Women who worked in munition factories during the First World War were known as the Canary Girls. The nickname was reminiscent of the effects of the chemical TNT, as it gave their skin a yellow tint. Whilst the fight of their male counterparts  on the front line was at the forefront of the public’s mind, the Canary Girls’ work was hidden within the walls of the munition factories. The inspiration for my dissertation was my grandmother’s stories as a Canary Girl herself. During the First World War, my grandmother had her own life experience as a ‘munitionette.’ Throughout my childhood, my grandmother would share her stories, which simultaneously sparked my interest in history itself and the Canary Girls. Unfortunately, my grandmother has passed away; therefore, my dissertation is in honour of her experience and other women. The history of the Canary Girls appears to be increasingly forgotten as, when I question people about their experience, people do not know who the Canary Girls were. I believe that this is due to the World Wars focusing on the experience of soldiers. My dissertation is aimed at uncovering the short-term and long-term effects of war work on the Canary Girls’ health, which could include yellowed skin, fertility issues and physical deformities.

Without the assistance of the BA Dissertation Bursary from the SSLH, I would not have had the opportunity to attend the Liverpool Record Office. At these archives, I was able to access reports, news cuttings, correspondences, and publications of the Liverpool Vigilance Association. The archival pieces provided a contextual backdrop of the working conditions of women prior to the war. For example, records of the Scottish Union of Women Workers, 1910, were accessed and these depicted the organisation of women in specific unions that were based on their rights within the workplace, which helped inform my knowledge of organisations at local, regional and national levels. To place the organisation of the Scottish Union of Women Workers in context, I analysed the census of women working nationally, as not all women were involved in trade unions. The documents I viewed provided a tool of comparison from women struggling for work to women being forced into munition factories due to the absence of men. The archival pieces I discovered, as shown below, were from the pre-war period in Britain. Women established collective organisations to voice their opinions on their position in the workplace. For example, the 1906 National Vigilance Association Meeting was an international guild of service for women. My dissertation focuses on gender history and the position of women; therefore, with the assistance of the SSLH Dissertation Bursary, I had the opportunity to place the position of the Canary Girls into a broader political, social, and economic context, and this research will be utilised in my dissertation.

Lola Mills is in the final year of her BA history degree at the University of Warwick. Her dissertation is entitled: The Forgotten History of the Canary Girls: A Comparative Study into the Role of Women During World War One and World War Two.

Find out more about bursaries on offer from the Society for the Study of Labour History.