seen that wherever women have been able to
become financially independent, they have invested in educating their children and giving back to their local communities.
The next big shift for women came at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. The rise of the cities and their factories and woollen mills killed off many of the traditional cottage industries while
the transfer of the population from the countryside
to the cities made keeping even small numbers of livestock impractical. Women found work doing menial jobs, mostly in the wool and cotton mills where they were overworked, under paid, and definitely under appreciated by their male bosses, who were more than happy to get rich off the backs of their often badly treated workforce.
This age saw the birth of the Women's Rights movement and women eventually managed, at least in western countries, to get the right to vote,
to own property and to earn a living. However, there was one insurmountable obstacle that they had, at this point been unable to overcome. For women, it was the biggest monster of the Industrial Age for women and it still defeats thousands of
women today. I speak, of course, of the proverbial
'glass ceiling' that women have been hitting their corporate heads against for over a century.
In Britain, as in many other industrialized countries, there was a brief respite for women during the Second World War. Since most of the able bodied men who were of working age were off fighting in mainland Europe, there was an influx of women into the factories and railways that kept England going. Many women were, for the first time, doing 'non-traditional' tasks such as welding metal frames for airplanes, driving trains, and a few brave ladies even took to the skies flying the Spitfires, Hurricanes, Lancaster Bombers and
other war planes from their factories to the Royal Air Force (RAF) airfields. They did these things even though they knew that the factories that they were working in were targets for Hitler's bombers and
For the working women of today, the choice to work instead of staying home for the kids often means putting children in childcare for all or part of the day.
Women working in an airplane factory during World War II. Photo: Harold M. Lambert/Archive Photos/Getty Images.
Women working on the railroad during World War II. Photo: Unknown credit. PD.
63 | Ceres Magazine | Spring 2016