Employment opportunities for women during the Second World WarIn Britain, before the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, opportunities for Employment for women was quite limited. Although nearly 6 million women worked, or about 25 percent of the country's female population, the type of work they could do was limited. Women could easily find work but were not treated equally to men. In factories, they were paid less, did not hold positions of responsibility, were rarely promoted and often had to face prejudice from men. They were thought to be less intelligent and less capable than men. Additionally, they had few rights and no voting rights, making it difficult to change things. Among working women, approximately 1.5 million worked in domestic service. Another million people worked in textile factories and half a million or more in so-called “sweat trades” factories. A few women worked in stores and offices. Domestic service was one of the few jobs that employed large numbers of women, employing one in eight people. Domestic service attracted many girls because it was work that did not require a high level of education, and at that time the minimum school leaving age was 12. Where parents could encourage boys to stay in school, they rarely did so for girls. Thus, most girls who left school at this age and sought work were not well educated and went straight into menial jobs such as domestic service because there were not many other choices for them. Servants worked for the rich and middle classes as servants, often in poor conditions and it was almost impossible for them to do anything about them. They worked very long hours as cleaners or chambermaids and lived in the attics of the houses in which they worked. The salary was often very low, £5-10 a year. They only had half a day off per week and some didn't even have half a day. The textile industry was another important employer of women; it had been