GETTY IMAGES
1917 FIREWOMEN’S LIFT
These female firefighters are practising an evacuation at a workhouse while elderly inhabitants look on. During World War I, British women took on roles that had been left vacant by men who had gone off to fight – in factories and shipyards, traditionally seen as male-dominated workplaces, but also emergency services. By World War II, the recruitment of women into the fire service had grown significantly and, by 1943, more than 90,000 women were enrolled into the National Fire Service.