‘There were legions of her kind during the nineteen-thirties, women… who crowded their war-bereaved spinsterhood with voyages of discovery into new ideas and energetic practices in art or social welfare, education or religion.’ Muriel Spark, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1961) After the war there was great social change for women. In recognition of their service to the country, the vote was given to some women in 1918 and extended to all women in 1928. Many women raised families alone, others never married as so many men had been killed. The newspapers termed them ‘surplus women’. Some unmarried women were able to pursue careers for the first time.