The SWW was founded in 1916, after female welders at Sopwith’s and other big firms discovered that they were being paid less than male welders and they decided to get together to try to change this. Some of the women welders were also suffragettes, so they were used to campaigning. With help from the Women’s Trade Union League and the London Society of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies, they successfully negotiated a pay increase from 8 pence to 9 pence an hour, bringing them closer to the male welders’ rate of 1s (12 pence) per hour. 

 

The work done by the Society of Women Welders and thousands of women in other roles made British women’s contribution to society more visible. When women were doing the same skilled work as men the fact that they were not able to vote seemed old fashioned. In 1918, the Government granted the vote to women aged 30 who also owned property. Ten years later, the law was changed so that women were able to vote on equal terms with men, then at age 21.