Women and War Work

John Stuart Mill · en
The full records of this are not easy to give--so much has been done.
Perhaps the simplest way is to begin with the soldier at the training
camp and follow him through his soldier's existence. The first work
lies in giving him comforts, and the women of our country still knit
a good deal and in the early days knitted, as you do now to get your
supplies, in trains and tubes and theatres and concerts, and public
meetings. This was happening while many of our working women were
without work and it was felt that this was likely to compete very
seriously with the work of these women. The Queen realized there was
likely to be hardships through this and also that there would probably
be a great waste of material if voluntary effort was not wisely
guided. So she called at Buckingham Palace a committee of women
to consider the position and Queen Mary's Needlework Guild was the
outcome of it. The following official statement, issued on August 21,
1914, intimated the Queen's wishes and policy.

    Queen Mary's Needlework Guild has received representations to
    the effect that the provision of garments by voluntary labor
    may have the consequence of depriving of their employment
    workpeople who would have been engaged for wages in the making
    of the same garments for contractors to the Government. A very
    large part of the garments collected by the Guild consists,
    however, of articles which would not in the ordinary course
    have been purchased by the Government. They include additional
    comforts for the soldiers and sailors actually serving, and
    for the sick and wounded in hospital, clothing for members of
    their families who may fall into distress, and clothing to
    be distributed by the local committees for the prevention and
    relieving of distress among families who may be suffering from
    unemployment owing to the war. If these garments were not made
    by the voluntary labor of women who are willing to do their
    share of work for the country in the best way open to them,
    they would not, in the majority of cases, be made at all. The
    result would be that families in distress would receive in
    the winter no help in the form of clothing, and the soldiers
    and the sailors and the men in hospitals would not enjoy
    the additional comforts that would be provided. The Guild is
    informed that flannel shirts, socks, and cardigan jackets
    are a Government issue for soldiers; flannel vest, socks, and
    jerseys for sailors; pajama suits, serge gowns for military
    hospitals; underclothing, flannel gowns and flannel waistcoats
    for naval hospitals. Her Majesty the Queen is most anxious
    that work done for the Needlework Guild should not have a
    harmful effect on the employment of men, women, and girls in
    the trades concerned, and therefore desires that the workers
    of the Guild should devote themselves to the making of