Women's Contributions

Abstract

As far as chemistry was concerned, the total war – a war where a combatant nation employs all its available resources to fight the war – of 1914–1918 more or less involved every chemist in one way or another; all available chemicals; every academic, government and industrial chemistry laboratory; every last test-tube and Bunsen burner; and the entire chemical industry. This chapter details the role of women during the war, and the rise of female employment. Women took on jobs that had previously been considered unsuitable. Women worked in munitions factories, as nurses on the front line, and trained as doctors to replace the men who had been called up for service in the Royal Army Medical Corps. Female chemists, many of whom were employed in schools and universities, also played an important role during the war, replacing the men who had signed on for active service. The chapter provides a more detailed insight to several notable figures: Martha Annie Whiteley (OBE), who worked on the synthesis of anaesthetics and drugs needed for military hospitals; Marjory Stephenson (MBE), who interrupted her medical research to join the British Red Cross; and Muriel Robertson, who worked on the problem of gas gangrene during both world wars.