&npsp;
Many women had worked before the outbreak of World War I, but as increasing numbers of young men went to the Front, they began to take on heavier roles that had traditionally been undertaken only by men. Here we picture somen shovelling coal into wheelbarrows and transporting it elsewhere - hard and dirty work.
On 6th February 1918, women won the right to vote for the first time. Under the 1918 Representation of the People Act, women over the age of 30 who either owned property themselves or were married to men with property were given the right to vote.
The first women to drive ambulances at the Front were volunteers of the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry - or FANYs Corp.
During the First World War, women in Britain took on roles which had previously only been available to men. In December 1915, in Grantham, Mrs Edith Smith was the first woman to be sworn in as an official police officer with powers of arrest.
