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Women's Work in WWII

© Katie Anne Gustafsson

Women's Work in WWII

WWII saw a dramatic change in the way that women's work was viewed. Prior to the outbreak of war, women seldom worked outside the home and those that did for financial reasons were usually looked down upon by Society. However, this all changed when war was declared and the men of the country were required to be elsewhere, leaving the women to continue to day-to-day jobs that kept the country, and the war effort, running - as well as bringing up their children single-handed.

As the war lengthened, the women of the UK worked on the public transport system - not only as drivers, but also on maintenance crews; they worked in the shipyards building boats needed for the war effort; they worked in the fields producing food to feed the nation; they nursed the wounded both in the battle areas, and at home; they joined the military services; they worked in the factories producing ammunition for the soldiers overseas; they fought fires, assisted families who were left homeless by bombing raids, looked after evacuated children, and managed a home on rationed supplies. As more nations joined the fight to halt Hitler's forces, so to did more womenfolk join the workforce, some of them risking their lives, and the lives of their families as they smuggled soldiers, refugees and vital information out of occupied countries.

For some women it was only natural to return to their original place in life once the war ended and the soldiers returned, but life was never to be the same again for women. They had been given a chance to show what they were capable of, and they had proved they could do it - and under the most extreme of circumstances.

Over the coming weeks at Women's History we will be paying tribute to some of these women. All of them heroes in their own right and many of them whose courage remained unknown for many years after the war ended.

Katie-Anne, 2001

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