Guest blog by Otto Macdonald, University of Leeds, and Graeme Gooday, University of Leeds.

In this blogpost, I explore the intersection of three important aspects of mid- 20th century British history: the electrification of the nation, the Second World War, and the progression of women’s social status. As previous blogposts showed The Electrical Age, published by the Electrical Association for Women, gives us important insights on women’s evolving relationship with national campaigns for electrification. I look specifically at issues of The Electrical Age in the period 1943 – 1946 to show how it contributed to the wartime cause with articles that highlighted how women’s responsibilities developed during the conflict.

Promoting women’s war work, electrical and manual

During the Second World War, the Electrical Age played an important role in promoting the use of electrical appliances to the many women still familiarising themselves with both new technologies and the constraints of life under wartime restrictions. Such restrictions were very much to the fore: an editorial piece ‘Economy in Coats and Contents’ opened the January 1943 issue by explaining its reduced publication size was due to demands for wartime economy in paper usage. Its readers were encouraged to be similarly frugal in household energy management by developing a ‘Recognizable Routine’:

Planning of homes to get the most from heating and lighting, using apparatus to the best advantage and maintaining it in such a good condition that will prolong its life ; careful catering and even more careful cooking ; being ever on the look out for some little example of ingenuity which will make the austerity ration go further— all housewives recognize in this catalogue their own routine on the Home Front. (Electrical Age, January 1943, vol.4 Number 1, p.5)

The next article ‘Tactics In The Battle Of Fuel’ had a more overtly war-time tone. EAW writer Marjorie Leckenby explained how households could help wartime manufacturing by minimizing their domestic electrical energy consumption at times when industry most needed the power supply. These peak hours were 8am to 1pm, as seen in the diagram below:

The clear implication was that if Electrical Age readers could adjust their electricity usage to non-peak times, the pressure on electricity supply stations would be ‘flattened’ i.e. more easily managed. EAW journalists throughout subsequent issues of the Electrical Age in 1943 thus offered practical advice for using electrical appliances for cooking and cleaning so as to save time and conserve fuel. High standards of cleanliness and morale could thereby be maintained in the wartime ‘home front’, despite the challenges of wartime rationing.

In contrast to peacetime issues of the Electrical Age, by 1943 we see that the EAW’s campaigns directly followed government wartime initiatives. These went beyond energy usage as we see in the slogan ‘Food, fuel and clothing’ that recurred in Electrical Age articles throughout 1943. This phrase was first used in a speech by The President of the Board of Trade, the Rt. Hon. Hugh Dalton, M.P. to the nations’ women’s organisations, such as the EAW) Welfare (‘We can make it, p.20), and was soon the subtitle of editorial piece: ‘A Tripartite Pact: Food, Fuel And Clothing’ (pp.28-29) . This reported EAW regional branches’  advice to members on wartime economy:, the Sutton Coldfield and Tunbridge Wells branches organised exhibition stands on the ‘battle’ of fuel economy, while Warrington  arranged a talk on ‘The Working of an Electric Heater’ and ‘Care of Electric Apparatus’ was the subject of lecture at Torquay.

Food and morale

Beyond the necessities of managing electrical energy, the Electrical Age acknowledged the importance of prudent vegetable preparation, reproducing a full page Ministry of Food advisory ‘Helping Hands – Food’ (p.22). This advised readers of the dos and don’ts of maximum nutrition with minimum energy expenditure:

More than just cooking for nutrition, an article titled ‘Hot ideas for cold meals’ on p19 underlined how carefully prepared desserts could keep children cheerful at the family dinner table. If serving a main meal cold was unavoidable, younger diners could be comforted with a steamed sweet. The EAW recipe for ‘Potato and Prune Pudding’ from Ministry of Food’s Practical Kitchens was thoughtfully followed by an advertisement for the EAW’s  Cheerful Rationing  booklet. This explained how to make American dishes ‘which conserve both vitamins and electricity’ as well as making American visitors feel ‘at home.’

The EAW’s recurrent emphasis was on women as key contributors to ensuring that electrical living could more generally boost morale as an essential aspect of wartime resilience. It was acknowledged, though, that wartime morale should be pursued by more than just electrical means. On the very next page, we learn how readers could retain high fashion standards without buying new items, by instead recycling them in inventive ways. Not only did this avoid misdirecting resources in wartime, but, quoting again from the Chairman of the Board of Trade: ‘Neatness of appearance has a great effect upon morale.’ (p.20)

Importantly, however, the EAW promoted women’s practical morale-building roles in many wartime activities beyond the traditional domestic sphere. As male workforces were called into frontline battle, many British women enthusiastically took up employment in both heavy manufacturing and wartime defence. In July 1943 The Electrical Age vol.4, No.3, p.93) enthusiastically reviewed a recent publication, Women in Shipbuilding:

A beautifully illustrated brochure issued by the Ministry of Labour and National Service, showing the importance of women’s place in the shipyards. They have a special aptitude for electrical work, both on the ships and in the shops. They wire destroyers, cargo vessels, and cruisers. Increasing numbers of women are being trained as electric welders.

The same issue of The Electrical Age reviewed the freshly published official story of Britain’s Anti-Aircraft Defences, Roof Over Britain. We learn that EAW director Caroline Haslett had recommended to General Sir Frederick Pile before war broke out in 1939, that women should be permitted to take part in ‘Ack-Ack’ work. By 1943, the extensive involvement of women in most aspects of British air defence had ‘proved her right’ (p.93).

Indeed it is clear from information that emerged more publicly in the Electrical Age after the war concluded, that women had taken part in an extraordinary array of wartime activities.

For example, in the Vol. 4, No.13, 1946 issue of The Electrical Age an article titled ‘Could industry have done without us?’,(p.451) highlights women’s wartime efforts specifically in managing heavy machinery jobs e.g. “Crane-driving, welding, and foundry work”. One quotation that that stands out is “Driving tractors and handling machinery we Land Army girls soon got to know how indispensable is electric power to modern farming”. This reflects how women’s extensive roles using technical equipment during the war underpinned the EAW case for their longer-term role in the electrification of the home.

A voice for women in post war planning

While focused in part on the immediate challenges of the war, in The Electrical Age in January 1943 looked ahead to better times in a future peace. That issue carried a piece ‘Follow Sir Christoper’ (p.14) that focused on how London had been rebuilt according to Sir Christopher Wren’s plans after the capital burnt down in 1666. An EAW editorial noted poignantly ‘so, too, women will help to fashion the world of tomorrow after the great conflagration which is sweeping the world has been extinguished’. New projects in housing and town planning would offer them, too, scope for great opportunity [cross-reference to blogposts by Anna and Orla]. The Electrical Age thus put a strong focus on how women would take part in post-war planning, especially regarding the domestic uses of electricity. Encouraging women to participate in shaping the postwar world would enable the introduction of new household electrical technologies to enhance post-war life.

In April 1943, well before anyone could predict when the war would end, The Electrical Age called attention to how ‘Electrical Expansion After The War’ could enable women to change the social fabric of the UK.  In relation to opportunities for women in education, careers and housing, the vision offered was of ‘Better standards of living, higher levels of training, universality of amenities, and educational and cultural opportunities for all’. These would result from the ‘introduction of new uses of science along lines which women all over Britain are beginning to define’ (p.37) It was clear which key science that was? ‘Women see electricity as a great force giving vital power to the nation’s war effort ; they see it as an indispensable factor in the homes of the people returning from war production to the promotion of peace.’

Hindsight: highlighting women’s contributions after the war

Looking back after the war had concluded, in the Electrical Age January 1946 issue (p448), EAW director Caroline Haslett wrote indeed that after the war ‘A great age was foreshadowed for women, and therefore for the whole nation’ as women would be ‘Freed from household drudgery’. The occasion of this was the hosting of the Women’s First Electrical Exhibition, marking the 21^st anniversary ‘coming of age’ for the EAW. Much space was given over in that issue of the Electrical Age January 1946  to praising women’s war work and heralding great things to come with the still-growing National Grid. But is this what happened to the EAW’s plans for post-war Britain – did women get more involved in technical careers and or have less laborious working lives at home due to electricity?

Until peace broke out in 1945, the EAW writers and editor had taken great pride in highlighting women’s contributions to the war cause in The Electric Age. As is well known, in the aftermath of the Second World War there was a great period of social cohesion, many adopting more progressive views as shown by the formation of the modern welfare state under Clement Attlee’s Labour government. Yet as is equally well-known, there was also strong pressure for women to leave behind technical work in industry, and return to the domestic duties – allowing men returning from combat to take up their familiar pre-war roles.

This is surely why we see in 1946 the EAW reminding the world in Electrical Age editorials in its coverage of the Electrical Exhibition what it was that British women had accomplished for the state using modern technologies during the six years of global conflict. This was the context of the Electrical Age article ‘Could industry have done without us?’: to remind readers, several images from the Exhibition were shared to display women’s technical skill:

And in addition to this, we see a reminder of women’s work for the Navy:

In conclusion, the intersection of World War II, electrification, and women’s evolving social roles highlights an era defining moment in Britain. While nobody could doubt women’s technological abilities given the great evidence reported in The Electrical Age, it was largely as traditional ‘housewives’ in the electrified home rather than in industry that women’s skilled labour would transform post-world war Britain.

About the author

My name is Otto Macdonald from London, and I am a second-year Liberal Arts student at the University of Leeds, majoring in Sociology. I am taking great pleasure in researching the EAW, finding myself intrigued by the ‘Electric Age’ journals and their ability to give perspective on how it was to live in such an era. It is fascinating to see how electrification was received as a new phenomenon changing the way the world works. For my generation, electric infrastructure has always been a constant, making it difficult to truly imagine life without it. This lends even greater significance to the perspective provided by the ‘Electric Age.’ journals by the EAW.