How important was women's war work in gaining the vote?

'The wartime business girl is to be seen any night dinin gout alone or with a friend, in the moderate priced resturants in London. Formerly she never would have had her meal in town unless in the company of a man friend. But now with money and without men she is more and more beginning to dine out.'

The Daily Mail April 1916

As is evident from the source above the opportunity of employment during the war was the first time many middle class women had recieved their own wage packet and been financially independent from their husbands. For working-class women while working was nothing new, but the war provided all women with a greater sense of their value to their own society. Although many lost their jobs when the war ended attitudes had changed permanently and there was never again such clear divisions between men's and women's work.

'They appear more alert, more critical of the conditions under which they work, more ready to make a stand against injustice than their pre-war selves, They have a keener appetite for experience and pleasure, and a tendency quite new to their class to protest against the wrongs even before they become intolerable'

Report of a Chief Factory Inspector, 1916

When the men returned many women had to give up there jobs however, with so many men being injured or killed during the war many women were able to keep their jobs. In recognition of their efforts an Act was passed following the war which allowed women to vote if they were over 30. Many historians see the work done by women during the first world war as more significant in gaining the vote than the efforts of the suffragists and suffragettes. What do you think?