary women who became involved in extraordinary war work. Nellie was a fire guard and tackled fires as well as learning how to cope when a bomb was dropped. Elsie May Harling was a member of the Civil Nursing Reserve and helped to set up the Blood Donor Service.
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