Conversation:

... with my entry on Women Workers in the Royal Arsenal - A2272420, which I'm working on at the moment.

Great to see this is Editor's Choice!!! Well done, Fb.

Hello ZSF Oh yes, I'm feeling very smug about being weekend editors' choice!

That's an interesting entry on the Woolwich Arsenal: something I knew nothing about at all.

The Wars really opened life up for women didn't they? If they hadn't happened I do wonder how much emancipation for women would have progressed. Mind you, if there'd been no World Wars, we'd have fewer wonderful drugs and techno-gadgets, like computers, around. Life would be very different...

It might be worth putting it through a spell-checker before submitting it to those pesky pernicketty peerers!!


Fb

Thanks Fb. I too was pleased to see it made Editor's Choice - quite right too - and I love the graphic.

My entry's not finished yet, but I'll have another look - you seem to suggest there are spelling/grammatical errors. I need to go back to the Heritage Centre to do some more research, and I can't do that until next Saturday at the earliest.

Interesting how in all cases, there was such a lot of effort put into making sure that women didn't get any fancy ideas about doing 'men's work', after the national crisis was over, but that it was rather more difficult after that to shut us back in the box.

I'll pick up spellings if you like... not so good on grammar

Being shut in a box. No thank you!


F/b

Thanks, Fb. It's always much easier to see someone else's than your own! I'm generally pretty good, but not perfect - yet!

About being shut in a box - I wanted to be a pilot when I was younger and was told I couldn't be as I wasn't a boy.

Hi ZSF

Crikey: you must be *very* old to be told that flying is a man's occupation! Women have been pilots for decades now...!

I'll do the typos tomorrow: I'm achey from a long walk and gardening (humping compost from the heap to the veg beds ) and I don't intend to stay on h2g2 long this afternoon.

I'm going for a long drink and a good book in front of the fire


F/b

Women were pilots in WW2, but it didn't stop everyone telling me that i *couldn't* be a pilot. They flew all sorts of planes, and although they didn't fight they did do some of the transport stuff. My childhood heroes were Biggles and Amy Johnson - both before my time.

I had a quick look through the entry for typos and fixed those I saw - I generally type straight onto the entry, so I can't used a spell checker. I generally rely on my eyes.

I stayed up all night last night - not something I've done for a *very* long time and I'm very tired today. Went for a nap after lunch and didn't wake up until almost seven.

I'm not 'old' but I can remember the disappointment I felt when I discovered that I couldn't be a fighter pilot. I was already a pilot and it hadn't occurred to me that there would be any restriction of that kind. And how else (at the time) could I become an astronaut?

Of course women can be fighter pilots now .

Great article btw .

Phew! Glad I never had any ambition to be a pilot. That sort of attitude would have made me really mad.

off to do a typo check


F/b

Hi ZSF

Here goes ...

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too many produceds?

- who he? Yes, yes, I know who he was, but you don't explain until later that he was in government

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- I think you need to say Labour Party here for clarity.

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- should that be ?

That's all I've spotted


F/b

Thanks for this, Fb - all amended. <ok.

Gosh there *were* a lot of them. The last one was correct as 'danger work' according to my source. It didn't give a definition as to what constituted 'danger work', though. I already had it in mind to see if I could find out more on my next visit to the Heritage Centre research room.

Amy,

I wanted to be a fighter pilot too! However, unlike you, I've never got my pilot's licence. The nearest I got was a flying lesson for a birthday present, which was the best present I've ever had! It was wonderful!

I love flying. When I grow up I want to be a helicopter pilot.

I've never been in a helicopter either, Amy - hopefully when we go to New York later in the year, we'll do a helicopter trip.