The War and Young Women

Up until 1914, women had entered university as part of the New Woman movement.2 Marriage and child-raising were still the preference of the majority, while the unmarried could still be ladies of leisure. A career for a middle-class girl as a necessity was a new dimension. An incredibly blunt article in 1915 by The Editor of The Girl s Realm laid out the new reality  

In the old Victorian days the woman who did not marry was supposed in some way or other to find a niche in the family, where she made herself generally useful but did not work, where she was dependent on the money left her by her father, or the generosity of her relations. Those days are passing. Every woman, as well as every man, has in times like these to show the reason of her existence. 3 

At university, women students were uncertain of what was expected of them. At Armstrong College, Newcastle, the women students heard of the need for women munitions workers  

The call for women students to continue their education had come from H. A. L. Fisher in early 1917, representing the Board of Education My own view is that for the present women students at the universities should continue their academic courses until such time as they may be called up by the 

The fear of being called up, as Fisher had indicated in his communication from the Board of Education, was very real for the Newcastle women students  

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