Land Girls - what they did for the country

Blog by Jenny Yerworth on 'Land Girls - what they did for the country'.

The Land Girls were established in World War One, but came into action again shortly before World War Two broke out. They provided extra agricultural labour, the Government feared there would be food shortages, as imports may be threatened by anticipated German blockades.

Male farmers were expected to join up, therefore this created a shortage of labour on the farms.

By 1943 there were more than 80,000 women working in the Land Army. They were nicknamed Land Girls.

The jobs ranged from milking cows, lambing, managing poultry, ploughing, gathering crops, digging ditches and carrying out farm maintenance work.

6,000 women worked in the timber corps, chopping down trees and running sawmills.

They had minimal training and worked long hours, sometimes up to 50 a week, with the minimum wage being one pound eighty five pence a week.

In 1950 the Land Girls were disbanded and went back to what they were doing before the war.

Some went into work while some stayed at home to raise the family.

It was a time when few women went to work as their place was seen to be at home, bringing up and looking after the family. Very few women went out to work just as they had little opportunity of going to university. This was not only in the 50’s but 60’s as well.

As the years went by it became more acceptable for a woman to be seen in the workplace, and also choosing careers that would normally be done by men.

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