Women in War

Pioneers of Innovation

World War II was a crucible of innovation. Working in fields previously dominated by men, women engineers played a remarkable part in the technological revolution generated by the heat of battle. Although one of Britain’s most important engineering companies had briefly been run by a woman in the 1850s (Lady Charlotte Guest, who as a widow inherited leadership of the forerunner of GKN), very few women had even been able to study engineering before World War II.  During the war, however, the ingenuity and skill of some trailblazing women had a profound impact on the weapons and techniques used to defend Britain and wage war on Hitler.

Meeting the challenge

The ramping-up of defence industry production rapidly increased the demand for engineers. Women stepped into roles that were critical to the development and production of military technology. They worked in many industrial sectors, including aircraft design, shipbuilding, and communications, proving their capabilities and transforming the engineering landscape.

Aeronautic superdesigners

Between 1935 and 1944 the number of aircraft produced in Britain each year rose from about 900 to over 26,000. This vast acceleration was powered by skilled engineers, amongst whom some very talented women played their part.  The aeronautical engineer Beatrice Shilling solved a critical problem with the Rolls-Royce Merlin engine, which powered the Spitfire and Hurricane fighter planes. Her invention was known as “Miss Shilling’s orifice,” and earned her the slightly politer title of “The Woman Who Saved the Spitfire”.  It was only a brass washer in the shape of a thimble, but it stopped Britain’s Merlin engine carburettors flooding in temporary negative-g manoeuvres such as a nosedive or inverted flight.

Elsie MacGill, known as the “Queen of the Hurricanes,” was the first woman to earn a degree in aeronautical engineering. She oversaw the production of the Hawker Hurricane in Canada, ensuring that these vital aircraft were delivered to the RAF in time for the Battle of Britain.  Dorothy Robson, immortalised by her silhouette at the IBCC and named on our Memorial walls, was responsible for a game-changing technological development in bomber design – the design and implementation of a bombsight that increased accuracy and reduced loss of life.

 

Women Engineers of World War II

Only connect

The rapid advancement of communication technology during the war was another area where women engineers excelled. They worked on the development of radar, encryption machines, and other electronic systems that were crucial for intelligence and battlefield coordination. Their work in this field helped to break enemy codes, such as the German Enigma, and provided the Allies with a significant strategic advantage.

Women’s work?

Women engineers, making inroads into very male territories, inevitably faced scepticism and discrimination.  On the Clyde, there were very few women in shipbuilding and ship repair before the war, mainly working as French polishers, upholsterers and ship cleaners. During the war, however, women such as Agnes Smith, a mother of ten in her 50s who had worked in an engineering workshop in World War I, came into their own: she became forewoman at a Greenock shipyard.

There was great opposition to women being employed from the trade unions, who argued that this would devalue the workforce and would only agree to allow women to work in industry if men who were at war were given job security. The 1942 Restoration of Pre-War Practices Act (1942) created an expectation that women should withdraw from industry after the war.

Legacy and livelihoods

The scale of women’s contribution to industry during the war helped to open the path for others.  It was wartime necessity that forced industry to recognise and exploit their capabilities, and so change the way in which these were recognised and valued. Winston Churchill proclaimed that this had “definitely altered those social and sex barriers which years of convention had established”.  Women’s contributions not only helped to secure victory but also demonstrated that women could excel in technical and engineering fields. However, after the war they were obliged to take a step back and have continued to be under-represented in the fields of engineering and technology, still accounting for only about a sixth of the workforce.  But with women now in the Chair at some of Britain’s most important defence and engineering companies, and the industry showing real commitment to change, the opportunities for young female engineers look better than at any time in the past.