Frauen in Männerdomäne. Donne tra industria bellica e protesta annonaria, Brema 1914-1918

In Bremen, in the North-West of Germany, the Great War’s mobilization of all the economic and human resources led to the disruption of women’s traditional areas of employment, such as household services, textile and food processing industry. It was an uneven mobilization that took the form of unskilled, low-paid labour, mainly in munitions and small-arms factories and rather sporadically in shipyards. While women were actively involved in provisioning and food supplies issues, their contribution to the strike waves of 1917 and 1918 was on the whole marginal. This essay aims to discuss the relationship between economic living conditions and political mobilization during the Great War.