Women’s Agency and the Development of the Welfare State

'I think I would be a very different person now if orange juice and milk and dinners at school hadn't told me, in a covert way, that I had a right to exist, was worth something' (Carolyn Steedman, Landscape for a Good Woman, 1986)

TheEuropean Convention on Human Rights (EHRC), which became legally binding in 1953, outlines the continent-wide regulation for equality. Important articles, in the context of women, include those onequal partnership, protection for pregnant workers, reproductive autonomy, rights to birth control and access to safe abortions. It is a privilege to live in a period where, in Britain, we have access to these considerations and liberties. However, women in the twentieth century, particularly those living in pre-war Britain, did not experience the same opportunities. It is important to remember how recently so many socio-economic advancements came into placeas a result ofthe welfare state, and howimperative they were in improving the lives of certain social groups.

In the early twentieth century, women had limited rights. They were often viewed as the property of their fathers and then their husbands if they were married. When women did work, this was typically in the domestic industry, being employed as maids, cooks, nurses and servants, often leaving school to do so. Ultimately, a woman's main role was achieving motherhood.

Figure 1: WW2 Girl Profiles - Mary Emma Holmes. Source: Women's Land Army National Website

World War Two is often credited as the turning point in British women's liberty. Whilst working opportunities were provided to women during the labour demands of war, these roles were quickly taken away once peace was restored, due to the closing of munition factories and the return of soldiers. One of the most renowned branches of female workers during war time was the Women’s Land Army (WLA) that saw thousands of women across the nation work in agriculture to provide for domestic citizens and soldiers on the front line. Between 1939 and 1950, around 200,000 women were employed on these farmlands. However, once the war ended, over 25% of working women returned to domestic roles.

Figure 2: Women working at the Gretna munitions factory. Source: BBC Bitesize

After WWII, the Labour government (led by Clement Attlee from 1945 to 1951) realised that Britain needed reforming, and fast. The destruction caused during both Global Wars was devastating, where the people, as well as the buildings, needed to be built back up to bring the kingdom to its former strength. The implementation of the welfare state was the proposed solution and was introduced through a series of reforms over the next few decades, including the Beveridge Report, the creation of the NHS and Acts for Education.

Dr Eve Worth at the University of Oxford states that, at the time, the creation of the welfare state was so integral to women's lives that they should be considered the “welfare state generation”. Worth positions it as the gateway to social mobility for women in the workplace, education and healthcare. In her book The Welfare State Generation: Women, Agency and Class in Britain Since 1945, Worth begins her focus on the changing nature of motherhood. The livelihood and wellness of her children was previously a testament to the value of a woman. If her children fell ill, she was perceived to be failing as a mother.

So, the development of the welfare state enabled women to have access to birth control, thus giving women greater agency over their fertility and autonomy over their bodies. Additionally, this led to fewer children per household, meaning more focus and resources were given to each child. The welfare state further expanded these medical services to include maternity insurance, providing greater aid, assistance and accommodation for pregnant women. By providing this support, whilst women were still viewed as the primary caregiver, some of the pressure was alleviated. In turn, infant mortality fell from 50 per 1000 in 1941 to 27 per 1000 in 1955.

More broadly, from 5 July 1948, the NHS programme began with 1,143 voluntary hospitals and 1,545 municipal hospitals across England and Wales (a total of 480,000 beds). This benefited women by providing free healthcare, regardless of class. Worth makes reference to the experience of a working-class woman called Kathy, who sought aid with the NHS for her grandmother who had contracted bowel cancer. Through Kathy’s perspective, we learn how common the misdiagnoses of women’s health issues were in British society before the expansion of the welfare state.

Later in her work, Worth moves on to the educational opportunities for women and how this created greater chances for social mobility. The expansion of education systems meant that women often returned to school later in life, where the number of women with further education rose by 50% between 1971 and 1981. Women's groups for education developed in response to the increasing demand, allowing them to have greater political agency.

However, there are arguments regarding the limitations of the welfare state from modern feminist scholars (particularly Marxist feminists). These scholars argue that the benefits of the welfare state for women should not be exaggerated and that the society created under this change was ultimately still advantageous for men. As Carole Pateman investigates, the exclusion of female soldiers historically has led to veteran welfare provisions benefitingmen. Women were still not recognised as property owners, as the welfare state reinforced the notion of a nuclear family. Furthermore, feminist scholars also note the separation of male and female roles in the welfare state documents. They analyse a two-tiered system, the public-working people (the men) and the private-dependent people (the women), maintaining a sense of gender roles and hierarchy even during the implementation of welfare provision.

In the present day, women continue to face adversities, where the gender pay gap lies at 12.8% in the UK. Official reports from the House of Lord Library find that "patriarchy can afford better healthcare", as women's issues were less "studied, misdiagnosed, and taken less seriously". This is felt further by the Black community, where black women are twice as likely to die in childbirth, as a result of systemic sexism and racism.

Overall, the welfare state did take notable steps in the improvement of women's agency and healthcare. However, we should not be under the illusion that the playing field is equal. Disadvantages, particularly in the health field, still run rampant against women. In evaluating how the creation of the post-WWII welfare state improved women’s lives, we can identify how losing these rights could be cataclysmic. Additionally, we can discover in what aspects the welfare state has failed women and how in acknowledging the progress that has been made, we can also note the work that is still to be done.

Bibliography

BBC News, ‘Bill of Rights: Call to scrap plans to rewrite human rights law’, BBC News, 25 January 2023 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-64386457  [accessed 8 June 2026]

Clement, Michelle, ‘The Founding of the NHS: 75 years on’, History of Government Blog, 13 July 2023 https://history.blog.gov.uk/2023/07/13/the-founding-of-the-nhs-75-years-on/ [accessed 6 June 2026]

NHS England, ‘Milestones of the NHS’, NHS England https://www.england.nhs.uk/about/nhs-history/ [accessed 8 June 2026]

Pateman, Carole, ‘The Patriarchal Welfare State’, in Feminism, The Public and The Private ed. by Joan B Landes (Oxford University Press, 1998) pp.241-274 

Steedman, Carolyn, Landscape for a Good Woman: A Story of Two Lives (Rutgers University Press, 1986) 

Waitzman, Eren, ‘Status of Women and Girls in the UK since 2010’, House of Lords Library, 7 July 2022, https://lordslibrary.parliament.uk/status-of-women-and-girls-in-the-uk-since-2010/#heading-7 [accessed 8 June 2026] 

Wealth-Mukendi, Christelle, ‘Black Maternal and Mental Health: Racial Inequalities in UK Healthcare’, WEMPOWER, 28 April 2025 https://wempower.co/black-maternal-and-mental-health-racial-inequalities-in-uk-healthcare/ [accessed 10/06/2026] 

Worth, Eve, The Welfare State Generation: Women, Agency and Class in Britain Since 1945 (Bloomsbury Academic, 2021)