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
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
Shipbuilders
Out Working
Her Father's Daughter
Good Value
Furnaces of Industry
A Job to Be Done
The New Crop
A Call for Arms!
Wartime Factory
British Made 'ameri-cans' Something to Focus On
Dai Jones