Dr Patricia Fara - Clare College,

Cambridge 2018 marks a double centenary: peace was declared in war-wracked Europe, and British women won the vote after decades of struggle. This talk commemorates both anniversaries by revealing the untold lives of female scientists, doctors and engineers who helped to win the war.

Confronting danger, prejudice and disease, they successfully took over men’s jobs in factories, laboratories and hospitals, both at home and overseas. After the Armistice, as returning soldiers reclaimed their jobs, the old stereotypes returned and women were squeezed out once again.

But Britain had changed forever: now the nation knew that women were fully capable of taking over work traditionally performed by men.