WOMEN IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR

They paved the way for social recognition and independence of future generations and marginally striking the typical gender roles society1. Women from both front allied and Soviet Union played a significant role during the World War II. In particular women in Britain and the US played a significant role during the Second World War. They took active roles during the war and dedicated their time, energy, and some even lost their lives while rendering service. Women also gave their sons, husbands, fathers, and brothers to the war effort2. Women in the Second World War According to Cara Moore, before the events of World War II, the federal government of United States had discouraged women, especially married ones, from joining paid employment4.

During the period societal perception was also not favoring women seeking jobs. During the initials stages of the World War II, Men had a different opinion and did not want women in the armed forces. Lucile Aitcheson was the first woman to apply and test for employment with the U. S. The government propaganda communicated a central theme. Magazine articles, posters, radio programs, and advertisements like Rosie the Riveter showed women in overalls with greasy hands during these years for the first time. A fictional representation of women by the name of "Rosie the Riveter" got created and used as a campaign tool8. The character depicted a lady who appeared pretty and tough, far better than the typical, average American housewife.

"Rosie the Riveter" images were used to encourage women to become wartime workers. S. female soldier to get imprisoned as a POW in the European theater of war. In the Twin Cities Ordnance Plant, sixty percent of the workers during the World War II were women11. They worked in the shipyards in Duluth and on Lake Superior and as streetcar conductors for the Twin Cities Rapid Transit Company. Women also worked on farms to replace their husbands and the hired workers who had gone to fight. Factories had gotten converted from producing regular household goods to equipment necessary for the war effort such as planes, ships, and munitions14. Americans throughout the nation began portioning smaller amounts of their food and buying fewer unnecessary goods.

Some even started planting Victory gardens in their backyards and public parks. These gardens helped reduced pressure on public food supply brought on by the war. Prior the U. Organizations engaged in offering humanitarian aid during the war such as the American Red Cross also took in many female workers. Nearing the end of the war, women were part of almost all noncombatant jobs and performed exemplarily. Their presence was replicated throughout the world from Great Britain to Germany, and mainly all branch of the military had female members. New positions were even taken on by women and new squads were formed for example Ack-Ack Girls who were members of the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) in Great Britain's army18. Women's Army corps and Nurses served overseas while the other female-specific branches were limited to the home front.

They served in a variety of areas including medical transport planes, field hospitals, evacuation hospitals and ship hospitals. Women played a significant role in soldier's lives were saved by these brave nurses19. Women also served in the Women's Army Corps or WAC in non-combat areas such as mechanics repairing vehicles, army post offices sorting mail, and others worked in communications and warning systems. Women's Army Corps was a branch of the armed forces that got started in 1942, and over 150,000 women were serving the WAC by the end of the war. In Germany under Nazi regime, Adolf Hitler was very clear about the role of women. Both single and married women were working in factories, on the land or in the armed forces by mid-194324.

It was not easy for women to fill the new roles that arose due to the demands of wartime while maintaining the traditional female characters of the time. Many women worked tirelessly in the home, often combining their domestic work with war-related volunteer work with women's organizations or in military canteens. There were many more women in various other roles such as driving ambulances, flying unarmed aircraft, or working behind the hostile lines as secret spies. Women also worked under the Special Operations Executive (SOE)25. It got established in July 1942, to curb the labor shortages in the country as a result of men leaving to fight overseas27. AWLA was not thought a military service and never included benefits such as the deferred pay, and bonuses pensions, which were available to those females who joined WRANS, AWAS, and others.

The Women's Land Army recruited women to take up work in farms where there were no men left to do the hard labor that got traditionally assigned to men. By 1944 the Australian Women's Land Army (AWLA) had expanded to a tune of 3000 members. Later Australian women started taking up duties overseas, for example, Olive King who went to France and Salonika as an ambulance driver. Economically, returning of men displaced many women from their wartime occupations, and many households which were headed by women due to the deaths of male breadwinners faced new levels of hardship. In summary, World War II experience would have been very different if it were not for the vital roles women played on both the home front and being part of the military.

Women's roles in World War II indelibly imprinted on the public consciousness that women were capable in the workforce of all sorts of roles in society. It also changed how women got perceived as they no longer got forced into the traditional women's roles that society had always seen them as being part31. Many women wanted to participate actively during World War II and lobbied their respective governments to form military organizations for women. 4159/harvard. c10. Adler, K. H. "Behind Enemy Lines: Gender, Passing and the Special Operations Executive in the Second World War. Different Experiences in the Army, Navy, and Air Force Nurse Corps. " Women at War (n. d. doi:10. By Stepping Up To Fill A Need, These Pioneers Blazed New Trails, Quigley, Samantha L.

Newman. " Social Service Review 19, no. doi:10. "CHAPTER 8. Hitler and the “Unnatural Alliance”: 1944–1945. "Did WW2 Change Life for Women?" BBC Guides. Accessed March 16, 2018. http://www. bbc. co. gov. uk | Focus On. Women in Uniform | Telegram. " The National Archives. Accessed March 16, 2018. "The Role of World War II in the Rise of Women's Work. doi:10. 3386/w3203. Honey, Maureen. "The "Womanpower" Campaign: Advertising and Recruitment Propaganda during World War II. " Gender and the Second World War, 2017, 55-72. doi:10. McEuen, Melissa A. "Women, Gender, and World War II. " Oxford Research Encyclopedia of American History, 2016. Mundy, Liza. Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers Who Helped Win World War II. "My Grandmother's Wartime Diary - Second World War - Diaries, Letters, and Stories - Remembering Those Who Served - Remembrance - Veterans Affairs Canada.