Disability Policies and the World Wars in Britain: The Evolution of Inclusive Strategies for the Employment of Disabled People

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Presenter Information(s)

Presley Arnold

Abstract or Description

Following both World Wars, Britain saw substantial increases in the number of people with disabilities, as a result of war injuries. People with disabilities struggled to reenter the labor force, even in the very different economic contexts of the 1920s and 1940s. Britain’s Parliament took different approaches to unemployment policy for disabled people after the Second World War as opposed to the First. I am interested in the political, social, and economic factors that caused Britain to make changes to the way it handled the unemployment of disabled people. Understanding how Britain incorporated disability and employment into the welfare state is important for understanding how the idea of disability evolved over time and how different policies and perspectives affected disabled people. My project examines how, after the First World War, the British government struggled to address the employment of the many ex-servicemen with injuries and little workforce training in a context of recession and high levels of unemployment. During and following the Second World War, in the context of a labor shortage, British officials focused on the employment of disabled people through legislation such as the 1944 Disabled Persons (Employment) Act but also began to support all British citizens through the National Health Service (NHS) in 1948. The government centered the needs of disabled people regardless of their status as veterans or civilians. Following World War II, the British Parliament also paid attention to social stigmas and the ways that disability policy affected disabled people directly. Using Parliamentary minute sheets, newspapers, government acts, and government correspondence, I argue that the social, economic, and political conditions were ideal after World War II for Britain to create more opportunities for its disabled population. By closely examining the perspective of British government officials, this project sheds new light on the history of policies concerning the employment of disabled people.

Mentor

Marjorie Levine-Clark