Central Committee on Women's Employment

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Central Committee on Women's Employment (CCWE) was created in the United Kingdom on 20 August 1914 to help women find work during World War I. It later became the Central Committee on Women’s Training and Employment (CCWTE). Mary Macarthur was the first secretary; Lady Crewe chaired, and Margaret Tennant (Harold Tennant’s wife) was treasurer. The committee had 14 members, including five women, and received support from the new Ministry of Labour and from Queen Mary’s Fund.

The CCWE aimed to provide jobs for women displaced by the war, encouraging them to take war-related work such as making army clothes and knitting baby jumpers. It supported the wider Labour movement’s goals of equal pay for equal work, better postwar work, and shorter hours for women. In September 1914, wages for relief work started around 3d per hour, with cleaners often earning about 5d per hour, and rates could rise to higher levels with housing allowances.

After the war, the organization became the CCWTE, focusing on retraining women who were unemployed as men returned home. Violet Markham later chaired the CCWTE during the interwar years. In 1919 the government provided Treasury money for “housecraft” training and gave CCWTE £50,000 for other training.

In 1920 the CCWE became a standing committee in the House of Commons. Training courses in midwifery, hairdressing, massage, teaching, and domestic work continued until 1922, when funding ran out. With support from the Empire Settlement Act 1922, CCWTE opened home training centres in Market Harborough and later in Glasgow, Harrogate, Newcastle, Leamington Spa, and London.

In 1915 an Irish Central Committee for the Employment of Women (CCEW) was created to do a similar job in Ireland.