As the nation's young men went off to fight, Britain had to turn to women to fill their jobs.

And with no alternative, many men had to concede that women were just as capable as the "stronger sex" of keeping the country's economy running.

Women started informally filling empty jobs in the early days of the war, but their role was so important that by 1916 official guidance was being issued as to what roles they could do.

They included the china and earthenware trade; pottery and brick trade; the wool industry; the cotton trade; woodworking; soap and candle trades; the heavy clothing trade; tobacco manufacture; the chemical industries; sugar refineries and the silver and electro plate trades.

One official pamphlet called Women's War Work, stored among files at the National Archives in Kew, south west London, highlighted the variety of roles that women were filling and revealed that they had "far exceeded" original estimates of their capabilities.

It was issued to tribunals and military representatives to help them make decisions on claims by men for exemption from being enlisted.

The booklet's preface said: "It is considered that a more widespread knowledge of the success which has been attained by women in nearly all branches of men's work is most desirable, and will lead to the release of large numbers of men to the Colours who have hitherto been indispensable.

"Employers who have met the new conditions with patience and foresight readily admit that the results achieved by the temporary Employment of Women far exceed their original estimates, and even so are capable of much further extension.

"If this is true in their case, how much greater must be the scope for such substitution by those Employers who have not attempted it from reasons of apprehension or possibly prejudice?"

It went on: "In some parts of the country most effective substitution has been achieved by getting one of the womenfolk of a soldier's own family to replace him in civil life.

"Thus wives have taken up their husbands' work, sisters their brothers', daughters their fathers', even mothers their sons'."

An introductory note by the Adjutant General to the Forces added: "Since the outbreak of war the women of Britain have shown themselves ready and anxious to undertake every form of work where their services could be accepted, and this book is intended not only to indicate that women have shown themselves capable of successfully replacing the stronger sex in practically every calling, but is offered also as a tribute to their effective contribution to the Empire in its hour of need."

The booklet included a list of trades in which women were said to be "successfully employed", including the chemical, clothing, food, textile and woodworking trades, as well as miscellaneous trades such as gas and electricity supply, and agriculture.

It also included a list of processes women could do, such as: "putting wicks on nightlights"; working as a "bricksetter's labourer", or carrying out laboratory work in the drugs and chemicals trade.

A whole chapter was also dedicated to munitions work, with a list of chief trades including "aeroplane manufacture, ammunition manufacture, artillery manufacture, instrument making, marine engineering, shipbuilding, and woodworking".

The book also featured an array of photographs showing women at work, in a bid to spread the view that women could successfully replace men in industry.

They included women doing jobs traditionally thought to be the domain of men, from working in fields or shipyards; to filling in as postmen and mechanics; drilling ammunition boxes, or preparing soldiers' dinners.

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