The changing role of women in the 1920s

In The Body at Carnival Bridge, the third Iris Woodmore Mystery, Constance Timpson comes under fire for introducing equal pay in her factories and for allowing women to retain their jobs after they marry. 

We first met Constance in Death at Crookham Hall, and since then, she’s inherited her family’s food production business and made radical changes that have made her deadly enemies.

In my post, My Inspiration for The Body at Carnival Bridge, I describe how high unemployment in the early 1920s led to a backlash against working women. During the First World War, record numbers of women entered the workplace for the first time and joined professions previously barred to them.

However, as Britain entered the 1920s, many of the gains made towards equality during the war were in danger of being lost. It was felt women should give up their jobs in favour of men, particularly ex-servicemen, who’d fought in the Great War.

This letter, published in The Scotsman on 27 November 1920, sums up the feeling of many at that time.