大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by a volunteer from the GMR Action Desk on behalf of Audrey Broomhead and has been added to the site with her permission. Audrey fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

I was ten when the war started. I left school at fourteen. There were plenty of jobs for girls, as the boys had all gone into the forces. My first choice of job was to work at the mechanics but I missed out because the girl in front of me in the queue got it. I then attended a short hand and typing course and went to work at an estate agent. The estate agent had a connection with a livestock auction and I eventually transferred there to work as an auctioneer鈥檚 clerk. I took a boy鈥檚 job and became the first female clerk. Before I went into the shippens, I had to bang on the door so the male farmers would know a girl was coming in and they could alter their language! I also used to collect my black market eggs from the police sergeant. He used to bring them out on trays from underneath the counter. I worked there until I was twenty and there was only one other girl working there at the time. I kept my job when the men came back from the war and only left when I got married. My gran wasn鈥檛 pleased because I was working in a man鈥檚 world. But things were changing for women, for the better. For women, the war gave them opportunities.

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