Women and War Work — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
Women and War Work
John Stuart Mill · en
The first work of registering Belgian refugees and of providing French
and Flemish interpreters was done by a voluntary organization--the
London Society for Women's Suffrage (a branch of N.U.W.S.S.), which
has always been notable for its admirable organization. It provided
150 interpreters for this work in a few days, and work was carried on
at all the London Centres from early morning till midnight. When the
Government took over the charge of Belgian refugees, the system of
registration used by the London Society was adopted without change by
them and the organizer in charge was taken over also and put in a very
responsible position at the War Refugees Committee's Headquarters.
The work of our Government Employment Exchanges (which were
established before the War by the Board of Trade) and are now under
the Ministry of Labour--has been supplemented by various Professional
Women's Bureaus, by the compiling of a Professional Women's Register,
secured through Universities, Colleges, Headmistresses' Association,
etc., and by the setting up of the Women's Service Bureau by the
London Society for Women Suffrage (N.U.W.S.S.). Various women's
organizations have established most valuable clearing houses for
voluntary workers in Scotland and England and Wales. The Women's
Service Bureau has dealt with 40,000 applications for voluntary and
paid work--mostly paid. Its interviewers take the greatest trouble to
place these applicants suitably, and to find out just what they can do
or would be good at doing.
Our biggest Government arsenal secured their first munition
supervisors through it--and the Government Departments, big firms,
factories, organizations, banks, workshops, institutions of any kind,
send to it for workers.
It not only finds these posts without charge--it is supported entirely
by voluntary contribution--but it has a loan and grant fund to enable
women and girls without money to pay for training and maintenance.
Its records and the letters in its flies provide reading that is
as absorbing as any novel, and it was one of the wise agencies that
realized the older woman had a place and could help as well as the
younger ones.
To find the person and the post and to put them together is its
fascinating and admirably done task.
The organization done by women in Britain has been notable and
admirable.
I can only touch on some of it and must leave out much, but it is
worth while noting that there has been very little overlapping in the
work. The total percentage of overlapping was estimated by the War
Charities Committee on their investigation at 10 per cent and of that
only a very small amount was due to women.
WOMEN HAVE SERVED OR ARE SERVING ON THE FOLLOWING GOVERNMENT
COMMITTEES.
Belgian Refugees' Committee. 1914.
Clerical and Commercial Occupation Committee, do (Scotland.) 1915.
Disabled Officers and Men.
Education After the War. April, 1916.
Educational Reform. (August, 1916.)