Edexcel AS History Unit 2 Wednesday 22nd May 2013

No, I was definitely told it is fine to write whole paragraphs purely on own relevant knowledge. What you shouldn't do in part b) is to write an isolated paragraph on a source without using any own knowledge.

cheers Mr Faust!
Don't suppose you have any notes on how the war changed for women during and after?

No problem!

Yes!

Women and work during WWI
A)Need for servicemen meant women workforce increase of 1.6M

B)Transport = 12,423 in 1914 -> 65,000 in 1918

C)Undertook unconventional jobs for women such as signal operating

D)1916, London’s Omnibus Company aimed to train 500 a month as drivers

E)Agriculture = Women’s Land Army (WLA) formed in Jan 1917
a.16K WLA brought in 1918 harvest

F)Civil Service = 33K in 1911 -> 102K in 1921

G)Munitions = 950K in 1918
a.80% munitions produced by women

Reactions to women’s employment
A)Often negative

B)Tramway workers said in May 1915 “unwise” and “dangerous”

C)Only increase female participation if they agreed to leave at end of war

D)Not always sexism = thought that employers only took on women because they could pay them less

Women’s contribution to the military
A)1918, nurses in military hospitals = 23K

B)Supplemented by War Office’s Voluntary Aid Detachments to the Sick and Wounded (VADs)

C)38K women volunteered as ambulance drivers, cooks, assistant nurses

D)Small number in First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANYs) helped with driving transport on Western Front

E)VADs and FANYs mostly middle and upper class as they were not paid

WWI and status of women in society
A)Significant improvement, but can be overstated

B)Given vote in October 1918 (but only 30yo+ compared to 21+ in men)

C)Role in labour force increased

D)Women’s union membership increase by 160%


E)Many forced out of jobs afterwards

F)Women’s pay only half of men’s

Those statistics woah. Thanks a lot, this actually helps with my topic as well!

One last question before I start this essay, you see for the weaker argument (i.e. the one I chose the disagree with)

If I have a point such as source 14 says ''They sent a first wave of women into higher education'' then I say. Indeed the changes in education did, in 1853 Queen's College became the first girls school to be granted a royal charter for the furtherance of women's education. Although a massive achievement as the doors to higher education were opening, the scope at which higher education was achieved was limited, Top institutes such as Oxford and Cambridge did not fully admit women until 1920 and 1947, and so there was a limited improvement in the opportunities of women in the second half of the nineteenth century''.

Is it good to undermine it with however or the scope was fairly limited etc to build up my stronger argument?

Would that be good evaluation/analysis with my own knowledge do you reckon?

Man your a life saver!!
really cheeky but have you also got any notes on propaganda, anti-german hysteria and attitudes and actions at home?

I have a 30 page booklet produced by Edexcel which states very clearly under a "Don'ts" subheading of exam tips that you shouldn't "work through own knowledge in a separate section".

Yep, it's definitely good to undermine a source if you have accurate knowledge you back yourself up! And yes that counts as evaluation, but just also include evaluation of the source's purpose origin etc to show why it might not be that accurate.

No problem I'm glad only a small section of our exam is dedicated to women! Trench warfare is much more exciting.

Yeah but in question b) you shouldn't really evaluate provenance unless it strengthens/weakens an argument, that was from a historian in 1991 anyway so can check provenance to see if it will help me or not. Sometimes I can even use provenance where it says for example here.

: (From the Annual Report of the National Society, 1862. The National Society was a voluntary society
which provided elementary education in Church schools for working-class children.)

which I can then take knowledge from since the source itself is against the argument

That is just so you don't talk about just the sources and then just your own knowledge. The sources aren't going to provide you with every possible argument to the question, thus it would be impossible to cover enough points without making a couple based solely on your own knowledge. Obviously link back to sources where possible though.

This opportunity is very few and far between, and is mostly suitable to do if all the sources do not cover the full breadth of the timescale of the subject in question. Further, I've rarely had enough time to do this having spent all my time connecting own knowledge in the sources. I've gone through numerous past exam essays which are full marks and I haven't seen one which does this - so although I acknowledge that it is sometimes okay to do, by not doing it you are still eligible to get full marks.

mr faust, you seem like you know your stuff well
I am also doing this section and I have no memory on any content at the moment. My revision notes are lacking, so is there any website where you can make good notes on the topics that will come up? I feel like I am totally gonna fail this, 2 more days, and i dont know my stuff

Essay-Writing isnt my real problem. Had 88/100 UMS in Unit 1, but I feel like I have been to sloppy this unit as I thought its all source based.

And to the structure of the essay, how would you structure it? Would you go like one paragraph focusing on Source 1, one on Source 2 and one on Source 3... Or do you do it topic-related like each paragraph on one specific topic of analysis and then put in all sources and compare/contrast?

Thanks for any help I dont want to fail this

Your information is amazing !!!
i know im annoying but could i have a few more? the books are terrible and your so much better!

Of course, I'm not saying this is the only way to structure an essay? I was simply saying this is how I do it and I have achieved strong A's by doing it...