Women's roles in the World Wars

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David McLellan - Interior of a ward on a British Ambulance Train in France during World War I

During the twentieth century, women of the whole world became indispensable in the war efforts. In many countries the need for female participation in the First World War was seen as almost necessary, as unprecedented numbers of men were wounded and killed. In the Second World War, the need for women arose again. Whether it was on the home front or the front-lines, for civilian or enlisted women, the World Wars started a new era for women's opportunities to contribute in war and be recognized for efforts outside of the home.

Women's role before World War I[edit source | edit]

Before the First World War, the traditional female role in western countries was confined to the domestic sphere, though not necessarily to their own homes, and to certain types of jobs.

In Great Britain for example, just before World War I, of the approximately 24 million adult women, around 1.7 million worked in domestic service, 800,000 worked in the textile manufacturing industry, 600,000 worked in the clothing trades, 500,000 worked in commerce, and 260,000 worked in local and national government, including teaching.[1] The British textile and clothing trades, in particular, employed far more women than men and were regarded as 'women's work'.[1]

While some women managed to enter the traditionally male career paths, women, for the most part, were expected to be primarily involved in "duties at home" and "women's work". Before 1914, only a few countries, including New Zealand, Australia, and several Scandinavian nations, had given women the right to vote (see Women's suffrage), but otherwise, women were minimally involved in the political process.

The two world wars hinged as much on industrial production as they did on battlefield clashes. With millions of men away fighting and with the inevitable casualties, there was a severe shortage of labour in a range of industries, from rural and farm work to urban office jobs.

During both World War I and World War II, women were called on, by necessity, to do work and take on roles that were outside their traditional gender expectations.[1] In Great Britain this was known as a process of "Dilution" and was strongly contested by the trade unions, particularly in the engineering and ship building industries.[1] For the duration of both World Wars, women did take on jobs traditionally regarded as skilled "men's work".[1] However, in accordance with the agreement negotiated with the trade unions, women undertaking jobs covered by the Dilution agreement lost their jobs at the end of the First World War.[1]

World War I[edit source | edit]

The United States Navy began accepting women for enlisted service during World War I

Home front[edit source | edit]

By 1914 nearly 5.09 million out of the 23.8 million women in Britain were working. Thousands worked in munitions factories (see Canary girl), offices and large hangars used to build aircraft.[1] Women were also involved in knitting socks for the soldiers on the front, as well as other voluntary work, but as a matter of survival women had to work for paid employment for the sake of their families. Many women worked as volunteers serving at the Red Cross, encouraged the sale of war bonds or planted "victory gardens".

Not only did women have to keep "the home fires burning" but they took on voluntary and paid employment that was diverse in scope and showed that women were highly capable in diverse fields of endeavor. There is little doubt that this expanded view of the role of women in society did change the outlook of what women could do and their place in the workforce. Although women were still paid less than men in the workforce, women's equality were starting to arise as women were now getting paid two-thirds of the typical pay for men. However, the extent of this change is open to historical debate. In part because of female participation in the war effort Canada, the USA, Great Britain, and a number of European countries extended suffrage to women in the years after the First World War.

British historians no longer emphasize the granting of woman suffrage as a reward for women's participation in war work. Pugh (1974) argues that enfranchising soldiers primarily and women secondarily was decided by senior politicians in 1916. In the absence of major women's groups demanding for equal suffrage, the government's conference recommended limited, age-restricted women's suffrage. The suffragettes had been weakened, Pugh argues, by repeated failures before 1914 and by the disorganizing effects of war mobilization; therefore they quietly accepted these restrictions, which were approved in 1918 by a majority of the War Ministry and each political party in Parliament.[2] More generally, Searle (2004) argues that the British debate was essentially over by the 1890s, and that granting the suffrage in 1918 was mostly a byproduct of giving the vote to male soldiers. Women in Britain finally achieved suffrage on the same terms as men in 1928.[3]

Canadian Women during World War I[edit source | edit]

During World War One, there was virtually no female presence in the Canadian armed forces, with the exception of the 3141 nurses serving both overseas and on the home front.[4] Of these women, 328 had been decorated by King George V, and 46 gave their lives in the line of duty.[4] Even though a number of these women received decorations for their efforts, many high-ranking military personnel still felt that they were unfit for the job. One notable adversary of the effort was Col. Guy Carleton Jones, he stated that, “Active service work is extremely severe, and a large portion of R.N.’s are totally unfit for it, mentally or physically.” [4] Although the Great War, had not officially been opened up to women, they did feel the pressures at home. There had been a gap in employment when the men enlisted; many women strove to fill this void along with keeping up with their responsibilities at home.[4] When war broke out Laura Gamble enlisted in the Canadian Army Medical Corps, because she knew that her experience in a Toronto hospital would be an asset to the war efforts.[5] Canadian nurses were the only nurses of the Allied armies that held the rank of officers.[5] Gamble was presented with a Royal Red Cross, 2nd Class medal, for her show of “greatest possible tact and extreme devotion to duty.” [5] This was awarded to her at Buckingham Palace during a special ceremony for Canadian nurses.[5] Health care practitioners had to deal with medical anomalies they had never seen during the First World War. The chlorine gas that was used by the Germans caused injuries that treatment protocols had not yet been developed for. The only treatment that soothed the Canadian soldiers affected by the gas was the constant care they received from the nurses.[5] Canadian nurses were especially well known for their kindness.[5]

Canadians had expected that women would feel sympathetic to the war efforts, but the idea that they would contribute in such a physical way was absurd to most.[4] Because of the support that women had shown from the beginning of the war, people began to see their value in the war. In May 1918, a meeting was held to discuss the possible creation of the Canadian Women’s Corps. In September, the motion was approved, but the project was pushed aside because the wars end was in sight.[4]

On the Canadian home front, there were many ways which women could participate in the war effort. Lois Allan joined the Farm Services Corps in 1918, to replace the men who were sent to the front.[6] Allan was placed at E.B. Smith and Sons where she hulled strawberries for jam.[6] Jobs were opened up at factories as well, as industrial production increased.[6] Work days for these women consisted of ten to twelve hours, six days a week. Because the days consisted of long monotonous work, many women made of parodies of popular songs to get through the day and boost morale.[6] Depending on the area of Canada, some women were given a choice to sleep in either barracks or tents at the factory or farm that they were employed at.[6] According to a brochure that was issued by the Canadian Department of Public Works, there were several areas in which it was appropriate for women to work. These were:

  1. On fruit or vegetable farms.
  2. In the camps to cook for workers.
  3. On mixed and dairy farms.
  4. In the farmhouse to help feed those who are raising the crops.
  5. In canneries, to preserve the fruit and vegetables.
  6. To take charge of milk routes.[7]

In addition many women were involved in charitable organization such as the Ottawa Women’s Canadian Club, which helped provide the needs of soldiers, families of soldiers and the victims of war.[6] Women were deemed ‘soldiers on the home front’, encouraged to use less or nearly everything, and to be frugal in order to save supplies for the war efforts.[6]

British Women during World War I[edit source | edit]

During World War I; many women were able to participate on the home front supporting the men who had gone out to fight. They were given the opportunity to help as nurses, teachers, textiles makers, coal miners and clothing, but the largest area in which the women worked was in the munitions factories. Munitions factories were there to produce supplies for the men on the front including tailoring, metal trades, chemical and explosives, food trades, hosiery and woolen and worsted industries.[8] The reason for so many women joining the munitions factories and other parts of the war effort was mixed between the sense of patriotism felt for working and helping their fathers, brothers and husbands fighting, or they joined because the wages received were doubled of what they had previously made (although was still less than that of a man’s). The women working in these munitions factories were called Munitionettes and the work in which these women did was long, tiring and exhausting as well as dangerous and hazardous to their health.

The women working in munitions factories were from mainly lower-class families[9] and were between the ages of 18 to 30 years old.[9] A lot of the work these women did consisted of making gun shells, explosives, aircraft and other materials that supplied the war at the front[10] which was dangerous and repetitive work because they were constantly around and encased in toxic fumes as well has handling dangerous machinery and explosives. They were to handle these explosives and chemicals with little training, yet expected to make them quickly and efficiently so the weapons could be shipped off to the men at war.There were different groups in which were essential to the production of getting the weaponry out to the men. Each group was important in the making of munitions as each had their own particular job such as putting the cordite into the shells, another group was to put together the fuses and so on. This was very repetitive work and it was important to be very careful when handling these because explosions and unexpected gun fire was at all times possible putting themselves and others at risk.

Not only was the work stressful and dangerous but the amount in which the women worked contributed to the difficulty of their jobs. The women would work long twelve hour shifts, six or seven days a week[11] and at times would be expected to work over night. These long days in the factories were difficult on the lives of the women because it affected their home lives, especially those with children at home and were expected fulfill their wifely duties. This could be considered double work as they would work all day, to go home and maintain the house, this was exhausting and the women got very little sleep and were worked very hard. The lack of sleep was supplementary to the harms of the chemicals of the factories took a toll on the health of the women.

The factories all over Britain in which women worked were often unheated, deafeningly noisy, and full of noxious fumes and other dangers,[11] therefore the conditions in which they worked under were not exactly benefiting their health. The factories also had very little ventilation for the chemicals and fumes to escape from trapping all of the chemicals in and creating a very toxic environment. Explosives and guns rely on chemical reactions to work, therefore if the women because dealing with many chemicals and hazardous materials in order to create these weapons being exposed to the harshness of these chemicals without being properly protected increased the chances of illness.

Being enclosed in the chemicals some of the common diseases and illness which occurred were drowsiness, headaches, eczema, loss of appetite, cyanosis, shortness of breath, vomiting, anaemia, palpitation, bile stained urine, constipation, rapid weak pules, pains in the limbs and jaundice and mercury poisoning.[12] In [1] book On Her Their Lives Depend: Munitions Workers in Great War” there is a picture of a firewoman who is carrying a munitions worker out of a building who had passed out from the fumes and Smokey conditions in which she had been working. This kind of reaction to the fumes and smoke in munitions factories was common as there was very little ventilation and fresh air. Jaundice was caused from working with sulphur which was used in the making of explosives because it is found in TNT and other such explosives. Jaundice with along with other affects makes the skin turn into a yellowish hue, this yellowing of the skin created the term canary girls[13] Canary girls which was a popular name for the women working in munitions factories because many had jaundice as a result of jaundice. Another discoloration of the skin found from working in the factories is cyanosis; this is the ashen gray and livid color of the lips.[12] Although the women were at a high risk of getting diseases and illnesses, the women would go home at night to their children and would have these chemicals on them and attached to them carrying them home and putting their families at risk of health problems as well, especially to those women who were either pregnant or breast feeding their babies.

Along with health issues there were many obvious dangers of working in munitions factories such as the shells exploding or the fire-arms shooting when they were not supposed to, this was dangerous and many women had died from such instances. They women had to be very careful that nothing that was not supposed to enter the shells and explosives because if even a small amount of dirt was entered and the chemicals were added the reaction could be set off and harm the many working in that factory. This was critical to their safety and the women had to work carefully and hard knowing that anything bad could happen, a slip of the hand when drilling into a shell or the simple misplacement of a fuse could have drastic and deadly consequences. The munitionettes were brave and hard working women, they knew their lives were in danger yet they worked through the illness and the dangers to do their part in the war and increased the women’s role in society and gave women a new face proving their abilities to society and proved that they were capable of doing a man’s work.

British World War One Poster Campaign[edit source | edit]

Propaganda in the form of visual poster’s to entice women to join the factory industry in World War one did not represent the dangerous aspects of female wartime labour conditions.[14] The poster’s failed to represent an accurate account of reality by creating a satisfactory appeal for women who joined the workforce and did their part in the war. Designed for women to persuade their men to join the armed forces, one propaganda poster is a romantic setting as the women looks out an open window into nature as the soldiers march off to war. The poster possesses a sentimental and romantic appeal when the reality of the situation is that many women endured extreme hardships when their husbands enlisted.[14] It was this narrative of a false reality conveyed in the visual propaganda that aimed to motivate war effort. The Edwardian social construction of gender was that women should be passive, emotional, and have moral virtue and domestic responsibility. Men on the other hand were expected to be active, intelligent, and provide for their families. It was this idea of gender roles that poster propaganda aimed to reverse. In one war propaganda, titled “These Women Are Doing Their Bit” a woman is represented as making a sacrifice by joining the munitions while the men are at the front. The woman in this particular persuasive poster is depicted as cheerful and beautiful, ensuring that her patriotic duty will not reduce her femininity.[14] These posters do not communicate the reality that munitions labour entails. There is no reference to highly explosive chemicals or illnesses due to harsh work environments. The persuasive images of idealized female figures and idyllic settings were designed to solicit female involvement in the war and greatly influenced the idea of appropriate feminine behavior in the wartime Britain. As a result, many women left their domestic lives to join munitions work as they were enticed by what they thought were better living conditions, patriotic duty and high pay.[14] According to Hupfer, the female role in the social sphere was expanded as they joined previously male-dominated and hazardous occupations (325).[14] Hupfer remarks that attitudes regarding the capabilities of women through the war effort sank back into the previously idealized roles of women and men once the war was over. Women went back to their duty in the home as they lost their jobs to returning soldiers and female labour statistics decreased to pre-war levels. Not until 1939 would the expansion of the role of women once again occur.[14]

Military service[edit source | edit]

Nursing became almost the only area of female contribution that involved being at the front and experiencing the war. In Britain the Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps, First Aid Nursing Yeomanry and Voluntary Aid Detachment were all started before World War I. The VADs were not allowed in the front line until 1915.

More than 12,000 women enlisted in the United States Navy and Marine Corps during the First World War. About 400 of them died in that war.[15]

Over 2,800 women served with the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps during the First World War and it was during that era that the role of Canadian women in the military first extended beyond nursing.[16] Women were given paramilitary training in small arms, drill, first aid and vehicle maintenance in case they were needed as home guards.[16] Forty-three women in the Canadian military died during WWI.[16]

The only belligerent to deploy female combat troops in substantial numbers was the Russian Provisional Government in 1917. Its few "Women's Battalions" fought well, but failed to provide the propaganda value expected of them and were disbanded before the end of the year. In the later Russian Civil War, the Bolsheviks would also employ women infantry.[17]

World War II[edit source | edit]

In many nations women were encouraged to join female branches of the armed forces or participate in industrial or farm work.

World War II involved global conflict on an unprecedented scale; the absolute urgency of mobilizing the entire population made the expansion of the role of women inevitable. The hard skilled labor of women was symbolized in the United States by the concept of Rosie the Riveter, a woman factory laborer performing what was previously considered man's work.

With this expanded horizon of opportunity and confidence, and with the extended skill base that many women could now give to paid and voluntary employment, women's roles in World War II were even more extensive than in the First World War. By 1945, more than 2.2 million women were working in the war industries, building ships, aircraft, vehicles, and weaponry. Women also worked in factories, munitions plants and farms, and also drove trucks, provided logistic support for soldiers and entered professional areas of work that were previously the preserve of men. In the Allied countries thousands of women enlisted as nurses serving on the front lines. Thousands of others joined defensive militias at home and there was a great increase in the number of women serving in the military itself, particularly in the Red Army (see below).

In the World War Two era, approximately 400,000 U.S. women served with the armed forces and more than 460 — some sources say the figure is closer to 543 — lost their lives as a result of the war, including 16 from enemy fire. Women became officially recognized as a permanent part of the armed forces with the passing of the Women's Armed Services Integration Act of 1948.[15]

Several hundred thousand women served in combat roles, especially in anti-aircraft units. The U.S. decided not to use women in combat because public opinion would not tolerate it.[18]


Britain[edit source | edit]

Women in the Workplace[edit source | edit]

When Britain went to war, a previously forbidden job opportunity opened up for women. Women were called into the factories to create the weapons that were used on the battlefield.[19] Women took on responsibility of both managing the home and became the heroines of the home front. According to Carruthers, this industrial employment of women significantly raised women’s self-esteem as it allowed them to carry out their full potential and do their part in the war. During the war, women’s normative roles of “house wife” transformed into a patriotic duty. As Carruther’s put it, the housewife has become a heroine in the defeat of Hitler (235).[19] The roles of women shifting from domestic to masculine and dangerous jobs in the workforce made for important changes in workplace structure and society. During the Second World War, society had specific ideals for the jobs in which both women and men participated in. When women began to enter into the masculine workforce and munitions industries previously dominated by men, women’s segregation began to diminish. Increasing numbers of women were forced into industry jobs between 1940-1943.[20] As surveyed by the Ministry of Labour, the increase of women in industrial jobs went from 19.75 per cent to 27 per cent from 1938-1945.[20] It was beyond difficult for women to spend their days in factories, and then come home to their domestic chores and care-giving, and as a result, many women were unable to hold their jobs in the workplace.[20] Britain underwent a labour shortage where an estimated 1.5 million people were needed for the armed forces, and an additional 775,000 for munitions and other services in 1942.[20] It was during this ‘labour famine’ that propaganda aimed to coerce people into joining the labour force and do their bit in the war. Women were the target audience in the various forms of propaganda because they were substantially paid less than men.[20] It was of no concern whether women were filling the same jobs that men previously held. Even if women were replacing jobs with the same skill level as a man, they were still paid significantly less due to their gender. In the engineering industry alone, skilled and semi-skilled female workers increased from 75 per cent to 85 per cent from 1940-1942.[20] According to Gazeley, even though women were paid less than men, it is clear that women engaging in war work and taking on jobs preserved by men, reduced the increase of industrial segregation.[20]

A woman machinist talking with Eleanor Roosevelt during her goodwill tour of Great Britain in 1942
Pte Elizabeth Gourlay transmitting a radio message during the Second World War

In Britain, women were essential to the war effort, in both civilian and military roles. The contribution by civilian men and women to the British war effort was acknowledged with the use of the words "Home Front" to describe the battles that were being fought on a domestic level with rationing, recycling, and war work, such as in munitions factories and farms and Men were thus released into the military. Women were also recruited to work on the canals, transporting coal and munitions by barge across the UK via the inland waterways. These became known as the 'Idle Women', initially an insult derived from the initials IW, standing for Inland Waterways, which they wore on their badges, but the term was soon adopted by the women themselves.[21] Many women served with the Women's Auxiliary Fire Service, the Women's Auxiliary Police Corps and in the Air Raid Precautions (later Civil Defence) services. Others did voluntary welfare work with Women's Voluntary Service for Civil Defence and the salvation Army.

Women were "drafted" in the sense that they were conscripted into war work by the Ministry of Labour, including non-combat jobs in the military, such as the Women's Royal Naval Service (WRNS or "Wrens"), the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF or "Waffs") and the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS). Auxiliary services such as the Air Transport Auxiliary also recruited women.[22] In the early stages of the war such services relied exclusively on volunteers, however by 1941 conscription was extended to women for the first time in British history and around 600,000 women were recruited into these three organizations.[23] In these organizations women performed a wide range of jobs in support of the Army, Royal Air Force (RAF) and Royal Navy both overseas and at home. These jobs ranged from feminine roles like cook, clerk and telephonist to more masculine duties like mechanic, armourer, searchlight[24] and anti- aircraft instrument operator.[23] British women were not drafted into combat units, but could volunteer for combat duty in anti-aircraft units, which shot down German planes and V-1 missiles.[25][26] Civilian women joined the Special Operations Executive (SOE), which used them in high-danger roles as secret agents and underground radio operators in Nazi occupied Europe.[27]

Propaganda and British Women's Patriotic Role[edit source | edit]

British Women’s Propaganda was issued during the war in attempts to communicate to the house-wife that while keeping the domestic role, she must also take on a political role of patriotic duty.[28] Propaganda was meant to eliminate all conflicts of personal and political roles and create a heroine out of the women. The implication with propaganda is that it asked women to redefine their personal and domestic ideals of womanhood and motivate them go against the roles that have been instilled in them.[28] The government struggled to encourage women to respond to posters and other forms of propaganda. One attempt to recruit women into the labour force was in one short film, My Father’s Daughter. In this propaganda film a wealthy factory owner’s daughter begs to do her part in the war, but her father carries the stereotypical belief that women are meant to be caretakers and are incapable of such heavy work. When one foreman presents one of the most valuable and efficient workers in the factory as the daughter, the father’s prejudices are eliminated. The encouraging message of this short film is, “There’s Not Much Women Can’t Do.” [28]

Common Roles for Women[edit source | edit]

The most common role of women in active service was that of a searchlight operator.[29] In fact, all of the members of the 93rd Searchlights Regiment were females (Harris). Despite being limited in their roles, there was a great amount of respect between the men and women in the mixed batteries.[29] In fact, one report states, “Many men were amazed that women could make adequate gunners despite their excitable temperament, lack of technical instincts, their lack of interest in aeroplanes and their physical weaknesses”.[29]). While women still faced discrimination from some of the older soldiers and officers who did not like women “playing with their guns”, women were still given rifle practice and taught to use anti-aircraft guns while serving in their batteries. They were told that this was in case the Germans invaded…however if that were to ever happen, they would be evacuated immediately.[29]).

Three quarters of women who entered the wartime forces were volunteers, compared to men who made up less than a third.[23] Single or married women were eligible to volunteer in WAAF, ATS or WRNS and were required to serve throughout Britain as well as overseas if needed, however the age limits set by the services varied from each other. Generally women between 17 and 43 could volunteer and those under 18 required parental consent.[23] After applying, applicants had to fulfill other requirements, including an interview and medical examination; if they were deemed fit to serve then they were enrolled for the duration of the war. WRNS was the only service that offered an immobile branch which allowed women to live in their homes and work in the local naval establishment.[23] WRNS was the smallest of the three organizations and as a result was very selective with their candidates. Of the three organizations, WAAF was the most preferred choice; the second being WRNS. ATS was the largest of the three organizations and was least favoured among women because it accepted those who were unable to get into the other forces. ATS had also developed a reputation of promiscuity and poor living conditions, many women also saw the khaki uniform unappealing and as a result caused women to favour WRNS and WAAF over ATS.[23]dress

Women's Limitations[edit source | edit]

Women were limited in their roles-they were allowed to do almost anything except fire the guns. This meant that they never got to capitalize on the training they received.[29] This was the most common sexual distinction between men and women during the war: women went through the same military training, lived in the same conditions and did almost the same jobs as men, however were restricted from actually killing anyone.[29] This small but important distinction meant that women were not eligible for any of the medals of valour or bravery, because they were only awarded for “active operations against enemy in the field”, which women could not take part in.[29] Women were also distinct because of the titles by which they were addressed in the army: corporals were known as bombardiers and privates were known as gunners. They were also required to wear their designations differently on their uniforms, further distinguishing them from their male counterparts.[29] Discipline differed as well, as women were not allowed to be court marshaled unless she herself chose to be. The women in the service were also under the authority of the women officers of the ATS, instead of the male officers they served directly under. This meant any disciplinary action was difficult.[29]

Opportunities to Enlist[edit source | edit]

Despite their obvious distinctions from men, women were eager to volunteer. Many of the servicewomen came from restricted backgrounds; therefore they found the army liberating.[29] Other reasons women volunteered included escaping unhappy homes or marriages, or to have a more stimulating job. The overwhelming reason for joining the army, though, was patriotism. Like World War I, England was in a patriotic fervour throughout World War II to protect its island from foreign invasion.[30] Women, for the first time, were given the opportunity to help in their native land’s defense, which attributes the high number of female volunteers at the beginning of the war. Even Princess Elizabeth was a driver for the Second Subaltern Windsor Unit, having joined to do her part in the protection of the country.[30] Despite the overwhelming response to the call for female volunteers, some women refused to join the forces; many were unwilling to give up the civilian job they had, and others had male counterparts that were unwilling to let them go (Crang 384). Others felt that war was still a man’s job, and not something women should be involved in.[30] Similar to the men’s forces, women’s forces were mostly volunteer throughout the war.[30] When women’s conscription did come into effect, however, it was highly limited. For example, married women were exempt from any obligation to serve unless they chose to do so, and those who were called could opt to serve in civil defense (the home front).[30]

During the war, approximately 487,000 women volunteered for women’s services; 80,000 for WRNS, 185,000 for WAAF and 222,000 for ATS.[23] By 1941 the demands of the wartime industry called for women’s services to be expanded so that more men could be relieved of their previous positions and take on more active roles on the battle field.[23] Of all the women’s services, ATS needed the greatest number of new applicants, however due to ATS’ lack of popularity, they were unable to gain the estimated 100,000 new volunteers needed.[23] To try and change women’s opinions on ATS, living conditions were improved and a new more flattering uniform was made. In 1941 the Registration for Employment Order was introduced in hopes of getting more women enrolled.[31] This act could not force women to join the forces, but instead required women ages 20–30 to try to find employment through labour exchanges and provide information on their current employment and family situations.[31] Those who were deemed eligible were persuaded into the war industry because the Ministry of Labour did not have the power to force.[23] Propaganda was also used to persuade women into the women services. poster By the end of 1941, ATS had only gained 58,000 new workers, falling short of expectations.Ernest Bevin then called for conscription and by late 1941 with the National Service Act it became compulsory for women ages 20–30 to join military service.[23] Married women were exempt from conscription, but those who were eligible had the option to work in war industry or civil defense if they did not want to join one of the women services.[32] Women were able to request which force they wished to join but most women were put into ATS because of its need for new applicants.[23] The National Service Act was repealed in 1949 but by 1944 women were no longer being called up for service because relying on volunteers was thought to be enough to complete the required tasks during the final stages of war.[23]

Women also played an important role in British industrial production during the war, in areas such as metals, chemicals, munitions, shipbuilding and engineering. At the beginning of the war in 1939 17.8% of women made up employment in these industries and by 1943 they made up 38.2%.[33] With the start of the war there was an urgent need to expand the country’s labour force and women were seen as a source of factory labour. Before the war women in industrial production were exclusively on assembly, which was seen as cheap and undemanding work but during the war women were needed in other areas in the production process that were previously done by men such as Lathe operators.[34] The Ministry of Labour created training centres that gave an introduction to the engineering process, and by 1941 women were allowed entrance as the importance of the engineering industry grew and became a large source of female employment.[34] Areas such as aircraft manufacture, light and heavy general engineering and motor vehicle manufacturing all saw an increase in female employment during the war.[33] Aircraft production saw the largest rise in female employment as it rose from 7% in 1935 to 40% in 1944.[34] At the start of the war men who were already in engineering were prevented from going to war because engineering was seen as an important industry to war production but in 1940 there became a need for more female workers to supply the necessary labour for factory expansion.[32] By 1941 with the shortage of skilled labour the Essential Workers Order was introduced which required all skilled workers to register and prevented workers from quitting from jobs that were deemed essential to the war effort without agreement from a National Service Officer.[32] The Registration for the Employment Order in 1941 and the Women of Employment Order in 1942 also attempted to get more women into the workforce. The Women of Employment Order required women ages 18–45 to register for labour exchanges and by 1943 the maximum age was raised to 50, which brought an additional 20,000 women into the workforce. Aircraft production was given the top labour priority and many women were diverted into it with some even being transferred from agricultural production.[31]

Sky Spying[edit source | edit]

One of the most important roles within the forces that women occupied during the war was that of interpreting aerial photographs taken by British spy planes over Allied Europe.[35] There was equality in this work that was not found anywhere else during the war: women were considered equal to men in this field.[36] Women played an important role in the planning of D-Day in this capacity-they analyzed the photos of the Normandy Coast and decided which beaches the troops landed on and which sections. Women as photo analysts also participated in the biggest intelligence coup of the war-the discovery of the German V1 flying bomb. The participation of women allowed these bombs to be destroyed.[36]

Although many women were doing jobs that men had previously done during the war, there were still pay distinctions between the two sexes. Equal pay was rarely achieved as employers wanted to avoid labour costs. Skilled work was often broken down into smaller tasks and labelled skilled or semi-skilled and then paid according to women pay rates.[34] Women who were judged to be doing ‘men’s work’ were paid more than women who were thought to be doing ‘women’s work’ and the employers definition of this varied regionally.[31] Women were receiving closer wages to their male counterparts, however despite the governments expressed intentions, women continued to be paid less than men for equivalent work and were segregated in terms of job description, status, and the hours they put in.[31] In 1940 Ernest Bevin persuaded engineering employers and unions to give women equal pay to men since they were taking on the same tasks that men previously had, this became the Extended Employment of Women Agreement.[33] Generally, pay increases depended on the industry; industries that were dominated by women before the war, like textiles and clothing, saw no changes in pay. However the gap between male and female earnings narrowed by 20-24% in metals, engineering and vehicle building and by 10-13% in chemicals, which were all deemed important to the war effort.[32] Overtime hours also differed, with women getting 2–3 hours and men 9-10 a week. Women’s hours were still regulated because of their responsibilities to take care of their family and household.[33]

British Women Postwar[edit source | edit]

Postwar, women were returned to many of the mundane jobs they occupied before the war started. Where once the army represented an escape from domestic life and liberty, it now returned to the male-dominated field it was before the war.[37] Women who served in the batteries as gunners and searchlight-operators were suddenly being demeaned to secretaries and clerks, taking away any opportunity these women may have had to capitalize on their training.[38] 'Demob was a big disappointment to a lot of us. It was an awful and wonderful war. I wouldn't have missed it for anything; some of the friends we made were forever.” One female recounted after being dismissed from service to return to her normal job. Married women were released from service sooner at the end of the war, so they could return home before their husbands to ensure the home was ready when he returned from the front.[39] Despite being largely unrecognized for their wartime efforts in the forces, the participation of women in World War II allowed for the founding of permanent women’s forces. Britain instituted these permanent forces in 1949, and the Women’s Voluntary Services are still a standing reserve force today.[40]

Canada[edit source | edit]

Women replaced men in many of the roundhouse jobs during World War II. Photo taken January, 1943.

When war began to look unavoidable in the late 1930s, Canadian women felt obligated to help the fight. In October of 1938, the Women’s Volunteer Service was established in Victoria, BC. Soon, all the provinces and territories followed suit and similar volunteer groups were emerged. “Husbands, brothers, fathers, boyfriends were all joining up, doing something to help win the war. Surely women could help as well!” [4] In addition to the Red Cross, several volunteer corps had designed themselves after auxiliary groups from Britain. These corps had uniforms, marching drills and a few had rifle training. It soon was clear, that a unified governing system would be beneficial to the corps. The volunteers in British Columbia donated two dollars each to pay the expenses so a representative could talk to politicians in Ottawa. Although all of the politicians appeared sympathetic to the cause, it remained ‘premature’ in terms of national necessity.[4]

In June 1941, the Canadian Women’s Army Corps was established. The women who enlisted would take over

On July 2, 1942 women were given permission to enlist in what would be known as the Canadian Women’s Auxiliary Air Force. Lastly the Royal Canadian Navy created the Women’s Royal Canadian Naval Service or the WRENS.[4] The WRENS were the only corps that were officially a part of their sanctioning body as a women’s division. This led to bureaucratic issues that would be solved most easily by absorbing the civilian corps governed by military organizations, into women’s divisions as soldiers. According to the RCAF the following are the requirements of an enlisted woman:

  1. Must be at least 18 years of age, and younger than 41 years of age
  2. Must be of medical category A4B (equivalent of A1)
  3. Must be equal to or over 5 feet, and fall within the appropriate weight for her height, not being too far above or below the standard
  4. Must have a minimum education of entrance into high school
  5. Be able to pass the appropriate trades test
  6. Be of good character with no record of conviction for an indictable offence[4]

Women would not be considered for enlistment if they were married and had children dependent on them. Training centres were required for all of the new recruits. They could not be sent to the existing centres as it was necessary that they be separated from male recruits. The Canadian Women’s Army Corps set up centres in Vermilion, AB and Kitchener, ON. Ottawa, ON and Toronto, ON were the locations of the training centres for the Canadian Women’s Auxiliary Air Force. The WRENS were outfitted in Galt, ON.[4] Each service had to come up with the best possible appeal to the women joining, for they all wanted them. In reality, the women went where their fathers, brothers and boyfriends were.[4] Women had numerous reasons for wanting to join the effort; whether they had a father, husband, or brother in the forces, or simply felt the patriotic duty to help. One woman blatantly exclaimed that she could not wait to turn eighteen to enlist, because she had fantasies of assassinating Hitler. Many women aged 16 or 17 lied about their age in order to enlist. The United States would only allow women to join that were at least twenty-one. For their young female citizens, Canada was the logical option. Recruitment for the different branches of the Canadian Forces was set up in places like Boston and New York. Modifications were made to girls with US citizenship, having their records marked, “Oath of allegiance not taken by virtue of being a citizen of The United States of America.” [4]

Women were obligated to conform to the same enlistment requirements as men. They had to adhere to medical examinations, and fitness requirements as well as training in certain trades depending on the aspect of the armed forces they wanted to be a part of. Enlisted women were issued entire uniforms minus the undergarments, which they would receive a quarterly allowance for.[4]

To be an enlisted woman during the creation stages was not easy. Besides the fact that everyone was learning as they went, they did not receive the support they needed from the male recruits. To begin with, women were initially paid two-thirds of what a man at the same level would make.[41] As the war progressed the military leaders began to see the substantial impact the women could make. In many cases the women had outperformed their male counterparts. This was taken into account and the women received a raise to four-fifths of the wages of a man.[41] A female doctor however, would receive equal financial compensation to her male counterpart. The negative reaction of men towards the female recruits was addressed in propaganda films. Proudly She Marches and Wings on Her Shoulder were made to show the acceptance of female recruits, while showing the men that although they were taking jobs traditionally intended for men, they would be able to retain their femininity. .[4]

Other problems faced early on for these women were that of a more racial stature. An officer of the CWAC had to write to her superiors regarding whether or not a girl of “Indian nationality” would be objected for enlistment. Because of Canada’s large population of immigrants, German women also enlisted creating great animosity between recruits.[4] The biggest difficulty was however the French-Canadian population. In a document dated 25 November 1941, it was declared that enlisted women should ‘unofficially’ speak English. However, seeing the large number of capable women that this left out, a School of English was stabled for recruits in mid-1942. .[4]

Once in training, some women felt that they had made a mistake. Several women cracked under the pressure and were hospitalized. Other women felt the need to escape, and simply ran away. The easiest and fastest ticket home however was pregnancy. Women who found out that they were expecting were given a special, quickly executed, discharge.[4]

The women who successfully graduated from training had to find ways to entertain themselves to keep morale up. Softball, badminton, tennis, and hockey were among popular pastimes for recruits. .[4]

Religion was of a personal matter to the recruits. A minister of sorts was usually on site for services. For Jewish girls, it was custom that they were able to get back to their barracks by sundown on Sabbath and holidays; a Rabbi would be made available if possible. .[4]

At the beginning of the war 600,000 women in Canada held permanent jobs in the private sector, by the peak in 1943 1.2 million women had jobs.[42] Women quickly gained a good reputation for their mechanical dexterity and fine precision due to their smaller stature.[42] At home a woman could work as:

Women also had to keep their homes together while the men were away. “An Alberta mother of nine boys, all away at either war or factory jobs – drove the tractor, plowed the fields, put up hay, and hauled grain to the elevators, along with tending her garden, raising chickens, pigs, and turkeys, and canned hundreds of jars of fruits and vegetables.” [42]

In addition to physical jobs, women were also asked to cut back and ration. Silk and nylon were used for the war efforts, creating a shortage of stockings. Many women actually painted lines down the back of their legs to create the illusion of wearing the fashionable stockings of the time.[42]

Finland[edit source | edit]

Much like in the United Kingdom, the Finnish women took part in defence: nursing, air raid signaling, rationing and hospitalization of the wounded. Their organization was called Lotta Svärd, where voluntary women took part in auxiliary work of the armed forces to help those fighting on the front. Lotta Svärd was one of the largest, if not the largest, voluntary group in World War II. They never fired guns (a rule among the Lottas).[43]

Germany[edit source | edit]

The Third Reich had many roles for women, including combat. The SS-Helferinnen were regarded as part of the SS if they had undergone training at a Reichsschule SS but all other female workers were regarded as being contracted to the SS and chosen largely from concentration camps. Women also served in auxiliary units in the navy (Kriegshelferinnen), air force (Luftnachrichtenhelferinnen) and army (Nachrichtenhelferin).[44][45][46][47][48]

In 1944-45 more than 500,000 women were volunteer uniformed auxiliaries in the German armed forces (Wehrmacht). About the same number served in civil aerial defense, 400,000 volunteered as nurses, and many more replaced drafted men in the wartime economy.[45] In the Luftwaffe they served in combat roles helping to operate the anti—aircraft systems that shot down Allied bombers. By 1945, German women were holding 85% of the billets as clericals, accountants, interpreters, laboratory workers, and administrative workers, together with half of the clerical and junior administrative posts in high-level field headquarters.[49]

Germany had a very large and well organized nursing service, with four main organizations, one for Catholics, one for Protestants, the secular DRK (Red Cross) and the "Brown Nurses," for committed Nazi women. Military nursing was primarily handled by the DRK, which came under partial Nazi control. Frontline medical services were provided by male medics and doctors. Red Cross nurses served widely within the military medical services, staffing the hospitals that perforce were close to the front lines and at risk of bombing attacks. Two dozen were awarded the iron Cross for heroism under fire.[44] The brief historiography focuses on the dilemmas of Brown Nurses forced to look the other way while their incapacitated patients were murdered.[50]

Hundreds of women auxiliaries (Aufseherin) served for the SS in the camps, the majority of which were at Ravensbrück. In Germany women also worked, and were told by Hitler to produce more pure Aryan children to fight in future wars.[51]

Italy[edit source | edit]

The Italian Social Republic had similar roles for women. In the 1944 the Women's Auxiliary Service (Servizio Ausiliario Femminile) were regarded as part of the RSI military formations. The commander was the brigadier general Piera Gatteschi Fondelli.

Poland[edit source | edit]

A grave of three Polish female soldiers who were killed during the Invasion of Poland, 1939, among their colleagues interred at Warsaw's Powązki Cemetery

In occupied Poland, as elsewhere, women played a major role in the resistance movement, putting them in the front line. Their most important role was as couriers carrying messages between cells of the resistance movement and distributing news broadsheets and operating clandestine printing presses. During partisan attacks on Nazi forces and installations they served as scouts.

During the Warsaw Rising of 1944, female members of the Home Army were couriers and medics, but many carried weapons and took part in the fighting. Among the more notable women of the Home Army was Wanda Gertz who created and commanded DYSK (Women's sabotage unit). For her bravery in these activities and later in the Warsaw Uprising she was awarded Poland's highest awards - Virtuti Militari and Polonia Restituta. One of the articles of the capitulation was that the German Army recognized them as full members of the armed forces and needed to set up separate Prisoner-of-war camps to hold over 2000 women prisoners-of-war.[52]

Soviet Union[edit source | edit]

Klavdiya Kalugina, one of the youngest Soviet female snipers (age 17 at the start of her military service in 1943)[53]

The Soviet Union mobilized women at an early stage of the war, integrating them into the main army units, and not using the "auxiliary" status. Some 800,000 women served, most of whom were in front-line duty units.[54] About 300,000 served in anti-aircraft units and performed all functions in the batteries—including firing the guns.[55][56] A small number were combat flyers in the Air Force.[57]

Yugoslavia[edit source | edit]

Tito's Yugoslav National Liberation Movement claimed 6,000,000 civilian supporters; its two million women formed the Antifascist Front of Women (AFŽ), in which the revolutionary coexisted with the traditional. The AFŽ managed schools, hospitals and even local governments. About 100,000 women served with 600,000 men in Tito's Yugoslav National Liberation Army. It stressed its dedication to women's rights and gender equality and used the imagery of traditional folklore heroines to attract and legitimize the partizanka.[58] After the war women were relegated to traditional gender roles, but Yugoslavia is unique as its historians paid extensive attention to women's roles in the resistance, until the country broke up in the 1980s. Then the memory of the women soldiers faded away.[59][60]

United States of America[edit source | edit]

More than 60,000 Army nurses (all military nurses were women at the time) served stateside and overseas during World War II. They were kept far from combat but 67 were captured by the Japanese in the Philippines in 1942 and were held as POWs for over two and a half years. One Army flight nurse was aboard an aircraft that was shot down behind enemy lines in Germany in 1944. She was held as a POW for four months.[61][62] In 1943 Dr. Margaret Craighill became the first female doctor to become a commissioned officer in the United States Army Medical Corps.[63]

The Army established the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) in 1942. WAACs served overseas in North Africa in 1942. The WAAC, however, never accomplished its goal of making available to "the national defense the knowledge, skill, and special training of the women of the nation.".[64] In 1942, Charity Adams (Earley) became the first black female commissioned officer in the WAAC.[65] The WAAC was converted to the Women's Army Corps (WAC) in 1943, and recognized as an official part of the regular army. More than 150,000 women served as WACs during the war, and thousands were sent to the European and Pacific theaters; in 1944 WACs landed in Normandy after D-Day and served in Australia, New Guinea, and the Philippines in the Pacific. In 1945 the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion (the only all African-American, all-female battalion during World War II) worked in England and France, making them the first black female battalion to travel overseas. The battalion was commanded by MAJ Charity Adams Earley, and was composed of 30 officers and 800 enlisted women.[66][67] WWII black recruitment was limited to 10 percent for the WAAC/WAC—matching the percentage of African-Americans in the US population at the time. For the most part, Army policy reflected segregation policy. Enlisted basic training was segregated for training, living and dining. At enlisted specialists schools and officer training living quarters were segregated but training and dining were integrated. A total of 6,520 African-American women served during the war.[67]

Asian-Pacific-American women first entered military service during World War II. The Women's Army Corps (WAC) recruited 50 Japanese-American and Chinese-American women and sent them to the Military Intelligence Service Language School at Fort Snelling, Minnesota, for training as military translators. Of these women, 21 were assigned to the Pacific Military Intelligence Research Section at Camp Ritchie, Maryland. There they worked with captured Japanese documents, extracting information pertaining to military plans, as well as political and economic information that impacted Japan's ability to conduct the war. Other WAC translators were assigned jobs helping the US Army interface with our Chinese allies. In 1943, the Women's Army Corps recruited a unit of Chinese-American women to serve with the Army Air Forces as "Air WACs." The Army lowered the height and weight requirements for the women of this particular unit, referred to as the "Madame Chiang Kai-Shek Air WAC unit." The first two women to enlist in the unit were Hazel (Toy) Nakashima and Jit Wong, both of California. Air WACs served in a large variety of jobs, including aerial photo interpretation, air traffic control, and weather forecasting.[68]

Air Evacuation Nurse Verona Savinski

More than 14,000 Navy nurses served stateside, overseas on hospital ships and as flight nurses during the war. Five Navy nurses were captured by the Japanese on the island of Guam and held as POWs for five months before being exchanged. A second group of eleven Navy nurses were captured in the Philippines and held for 37 months. (During the Japanese occupation of the Philippines, some Filipino-American women smuggled food and medicine to American prisoners of war (POWs) and carried information on Japanese deployments to Filipino and American forces working to sabotage the Japanese Army.[68]) The Navy also recruited women into its Navy Women's Reserve, called Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES), starting in 1942. Before the war was over, 84,000 WAVES filled shore billets in a large variety of jobs in communications, intelligence, supply, medicine, and administration.[61][69][70] The Navy refused to accept Japanese-American women throughout World War II.[68] USS HIGBEE (DD-806), a GEARING-class destroyer, was the first warship named for a woman to take part in combat operation. Lenah S. Higbee, the ship's namesake, was the Superintendent of the Navy Nurse Corps from 1911 until 1922.[71]

The Marine Corps created the Marine Corps Women's Reserve in 1943. That year, the first female officer of the United States Marine Corps was commissioned; the first detachment of female marines was sent to Hawaii for duty in 1945. The first director of the Marine Corps Women's Reserve was Mrs. Ruth Cheney Streeter from Morristown, New Jersey. Captain Anne Lentz was its first commissioned officer and Private Lucille McClarren its first enlisted woman; both joined in 1943. Marine women served stateside as clerks, cooks, mechanics, drivers, and in a variety of other positions. By the end of World War II, 85% of the enlisted personnel assigned to Headquarters U.S. Marine Corps were women.

In 1941 the first civilian women were hired by the Coast Guard to serve in secretarial and clerical positions. In 1942 the Coast Guard established their Women's Reserve known as the SPARs (after the motto Semper Paratus - Always Ready). YN3 Dorothy Tuttle became the first SPAR enlistee when she enlisted in the Coast Guard Women's Reserve on 7 December 1942. LCDR Dorothy Stratton transferred from the Navy to serve as the director of the SPARs. The first five African-American women entered the SPARs in 1945: Olivia Hooker, D. Winifred Byrd, Julia Mosley, Yvonne Cumberbatch, and Aileen Cooke. Also in 1945, SPAR Marjorie Bell Stewart was awarded the Silver Lifesaving Medal by CAPT Dorothy Stratton, becoming the first SPAR to receive the award. SPARs were assigned stateside and served as storekeepers, clerks, photographers, pharmacist's mates, cooks, and in numerous other jobs. More than 11,000 SPARs served during World War II.[72]

In 1943, the US Public Health Service established the Cadet Nurse Corps which trained some 125,000 women for possible military service.

In all, 350,000 American women served in the U.S. military during World War II and 16[dubious ] were killed in action. World War II also marked racial milestones for women in the military such as Carmen Contreras-Bozak, who became the first Hispanic to join the WAC, serving in Algiers under General Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Minnie Spotted-Wolf, the first Native American woman to enlist in the United States Marines.[73]


The Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP), created in 1943, were civilians who flew stateside missions chiefly to ferry planes when male pilots were in short supply. They were the first women to fly American military aircraft. Accidents killed 38. The WASP was disbanded in 1944 when enough male veterans were available.[74]

American Home Front[edit source | edit]

U.S. women also performed many kinds of non-military service in organizations such as the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), American Red Cross, and the United Service Organizations (USO). Nineteen million American women filled out the home front labor force, not only as "Rosie the Riveters" in war factory jobs, but in transportation, agricultural, and office work of every variety. Women joined the federal government in massive numbers during World War II. Nearly a million "government girls" were recruited for war work. In addition, women volunteers aided the war effort by planting victory gardens, canning produce, selling war bonds, donating blood, salvaging needed commodities and sending care packages.

By the end of the World War I, twenty-four percent of workers in aviation plants, mainly located along the coasts of the United States were women, and yet this percentage was easily surpassed by the beginning of the World War II.[75] Mary Anderson, director of the Women’s Bureau, reported in January 1942 that about 2,800,000 women “are now engaged in war work, and that their numbers are expected to double by the end of this year.”[76]

Female factory workers in 1942, Long Beach, California.

The skills women had acquired through their daily chores proved to be very useful in helping them acquire new skill sets towards the war effort. For example, the pop culture phenomenon of "Rosie the Riveter" made riveting one of the most widely known jobs. Experts speculate women were so successful at riveting because it so closely resembled sewing (assembling and seaming together a garment).[77] However, riveting was only one of many jobs that women were learning and mastering as the aviation industry was developing. As Glenn Martin, a co-founder of Martin Marietta, told a reporter: “we have women helping design our planes in the Engineering Departments, building them on the production line, [and] operating almost every conceivable type of machinery, from rivet guns to giant stamp presses”.[78]

It is true that some women chose more traditional female jobs such as sewing aircraft upholstery or painting radium on tiny measurements so that pilots could see the instrument panel in the dark. And yet many others, maybe more adventurous, chose to run massive hydraulic presses that cut metal parts while others used cranes to move bulky plane parts from one end of the factory to the other. They even had women inspectors to ensure any necessary adjustments were made before the planes were flown out to war often by female pilots. The majority of the planes they built were either large bombers or small fighters.[79]

Although at first, most Americans were reluctant to allow women into traditional male jobs, women proved that they could not only do the job but in some instances they did it better than their male counterparts. For example, women in general paid more attention to detail as the foreman of California Consolidated Aircraft once told the Saturday Evening Post, “Nothing gets by them unless it’s right.”[80]

Two years after Pearl Harbor, there were some 475,000 women working in aircraft factories - which, by comparison, was almost five times as many as ever joined the Women's Army Corps.[79]

See also[edit source | edit]

References[edit source | edit]

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  3. ^ G.R. Searle, A New England? Peace and war, 1886-1918 (2004) p 791
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Bibliography[edit source | edit]

Women on the homefront[edit source | edit]

Women in military service[edit source | edit]

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