This page is dedicated to exploring the contribution of local women to the war effort. Women from Cheltenham and neighbouring areas were active both at home and on the front line. Cheltonian women from all backgrounds stepped up to keep the town fed despite food and coal shortages and took on a wide variety of new roles; from aircraft and munitions workers to nurses and ambulance drivers. Many women had to take over what had previously been considered ‘men’s work’ and the war radically changed female aspirations in the workplace. The increase in female influence and representation during the First World War perhaps paved the way for the vote to be given for the first time to some women in 1918.