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 woman chauffeur has reached the height of her ambitions — she is to be allowed at last to drive the royal mail vans. A start will be made in London next Monday, beginning with the eleven o'clock night shift, when six women drivers, wearing the uniform of the Women's Volunteer Reserve, will drive the one-ton lorries which convey the outgoing mails from the G.P.O. to the railway stations, where they will wait for the incoming mails. The six are only the pioneers of a large number of women drivers wanted to drive the royal mail vans, in order to release as many as possible of the 300 men now employed. The first women drivers of H.M. Stationary Office wear uniforms of a military character."
January 18, 1917 item from the Daily Sketch, a British tabloid published in Manchester, on the breaking of another workplace barrier to women.
The Virago Book of Women and the Great War by Joyce Marlow, Editor, page 242, copyright © Joyce Marlow 1998, publisher: Virago Press, publication date: 1999
1917-01-18, 1917, January, woman worker, woman driver
