First World War: female staff

The majority of Sainsbury’s shop staff were young men aged between 18 and 25. When the First World War broke out, these men enlisted to join the army.

Faced with a depleted workforce, Sainsbury’s began to recruit saleswomen. The female recruits were initially given simple tasks such as packaging groceries and ‘making oneself generally useful’. Rings, jewellery and loose hair were forbidden but unlike their male counterparts, saleswomen were provided with chairs.

A new training school for female staff was established at Sainsbury’s headquarters in Blackfriars, London. The fortnight’s ‘off-the-job’ training that new saleswomen received became very important, as by 1915, some stores were entirely composed of female staff and boys who were too young to fight.

Find out more about the Blackfriars training school

By the end of the war there were 39 female branch managers, many of whom were the wives or sisters of former managers. A few of these women retained senior positions after the war, but most were either paid off or demoted.

Sainsbury’s expanded rapidly during the 1920s and 30s and in 1920 new grocery departments were opened in many shops. These changes offered new jobs for unmarried women.  Apart from domestic staff, women had to leave their jobs when they got married and were paid a lump sum ‘dowry’.

Wages for women were much lower than for men: in 1920 Junior Male Assistants aged 20 received 40 shillings a week, while their female equivalents were paid 23 shillings.