Women Chemists and the First World War

The First World War changed everything for women. Universities lost most of their male staff and students, resulting in women being hired as lecturers and leaving women students in the majority. A Newnham student, M. G. Woods (Mrs. Waterhouse), remarked the preponderance of women in the classrooms made the salutation of Gentlemen more ridiculous than ever. 1 

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All of these contributions by women chemists were invisible. No mention was made of them in an article of 1917 by the Institute of Chemistry on the work accomplished by wartime (male) chemists.19 More recently, in a lengthy review of the mobilisation of civilian chemists during the First World War,20 the only mention of a woman chemist is And so, too, left without an offer from the [Reserved Occupations] Committee, the only woman of whom we have record, Margaret Turner, of the Chemical Laboratories at Aberystwyth. 21... 

The First World War proved a turning point in the acceptance of women chemists, as it did for educated women in the wider society. Therefore, we devote the whole of Chap. 12 to the different roles women chemists played in this war, especially in the production of fine chemicals in academic laboratories and in the many H. M. Factories around the country. With the destruction of many records after the First World War, it is unlikely we will ever determine the full role of women chemists during this period. 

With regard to the prospects of scientifically trained women after the [First World] war my experience has led me to the conclusion that there will be practically no scope for them in industry. There is, and will continue to be for some time, a far larger supply of male Chemists than will be needed. Under such circumstances women with the same qualifications will stand the poorest chances of employment. As teachers and lecturers there is still some demand for such women, but in industry there is next to none. I have been led to this conclusion by my experience in endeavouring to obtain a fresh post myself. I do not stand alone in my opinion, Mr. Pilcher, the Registrar of the Institute of Chemistry whom I consulted on the subject told me exactly the same things as I learnt later from my own experience.35... 

Though some women chemists were drafted for war work, most male scientists retained their positions during the Second World War, unlike the First. David Edgerton has noted Crucially, there was no systematic replacement of men by women, least of all in science, technology and medicine 92 — as had been the case in the First World War. 

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