Women war workers - in pictures

A large number of women were employed by the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway during the first world war. Here, a group pose on a 4-4-2 High Flyer class locomotive, No 1406, at Low Moor engine shed near Bradford, 23 March 1917. Photograph: SSPL via Getty Images

A woman at work in an armaments factory, during the first world war. Photograph: Hulton Archive/Getty Images

A woman driving a wagon and horses in north London during the first world war. The picture was taken on 16 August 1916. Photograph: Topical Press Agency/Getty

Women railway employees during the first world war. Photograph: Branger/Roger Viollet/Getty Images

A woman tram driver, pictured in 1916, during the first world war. Photograph: Royal Photographic Society/SSPL via Getty Images

Five women ambulance drivers of the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry during the first world war, pictured at Calais in January 1917. Photograph: IWM via Getty Images

Lady Florence Norman, a suffragette, on her motor-scooter in 1916, travelling to work at offices in London where she was a supervisor. The scooter was a birthday present from her husband, the journalist and Liberal politician Sir Henry Norman. Photograph: FPG/Getty Images

A woman 'land girl' driving a tractor ploughing a field in March 1918. Photograph: Topical Press Agency/Getty

A woman mechanic repairing a car at a Women's Volunteer Reserve garage. Photograph: Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Two women porters at Marylebone station in London in 1914, loading wicker baskets onto a trolley. Photograph: Topical Press Agency/Getty Images

A woman assembly line worker at a munitions factory in 1917, during the first world war. Photograph: Hulton-Deutsch Collection/Corbis

Members of the women's police service during the first world war. Photograph: Hulton Archive/Getty

Women workers feed a charcoal kiln used for purifying sugar at a refinery in Scotland during the first world war. Photograph: IWM via Getty Images

A women bus conductor has a warming drink of hot milk beside her south London bus, in February 1916. Photograph: Topical Press Agency/Getty

Women window cleaners working in Nottingham during the first world war, in 1917. Photograph: Heritage Image Partnership Ltd/Alamy

Workhouse women watch female workers demonstrate rescuing skills, as part of firefighting training, in April 1917. Photograph: American Press Association/Corbis

Women workers assembling artillery shells at a Vickers munitions factory, during the first world war. Photograph: Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORB

Female construction workers push wheelbarrows loaded with earth, in Coventry, during the first world war. Photograph: Central Press/Getty Images

Female workers at an engineering factory, in 1917, during the first world war. Photograph: Hulton-Deutsch Collection/Corbis