Women workers such as the Buffer Girls and dolliers were for decades part of the city’s once-thriving cutlery industry, whereas the Women of Steel celebrated in the statue outside the City Hall stepped in to to help the war effort in 1914-18 and 1939-45.
1. nsst-07-06-21-bufferJA-nmsy-upload.jpg
Women workers in the Sheffield cutlery and steel industries Photo: Picture Sheffield
2. Hard at work
Buffer Girls working in cutlery manufacture, shown in a 1907 postcard. Ref no: s10183 Photo: Picture Sheffield
3. Working woman
A cutlery buffer working in the Butcher Works, 72 Arundel Street, Sheffield, in 1993. Ref no: s42796 Photo: Picture Sheffield
4. Real steel women
Ethel May (Rose) Fletcher and friend, workers at the Rip Bits factory, Sheffield during Second World War, pictured in 1941. Rip Bits were based at Hill Street and made drill bits. Ref no: a00671 Photo: Picture Sheffield