Women's Land Army Poster 1917 [Wikimedia]
Saturday
11th March 1916: The work of women on farms, a frequent topic
of conversation in recent times, was mentioned in a couple of cases heard at
the Luton Rural Tribunal this week. A farmer in the Dunstable area appealed for
his son who has been discharged from the Bedfordshire Yeomanry as a
time-expired man after serving at Ypres and Loos. When he returned there was no
other man on the farm except the father, who was being helped by one of his
daughters. This young lady had driven a five-horse double plough all through
the autumn, and was out ploughing with five horses again yesterday. The
chairman of the tribunal commended her as a “plucky girl”. After hearing these
circumstances the military representative changed his mind and withdrew his
opposition to the appeal and the son was given a conditional exemption.
Another farmer had a rather
different attitude to women on farms. He applied for exemption for two
employees. When asked if he could get women to do the work he said he had help
from some of the village women in the hay season, but did not think women could
stand farm work in the winter. He told the tribunal “If it comes to women
working on the farm I shall clear out”. Asked if he was not fond of the ladies
he replied, “I am fond of them to a certain extent, but not fond enough of them
o put up with them as regards labour”. One of his worker also maintained his
mother and was conditionally exempted while employed on the farm; the other
application was refused.
No comments:
Post a Comment