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Women's Role In World War II

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In World War II the role of women changed drastically in Australian society as a result of Australia’s war effort and when the men went off to war leaving all their jobs vacant. Roles, opportunities and responsibilities expanded to WW2. Any women who took a job was somehow taking it from a man; but as the war developed this argument could no longer stand. Women could do the technical jobs normally completed by men, freeing those men for combat (Ergo, 2017). In the women’s lives before WW2 all the women did was clean houses and take care of their family, during the war they took up jobs that the men left behind, after the war they went back to their previous lives (Ergo, 2017). But however the war changed the perspectives on the women no matter …show more content…

They made uniforms, weapons, ammunition, they built trucks and tanks too. Women also stepped into agricultural jobs; ploughing and harvesting (Prezi, 2014). Some women worked overseas, they worked on observation posts, anti-aircraft gunners, drivers, mechanics and radio operators (Ergo, 2014). In WW2 nursing was dangerous, many nurses were stationed in Singapore, which was a base for the Allied forces in the Pacific (Ergo, 2014). In 1942, 65 nurses were evacuated aboard the ship “Vyner Brooke”. It was bombed and sunk by the Japanese, 12 drowned, 22 were captured then killed by machine fire and the other 31 got away (Ergo, 2014) Along-side the war, women managed children and family responsibilities alone, shortages of resources (Australian Government, 2017). 300’000 women left the textile and clothing industries. 147’000 women went into transport services; 220’000 went into chemicals, 480’000 performed clerical tasks. No less than 2 million went into factories making planes, tanks, bayonets, bullets and bombs. (Tames, 1997) Job vacancies increased dramatically, women even began fighting in the war along-side men as organisations opened. Women were able to work independently and became free of their responsibilities they were born to have as decided by their community. The maths adds up to out of the 1 million Australian’s who served in the war, 7 per-cent of them were women (Prezi, 2015). By 1939, many young girls found employment in domestic services and between wars in 1928 a law was passed which stated that any person over the age of 21 could vote; male and female. So during the War many different opinions were developed, the main achievement was that women helped the war effort by putting in their blood, sweat and

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To face this threat all Australian, ‘men, women and children, were urged to put their backs into the war effort,’ (Ww2australia.gov.au, 2014). One of the biggest changes women had to undergo was their new role in working industries, which had previously been male-dominate areas. School children tried to help as much as they could, collecting anything that could be recycled to use for the war effort, such as newspaper and old tires. It wasn’t long until the Australian government stepping, putting in various controls, such as the National Security Act. This act enabled the Australian Government to take over and control nearly everything.

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Women also faced, “severe shortages of food, clothing, and other goods, while inflation raised the price of everything they had to buy. Spare parts for farm equipment were hard to find,” (Senker). That never stopped these strong females. Without them, the community life during the war would have been in ruins. The whole town would have suffered if females didn’t step up when their male partners left for war.

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