Some jobs in new and existing industries came to be considered ‘women’s work’ such as assembly work in the engineering, electrical, food and drink industries, as well as clerical work, typing and counter-sales. However, these jobs were low paid and involved long working hours and shift work. Women workers were usually excluded from supervisory roles or work that was considered to be “skilled”, despite women’s successful roles in such jobs during WWI.
By the 1930s about one third of British women over 15 worked outside the home, of whom nearly a third still worked in domestic service. However, only one tenth of married women worked. Predominant social expectations at that time reinforced the view that caring and cooking was exclusively ‘women’s work’. Indeed without electrical appliances like washing machines, domestic labour was time-consuming and hard work. The civil service, the education sector and new professions operated a “marriage bar”, which meant that women had to resign their posts when they got married. Even those who defied these unofficial rules found that it was impossible to continue working once they had children.
Trade unions, which were led by men, continued to be concerned that women would be employed as cheap labour in these new industries. The wartime demand for wage equality had previously been utilised to recruit women to trade unions. But during the inter-war years most unions drew back from this demand. Instead they actively campaigned to restrict women’s employment in certain industries by calling for the stricter implementation of a ‘marriage bar’ or the introduction of such a bar in new industries. So in the interwar years the goal of equal pay receded. By 1931, a working woman's weekly wage had returned to the pre-war situation of half the male rate in most industries. During this period, women gained the right to vote and this led to some early attempts to mobilise the women’s votes on issues of concern to women, including issues at work