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Such figures as can be given of the great
mobilisation are very impressive. There are in Great Britain 33,100,00
persons aged from 14 to 64 inclusive [WLHG note; these figures are
for 1942] . This figure comprises 15,900,000 men and 17,200,000
women; of these women, most of whom are married, nearly 10,000,000 are
occupied in essential household duties, and there are 9,000,000 children
under 14 who must be looked after – particularly in war time –
mostly by women. Between 18 and 64, only 4,500,000 women are unmarried. Over
20,700,000 men and women have been registered under the National
Services Acts and the Registration for Employment Order.
Of the 33,100,000 persons aged 14 to 64, nearly
23,000,000 are “gainfully occupied” (including the Armed Forces at
home and abroad, and including also persons employed on a part-time
basis). In addition, about 1,000,000 men and women aged 65 and over are
in paid employment. This does not take into account any form of
voluntary work, such as that of married women with domestic
responsibilities who are taking in lodgers or evacuees, or members of
the W.V.S. or other organisation doing voluntary work at canteen,
nursery schools, etc. There are at least 1,000,000 women of all ages
rendering voluntary service.
 It
is essential that the middle of 1943 there were 1,200,000 more men
employed on munition work than at the end of the last war; that the
total number of female workers in all industries and the Forces,
excluding private domestic service, was 7,750,000, of whom about 750,000
were in part-time employment; that the portion of women aged 14 to 59 in
the Forces, munitions and essential industries is about double the
proportion in 1918; that nearly 3,000,000 married women and widows were
in employment as compared with 1,250,000 before the war; and
that among women aged 18 to 40, 90 percent of the single women and 80
percent of the married women and widows without dependent children were
in the Forces or industry.
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