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In dealing with the mobilisation of women for the
Auxiliary Services, we have already referred to the National Service
(No.2) Act of December, 1941. But in the spring of that year the first
registration under the Registration for Employment Order had taken
place.
Now all women from 18 to 50 inclusive have been
registered, and this completes the present program of registrations.
Unless a women has children under 14 under her care, or already engaged
in work necessary to the war efforts, she is called to the nearest
Employment Exchange for an inter view.
At that interview any facts about her domestic
circumstances or any financial hardship are obtained. If it is decided
– where necessary with the help of panels of independent women –
that she can do a war job, then, so far as is possible, she is given a
wide choice of war occupations, ranging from munition work to the care
of children in war nurseries, from timber production to work in Navy,
Army and Air Force Institutes, from jobs in Naval Armament Depots to
nursing: the range, in fact is almost as wide as the war efforts itself.
But some of the occupations are reserved for women over 30 and those are
not able to leave home.
This business of leaving home is marks the chief
distinction between the mobilisation of men and of women. It immensely
complicates the women’s story. A very large proportion of women cannot
be given employment away from their own area because of their domestic
responsibilities. These are known as “immobile women” in the
Ministry files. As this has proved to be one of the giant headaches of
the whole manpower task, probably many a harassed Ministry of Labour
official, not released from his cares even by sleep, must startled his
wife by muttering strange remarks about “mobile Women” and
“immobile women.”
The registration of women, especially those over 25
years of age, have shown that a very high proportion are married and
engaged in household duties, and therefore, even eligible for work,
cannot be regarded as “mobile.” In the 1909 class, for example, out
of 330,000 women registered, 260,000 were married, and in the 1907 class
out of 340,000 registered, 270,000 were married. Women, whose husbands
are at home, even when their domestic duties permit them to take a war
job, are not asked to go to work beyond daily traveling distance. And
there is another class of women also exempt from the requirement to
leave home.
This class is made up of wives of men serving in
Forces and the Merchant Navy. Some of these young women may have no
children, no domestic duties, and indeed precious little to do all day
long; but, nevertheless, they cannot be sent away to do a war job. If
there is some suitable work to be done near where they are living, they
can be required to undertake that, but this is as far as the Ministry
can go, and unfortunately many of these servicemen’s wives live in
areas where there is little to do; or alternatively, especially if they
are the wives of young officers, they move around with their husbands.
The chief reason why these women have been exempted
in this fashion is that men serving overseas, especially those who had
been in the Middle East for some time, felt strongly that if their wives
could be compelled to undertake work out of their particular areas, then
their homes would be broken up. So strong was this sentiment among the
men, many of whom did not understand what was happening in this country,
that it was found impossible to treat their wives as other women are
being treated, though sheer justice would demand that no such large
exceptions should be made.
This fact explains why, as so many puzzled
observers have often noticed, there may be seen up and down the country
a certain number of young and healthy women, with no children and
domestic duties, who appear to have so little to do. Nevertheless, a
great many Servicemen’s wives have volunteered for work, and some of
the young and healthy women denounced by hasty observers may easily be
enjoying a very well-earned leave with their husbands.
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