Her Father's Daughter

Her Father's Daughter


Women on the factory floor? An engineer needs convincing that war work is a feminine pursuit.

This propaganda film uses comic actor Alastair Sim to help recruit women into war work. With men away fighting, the crisis in weapons production meant that women were drafted in to take their places. But many women were put off by the idea of factory work and films such as this one tried to convince them that they could help their country by playing a key role in the war effort.

Dramatised sketch showing how women can train for engineering work in wartime.
Managing Director McForrest refuses to believe that women can do engineering jobs. His daughter wagers that she can complete a three-month training in two months, and hold an engineering post for at least a week. McForrest agrees that, if she is successful, he will employ women in his works. Mary trains at the Beaufoy Institute - shots of theoretical classes and practical work, the canteen, course schedule. Shots of Mary using a lathe; filing a piece of metal to exact measurements. McForrest receives the piece of metal anonymously through the post. Shots of Mary using drills and cutting tools. She makes more complicated test shapes. McForrest receives a parcel of them. Shots of Mary setting up her own machinery. McForrest gloats to his wife that he has won his bet, Mary must have failed the course. At his factory he finds that Mary has been working there for 10 days and, seeing a sample of her work, agrees to start employing women. Slogan stresses the need for women to work in industry and encourage more to do so.


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Keep the Wheels Turning

The State seized control of much of British industry at the start of the war. Mills and factories now produced munitions, planes, tanks and uniforms, while mines yielded the coal to power it all.

Production went into overdrive. Workforces in key industries like coalmining and shipbuilding were classed as 'reserved occupations' and spared the draft, while an army of women took to the machines to meet the constant demand for munitions and uniforms. In hindsight, we can see that the foundations of the postwar settlement were being laid. The wartime economy was formidable: workers pulled together to meet ever-increasing demand for resources and government oversight kept the motors running.


13 videos in this collection

An enticing government call for men to retrain as skilled engineers to help with the war effort.
1

Yesterday Is over Your Shoulder

Shipwrights, plate-fitters and riveters support the war effort as their ships take majestic shape in this tour of British shipyards.
2

Shipbuilders

A Ministry of Information film encouraging the wartime public to increase productivity by “taking work to the workers”.
3

Out Working

Women on the factory floor? An engineer needs convincing that war work is a feminine pursuit.
4

Her Father's Daughter

A tribute to British workmanship - from Witney blankets to Sheffield cutlery.
5

Good Value

A patriotic look at British steelmaking.
6

Furnaces of Industry

Hard work on the home front: the story of the 'reserved occupations'.
7

A Job to Be Done

Wartime woodland management: we can do it! Women add their labour to the work of axe and saw.
8

The New Crop

A pair of 'nude' dancers find a new way of doing their bit for the boys in this fun propaganda short
9

A Call for Arms!

The factory floor view of WWII, inside a busy aircraft works
10

Wartime Factory

11

British Made 'ameri-cans' Something to Focus On

12

Dai Jones

13

Our Film

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