
The First World War was a time when Britain lost hundreds of thousands of its men to the horrors of war and women were forced to step into the fold.

Now a fascinating exhibition is offering a unique insight into that world - showing the fairer sex at work on buses, trams, the London Underground, ambulances and in factories making weapons and ammunition for the war effort.

Fashion & Freedom, which opens at the Manchester Art Gallery on 13 May, features dozens of fascinating black and white photographs of women who were thrust into a life of toil and manual labour after their husbands, fathers and brothers were sent away to fight.

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A woman munitions worker operating a machine in an armaments factory during the First World War. She was among one million British women who entered the workplace for the first time between 1914 and 1918

Two smartly-dressed women learn to drive the Walthamstow Council trams in London during the First World War. Many women were forced to fill the posts left by men leaving for service in the British Armed Forces

A female bus conductor in London, April 2016, left, and a woman delivering milk door-to-door, 1917, right

Whether it was grinding away in factories or resurfacing the roads, there were suddenly more women in the workplace than ever before - with one million taking on a job for the very first time in their lives.

Their roles in the workplace became even more important after conscription was imposed in 1916 and men were forced to join the war effort.

And now a striking set of photographs is showing the true extent of how women's lives changed during World War I, starting with the clothes they wore.

British women busy at work weighing shells in an arms factory during WW1 making weapons and ammunition for the war effort

Most striking of all is their increasingly androgynous fashions, as tight corsets and long, billowing skirts were replaced with more functional trousers, waistcoats and headscarves.

The photographs give a fascinating insight into the fashion legacy that the First World War left for the 21st century.

Several images show women taking on dangerous jobs in munitions factories, while others show smartly-dressed ladies working as inspectors on buses, trams and parcel trucks.

British women working in arms factory during World War I, surrounded by thousands of shells (date unknown)

Women at work painting houses in Kingston, circa 1916, left, and a woman parcel truck driver of the Great Eastern Railway Company driving a battery-powered rail parcel truck, circa 1918

Postwomen working the Golders Green and Hampstead Garden Suburb districts during World War One

There are also milkwomen, postwomen, painters and coal miners, while many are seen at work in various jobs on Britain's burgeoning train network.

Some even trained as firefighters and police.

According to records held in the National Archives, more than 1.6 million women had joined the workforce by the time the war ended in 1918.

A member of the Women Porters At Marylebone Station Group giving a Great Central Railways carriage a thorough clean, 1914

A female bus conductor on the no. 25 bus from London to Ilford. According to records held in the National Archives, more than 1.6 million women had joined the workforce by the time the war ended in 1918

Loading coal at Coventry, England during WWI, 1916. Conscription was imposed the same year, leading to even more vacancies for women in the world of work

Among them were the 247,000 who worked in government dockyards, factories, arsenals and as firefighters, while a staggering 950,000 were employed making munitions.

Known as 'Munitionettes' or canaries, thanks to the yellowing effect exposure to sulphur has on the skin, the women worked long, arduous hours in extremely dangerous conditions.

Despite producing more than 80 per cent of the UK's shell and bullet supply by the end of the war, poor working conditions and inadequate safety equipment resulted in approximately 400 deaths by the end of the war, as a result of explosions and from exposure to dangerous chemicals such as nitric and sulphuric acid.

Women resurfacing a city street in Westminster, London. After it was compulsary for men to join the war effort, British women took over many civilian jobs

Dungaree-clad women engine cleaners on the South Western, left, and an inspector and a sergeant in the Women's Police Service, circa 1916, right

Four women in aprons and flat caps get to work resurfacing a city street in Westminster, London

One particularly tragic incident occurred in January 1917, when 73 people were killed by an explosion in a London munitions factory that also flattened 900 surrounding homes.

But not all of the UK's female workers had such risky jobs. Others were employed in agriculture, the civil service and even banking, as well as in traditional service roles.

The Women's Land Army - a government-led organisation that matched female labourers with farmers - was responsible for keeping the UK in food, and by the end of the war, more than 260,000 volunteers had signed up, according to online archive, FirstWorldWar.com.

Women Firefighters take part in a drill at a London work house, April 1916. They were among 1.6 million women who signed up for jobs during the First World War

Two women munitions workers stand beside examples of the shells produced at National Shell Filling Factory No.6, Chillwell, Nottinghamshire during the First World War, 1917

One industry that saw a particularly large increase in female workers was transport which, according to the National Archive, increased its number of women workers by 555 per cent to approximately 100,000.

But despite the contribution made by women, pay remained unequal and many were laid off as soon as male workers began trickling home from the Front after hostilities ceased in November 1918.