Thread by @marinamaral2

A woman munitions worker operating a machine in an armaments factory during the First World War, circa 1915.

Colorized for The World Aflame: amazon.co.uk/World-Aflame-L…

"Munitionettes worked with hazardous chemicals on a daily basis without protection. Many women worked with TNT, and prolonged exposure to the nitric acid that turned the women's skin a yellow colour. The women whose skin was turned yellow were popularly called canary girls."

Munitions workers faced risk of explosion due to the nature of the materials they handled. On several occasions, the explosives the women were working with ignited and injured or killed the workers.

Explosions at British munitions factories during WWI included the 1916 Barnbow explosion in which 35 women died, the 1917 Silvertown explosion, in which 73 people were killed and over 400 injured, and a 1918 explosion at Chilwell, which killed over 130 workers.

There were no standard rates of pay for women when the war began, and food prices rose by a third in the year to July 1915, leaving women munitions workers that were on minimum rates earning below the level of a living wage.

At the end of the war, "out of work" payments were only given to women who could prove that they had worked before the war. Others were expected to return to their homes or to domestic service.

waterstones.com/book/the-world…