Women in the world wars

Prior to World War 1 women's role in society in western countries were mostly an extention of their domesticity. While some woman managed to receive a tertiary eduation and others to go into non-traditional career paths, for the most part women were expected to be primariy involved in 'home duties'. Before 1914, only few countries had given the vote to women, and women were little involved in the political process.

During both World War 1 and World War 2, women were called on, by necessity, to do work and to take on roles that were outside their traditional gender expectations. With millions of men away fighting and with the inevitable horrendous casualties, there was a severe shortage of labour in a range of industries, from rural and farm work to city office work. During World War 1, for example, thousands of women worked in munitions factories, offices and large hangers used to build aircraft. Of course women were also involved in knitting socks and preparing hampers 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. Nursing became the one and only area of female contribution that involved being at the front and experiencing the horror of war.

Not only did they 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. However the extent of this change is open to historical debate. In addition, the role of women tended to differ in scope and importance between World War 1 and World War 2.

In the years between the two world wars, the United States, Britain and a number of European countries extended suffrage to women, and the first female parliamentarians emerged. It seems that the turbulance and the despair of World War 1 had caused a reexamination of many of the treasured values in many western societies, including gender expectations. The so-called Jazz Age f the 1920s saw women 'letting their hair down' and leaving the confines of the home. With the advent of the Great Depression women became pivotal not only to providing for their families but for providing cheap labour for industry.

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 2 were even more extensive than in the previous war. So, women not only worked in factories, munitions plants and farms but also drove trucks, provided logistic support for soldiers and entered professional areas of work that were previously the preserve of men.

This necessity to use the skills and the time of women was heightened by the nature of the war itself. While World War 1 was mainly fought in France and Germany and was a war arguably without clear aggressor or villian, World War 2 was truly a global conflict where counties were invaded or under the theat of invasion from leaders in Germany (Adolf Hitler) and Japan that had ambitions of world domination. In these circumstances the absolute urgency of getting 'every hand on board' made the expansion of the role of women inevitable.

There is little doubt that women's work in the two world wars of the twentieth century was an important factor in the course of both wars. This involvement changed the social status and working lives of women in many countries from that point onwards.