The Woman's Part: A Record of Munitions WorkYates, L. K.
History
The Woman's Part: A Record of Munitions Work
Yates, L. K.
Great Britain. Army -- Ordnance facilities; Weapons industry -- Employees; World War, 1914-1918 -- Women
Generally speaking, these rooms are allocated to married rather than to
single women; sometimes the wife, as well as the husband, works in the
neighbouring factory, but more usually the wife, housed in the temporary
cottage, remains at home, housekeeping for the man worker. The unmarried
girls and women workers in crowded districts are generally accommodated in
hostels, or in colonies, the term used for a group of hostels. The hostel,
which is designed to accommodate from 30 to 100 persons, is provided with
its own kitchen, dining-room, and common-room, and to a certain extent
life therein approximates to that of a large family.
The Colony, or group of hostels, has been found convenient where a large
number of women must be housed. Each hostel, or hutment, in the group is
arranged for the sleeping accommodation of 100-130 persons, the
dormitories being divided into cubicles (some single, some double),
accommodation for bath-rooms being always made in these dormitory blocks.
Under the Colony system, meals are usually partaken of in a separate
building or buildings. The residents from all the hutments also meet in
the recreation-room and in the laundry, common to all.
Experience, however, teaches that each hostel should have its own common
room and that a Colony should not shelter very large numbers. About 500
girls, in five hostels, seems to be the ideal number for effective
home-making, yet we have large housing schemes for the accommodation of
many thousands which are at present answering their purpose as a war-time
measure. For the management of the Colony an exceptionally capable lady
superintendent is needed, into whose hands usually falls the selection of
the hutment matrons and their staffs, as well as the canteen managers and
their subordinates. In the most developed Colonies a recreation officer is
often appointed.
I recall a visit to one of the largest Colonies for munition workers in
the Midlands. The scheme embraces the housing and feeding of some 6,000
women, drawn from every part of the United Kingdom, indeed, possibly from
every corner of the Empire. The staff, in all, comprises some 300 persons.
Perfect harmony reigned, and the girls seemed thoroughly at home in their
novel surroundings. Each girl can claim a separate cubicle, which is
divided from the adjoining compartment by a wall and door. Here and there,
indeed, the arrangement was varied and two friends--terrified at sleeping
alone--had secured permission to pool their bedrooms and to arrange a
double sleeping-room and dressing-room.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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