Help for those in need

At the start of the war, many women and men were thrown out of work. The Women's Freedom League and Sylvia Pankhurst's East London Federation of Suffragettes (ELFS) were joined by new organisations started by suffragist women, including the Women's Emergency Corps and the Women's Service Bureau. They worked together to feed, clothe and comfort the families of those affected by loss of work, conscription, and economic hardship, and to find work for those who needed it.

The ELFS opposed the war on socialist and political grounds and was against conscription and wartime restrictions on free speech. The organisation worked hard to secure better and safer working conditions for war workers, also distributing food and clothing parcels and running cost price canteens, nurseries for working women, and toy factories for those thrown out of work.