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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.

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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.

16 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

  • 1940
Shipwrights, plate-fitters and riveters support the war effort as their ships take majestic shape in this tour of British shipyards.
2

Shipbuilders

  • 1940
A Ministry of Information film encouraging the wartime public to increase productivity by “taking work to the workers”.
3

Out Working

  • 1945
Women on the factory floor? An engineer needs convincing that war work is a feminine pursuit.
4

Her Father's Daughter

  • 1941
A tribute to British workmanship - from Witney blankets to Sheffield cutlery.
5

Good Value

  • 1942
A patriotic look at British steelmaking.
6

Furnaces of Industry

  • 1940
Hard work on the home front: the story of the 'reserved occupations'.
7

A Job to Be Done

  • Witney
  • 1940
Wartime woodland management: we can do it! Women add their labour to the work of axe and saw.
8

The New Crop

  • 1944
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!

  • 1940
The factory floor view of WWII, inside a busy aircraft works
10

Wartime Factory

  • 1940
11

British Made 'ameri-cans' Something to Focus On

  • 1944
12

Dai Jones

  • Cardiff/Caerdydd
  • 1941
13

Our Film

  • 1942
Men and women from Walton, Weybridge and Hersham's Civil Defence organisations are on the march in this local War Bonds fundraiser for War Weapons Week in March 1941.
14

Walton's Parade for Victory

  • Walton-on-Thames
  • 1941-03-01
The great and the good assemble to open Banstead ATC's new headquarters followed by a Wings for Victory Week parade with cadets, bands, armoured cars and enthusiastic civilians.
15

Wings for Victory Week

  • Banstead
  • 1943-03-20
Over £680,000 is raised by Wartime Woking in this film from 1944 which features women on parade, Air Training Corps cadets and the Home Guard.
16

Woking reaches its target and military marches

  • Woking
  • 1944-01-01
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