Double Two Women in Business

Women were essential to the start-up of Double Two

In April 1940, the Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer announced new work opportunities for “200 women at [the] new Wakefield Factory ''. Isaak Donner had recently arrived in Wakefield, having left Vienna as a Jewish refugee and was setting up his clothing factory business which specialised in shirtmaking and the patented double collar shirt. One of the provisions of starting the business was that it must provide employment for women. As Britain currently fought in WW2, it was essential that women be put to work, and at this time, married women were being encouraged and welcomed to the workforce.

From the very beginning, women were employed on an equal basis to men, with four hourly wage grades according to age. At the time when men were being conscripted to fight in the Second World War, it was commonplace for women to be paid less by businesses due to their gender, despite replacing jobs at the same skill level as a man.

Double Two

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