A woman tramway worker operating a manual switch, changing the direction of her trolley. As men entered or were conscripted into the military, women took on unaccustomed roles.
Au TramwayReverse:Les Petites MobiliséesSérie 21, visé Paris No. 777Editions Trajane 12 Rue CoquillièreMa chere ElaineTu vois ... les femmes travailleurs pendant la Guerre. Rien de nouveau Je vais bien et t'embrasse biêntot aussi que ta MammaOn the TramwayLittle Women MobilizedSeries 21, No. 777 registered ParisTrajane Publishers 12 Rue CoquillièreMy dear ElaineYou see ... women workers during the War. Nothing new. I'm fine and embrace you as well as your Mamma
". . . the introduction of meat and sugar rationing had failed to stem the rise in the cost of living. In Paris the purchasing power of the franc had fallen by about 10 per cent since the beginning of the war. Elsewhere in the country the rising cost of food was far outstripping any wage increases; for example, in the Loire-Inférieure, around Nantes and Saint-Nazaire, the cost of food had risen by 169 per cent since the start of the war, wages by only 119 per cent.In January 1917 some 400 women staged an anti-war protest in Limoges, while in May strikes in Paris reportedly involved about 100,000 workers."
With the failure of French commander in chief Robert Nivelle's 1917 spring offensive, the Second Battle of the Aisne, and as mutinies broke out in the French army, strikes spread among the civilian population. Among the strikers in Paris were the 'midinettes', Parisian shop girls or seamstresses.
They Shall Not Pass: The French Army on the Western Front 1914-1918 by Ian Sumner, page 166, copyright © Ian Sumner 2012, publisher: Pen and Sword, publication date: 2012
1917-05-18, 1917, May, strike, inflation, wage, woman driver, woman tram worker
