American Chemical Society * Division of History of Chemistry
Abstract
The First World War is sometimes called the 'Chemist's
War' as its prosecution demanded ever increasing quantities
of explosives, poison gases, optical glass, synthetic
dyes, and pharmaceuticals (1). As the war progressed
and severe shortages of chemicals occurred, more and
more women were pressed into chemical-related work.
Very little has been published about the skilled women
chemists who were assigned to war duties (2). They
were obviously much fewer in number than the hundreds
of thousands of unskilled women who worked in
the explosive factories (3), though they certainly did
exist. Fortunately, the Women's Work Collection of the
Imperial War Museum (IWM) has a significant amount
of documentary evidence on the wartime women scientists.
This useful material was compiled in 1919 by
Agnes Ethel Conway of the Women's Work Sub-Committee
of the IWM. Conway circulated a questionnaire
to universities and industries informing them that the
Committee was compiling a historical record of war
work performed by women for the National Archives.
In particular, Conway adds: "they [the Sub-Committee]
are anxious that women's share in scientific research
and in routine work should not be overlooked ..." (4). A
sufficient number of replies were received to provide a
sense of the breadth of employment of scientifically
trained women during the War
