20th+: Women in Wartime

Wednesday, October 9, 2019

Women in Wartime

1939-45 [Australia at War - Women's Status Changes] - Free > .

Women

Historians highlight the importance of women to the war effort, showing that a vast number of women were involved at this time with the development of technology. There were indeed more women employed in this area than men. Penny Summerfield showed the growing importance of women in WW2. Women's roles can be contextualised within the wider study of military planning. Large factories for building aeroplanes were established across the country, and they were staffed by women. Furthermore, the increased role of women workers was highlighted by the Ministry of Information which, in its short movies, showed women working in the factories. This was an essential propaganda tool, and further demonstrates the vital position of women workers in the war effort.

https://reviews.history.ac.uk/review/1114 .

"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.

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.

In December 1941 the government passed the National Service Act (No 2), which made provision for the conscription of women. At first only childless widows and single women 20 to 30 years old were called up, but later the age limit was expanded to 19 to 43 (50 for WWI veterans).

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.

The WRNS, having been disbanded at the end of WWI, were reformed in April 1939. WRNS were posted to every home and overseas naval unit. There were 72,000 serving WRNS in 1945. Another service disbanded after WW1 was the WAAC, they were reformed as the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) and totalled over 190,000. Other military organisations included Women in Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) and the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY), originally formed in 1907.

Times had moved on and along with, still vital, clerical and domestic duties, women were driving and maintaining vehicles, manning anti-aircraft guns and RADAR stations, ferrying aircraft from factories to airfields, deciphering coded German messages in secret naval communications units and working as spies in the Special Operations Executive (SOE).

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.

As part of the conscription requirement women had to chose whether to enter the armed forces or work in farming or industry. By December 1943 one in three factory workers was female and they were building planes, tanks, guns and making bullets needed for the war.

One civilian choice open to women was to join The Women's Land Army, set up in June 1939. At its peak in 1943, there were over 80,000 'Land Girls'. The women undertook hard farm work including ploughing, turning hay, lifting potatoes, threshing, lambing and poultry management. Six thousand women worked in the Timber Corps, felling trees and running sawmills.

As The Women’s Land Army was not a military force many women did not wear the uniform of green jersey, brown breeches, brown felt hat and khaki overcoat.

Another organisation that women could join was the Women's Voluntary Services For Air Raid Precaution (WVS), set up in June 1938. Initially their main duties were evacuation and making medical supplies, bandages (made from old sheets), nursing gowns and pyjamas. February 1939 brought about a name change to the Women's Voluntary Service for Civil Defence. The type of work they undertook broadened to include, salvage and old bone collection, harvesting of rosehips, running rest and mobile canteen services, providing temporary accommodation for those people whose homes were destroyed during air raids and organising talks on such issues as 'Make do and Mend' and avoiding the ‘Squander Bug’.

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.

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. It was during this ‘labour famine’ that propaganda aimed to induce people to join the labour force and do their bit in the war. Women were the target audience in the various forms of propaganda because they were paid substantially less than men. 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, the number of skilled and semi-skilled female workers increased from 75 per cent to 85 per cent from 1940-1942.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 industrial segregation.

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/womeninuniform/wwii_intro.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_World_War_II#United_Kingdom
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_front
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auxiliary_Fire_Service
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Raid_Precautions
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Defence_Corps
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Voluntary_Service
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_Royal_Naval_Service
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_Auxiliary_Air_Force
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auxiliary_Territorial_Service
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Transport_Auxiliary
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Operations_Executive Women's Land Army
https://plus.google.com/+antharch/posts/abnfNNTFr9s
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Salvation_Army

Progress, Reversal - Women in WW1 ..

Women in Combat - UK ..

Women in Wartime ..

Women WW1 ..

WW2 : British Women's Contribution To The War Effort - 1940's Educational Film - S88TV1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=513ZN8MzNcU