Late last year we cleared out my Nana's house before she moved into her nursing home - where she later went on to see out her last days. Not only did I find some great vintage clothes (which I later wore for her funeral) but I also found some treasured jewellery, a childhood board game I loved and some old diaries with little notes written within. I also came across a book on the Women's Land Army that I finally got around to reading last week.
It's the story of inexperienced young girls leaving their terraced homes in the cities to take on the task of feeding a nation. My Nana was one of them.
When the Land Army was created, over 43,000 patriotic women applied to join the new force. Signing up to drive tractors, plough the fields, gather the hay and catch rats. Physical work was the order of the day. Many women signed up for the freedom, fresh air and glamourous uniform.
Back then around 70% of food was being imported into the U.K - a risky percentage when going into battle. With the men away fighting there was a UK shortage of about 50,000 agricultural workers and so the idea was for the women across the country to step in.
Perhaps their sacrifices were not as great as other women in history, such as the Suffragettes, but their success showed what women can achieve when offered a level playing field. They saw themselves as equal and became resilient to the constant teasing by men across the country. They simply got on with the job. The book is full of case studies of rough living conditions, exhaustion from the physical work and loneliness from being out in remote fields.
These women just got on with the task in hand - they signed up, cracked on and this ultimately helped us to win the war. It's perhaps where I get some of my independence and stubbornness from! It's a reminder that when faced with a task sometimes you just need to crack on - strip out the politics, hierarchy, red tape and gender bias. Just get to it to get the job done.
What female in your life inspires you?
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