Women in World War II England: Roles, Work, and Change
This paper examines the roles English women played during the Second World War, tracing their transition from domestic life into factories, volunteer organizations, and the armed forces. It discusses government resistance to women's participation, wage discrimination in the workplace, and the contributions of groups such as the Women's Voluntary Service, the Women's Land Army, the Auxiliary Territorial Service, and the Women's Auxiliary Air Force. The paper also addresses the personal and social consequences women faced when the war ended and they were pressured to abandon the freedoms and occupations they had gained. Taken together, these developments illustrate how wartime necessity permanently disrupted traditional gender roles in British society.
- Introduction: Women's Social Position Before the War: Pre-war gender norms and government resistance to women's roles
- Women Enter the Wartime Workforce: Women filling factory jobs vacated by enlisted men
- Wage Discrimination and Labor Resistance: Pay inequality and women's strike for fair wages
- The Women's Voluntary Service: Elderly and civilian women supporting the home front
- Women's Land Army and Military Enlistment: Rural food production and early military participation
- Women in the Army and Royal Air Force: ATS and WAAF roles including combat and aviation
- After the War: Freedom Gained and Lost: Postwar pressure to return to domestic life
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What makes this paper effective
- The paper uses a clear chronological and thematic structure, moving from pre-war gender norms through specific wartime organizations to postwar consequences, giving the reader a coherent narrative arc.
- It integrates direct quotations from named scholars and primary observers—such as D'ann Campbell's analysis of women in combat—to ground its claims in evidence rather than assertion alone.
- Concrete examples (pay strikes, searchlight units, women ferry pilots) keep abstract arguments about gender and social change grounded in specific historical events.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates the use of a framing argument: it opens with a broad claim about women's historical subservience, then uses each body section as evidence that wartime necessity temporarily—and then permanently—disrupted that structure. Each organizational unit discussed (WVS, WLA, ATS, WAAF) serves as a discrete piece of evidence supporting the central thesis rather than being treated as an isolated fact.
Structure breakdown
The introduction establishes the thesis about gender role disruption. Three middle sections cover civilian contributions (factories, WVS, WLA), and two sections cover military service (ATS, WAAF). A brief combat paragraph builds toward the conclusion, which addresses the postwar backlash women faced. The Works Cited section follows MLA formatting conventions. Total structure is approximately eight paragraphs across seven thematic sections.
Introduction: Women's Social Position Before the War
Throughout much of western history, women have been placed in positions of subservience and submission to men. For many women in England, the ultimate goal in life was to marry well and become a mother, carrying on the paternal name and bloodline. Women who were not born into advantageous circumstances were destined to lives of servitude compounded by this same marginalization. Whatever her social class, a woman was always considered lesser than her male counterpart. The only time these societal impositions on women's roles were seriously challenged was during a time of war.
Particularly during the Second World War, women were called upon to fill the positions vacated by their men. During that era, an estimated five million women in England fulfilled some role in assisting with the British war effort, either at home or abroad. Women of wartime England were tasked with taking up formerly masculine positions both in the workplace and within the home. This would lead to a permanent change in women's social position following the war, as women — now accustomed to a degree of freedom and autonomy — were told to return to their separate domestic spheres.
Initially, the British government did not want the nation's women getting involved in the war, either through enlistment or by working in factories. It was believed that women's place was in the home, and that any deviation from this position would lead directly to a breakdown of society as it was known. According to sources, the government also feared that "by having women in the workplace, home and family life would suffer, children would be neglected, homes would not be looked after and mealtimes would find nothing made for husbands in reserved occupations and family life would be a shambles." Eventually, it became evident that there would not be enough men to both fight the war and work in the factories. The only way to maintain enough recruits and enough materials to continue fighting was to enlist women in formerly masculine roles.
Women Enter the Wartime Workforce
Everyone is familiar with the iconic image of "Rosie the Riveter." This symbol represented the women who left their homes and their daily lives of wifehood and motherhood in order to become part of the workforce, performing jobs that would help the country win the war. By 1943, so many available men had gone into the military that women who were not enlisted were called upon to enter the factories. These positions were necessary because the factories produced everything the military required, including transportation vehicles, uniforms, and supplies. Some women who entered the factories had never worked outside the home before. They had to be taught how to navigate society without the psychological or financial support of a man (Hastings). The prevailing norm was for women to grow up, marry, and have children — that was considered the ultimate purpose of their existence. Many women went directly from their parents' house to their husband's house without having done a single day's work outside the home.
The wartime mobilization of women into industry represented a dramatic departure from everything British society had previously defined as appropriate female behavior. Women were not merely filling time while men were away; they were performing skilled labor essential to the survival of the nation.
Wage Discrimination and Labor Resistance
Even though these women were absolutely necessary to the war effort, they were still heavily underpaid as a result of the sexism inherent in the society. Women who were highly skilled at their jobs were traditionally paid less than their unskilled male counterparts. So great was the discrepancy in wages that one group of women went on strike. A compromise was eventually reached when factory owners agreed to pay the women the wages of unskilled male workers, even though the women were demonstrably more productive. This concession, though limited, represented a small but significant acknowledgment of women's contributions to industrial labor.
Works Cited
Campbell, D'ann. "Women in Combat: The World War Two Experience in the United States, Great Britain, Germany, and the Soviet Union." Journal of Military History. 57. 1993. 301–323. Print.
Hastings, Max. "Women Were Brutalized by World War II but for Millions it Meant Social and Sexual Freedom beyond Their Wildest Dreams." The Daily Mail. 13 Sept. 2011. Print.
Paxton, Robert O. Europe in the Twentieth Century. Boston, MA: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning, 2011. Print.
"Women in World War Two." History Learning Site. 2011. Web. Dec. 2011. http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/womenWW2.htm
"World War 2 The Home Front (The Changing Role of Women) WW2." Hub Pages. Web. 2011.
"WW2: The Role of Women in the Second World War." The Telegraph. 2009. Print.
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