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By Elise Weightman, Visitor Services Assistant, Anzac Square Memorial Galleries, Visitor & Information Services |
During World War II (WWII), Australia faced a dilemma: Many women were eager to do their bit and contribute their skills to the “war effort”, but there was still widespread resistance to the notion of a woman doing a “man’s job” – surely they could not handle the physical or mental exertion and maintain their “femininity”? Meanwhile, many able-bodied men were refused enlistment to the armed forces because their occupations were considered essential to civil defence or other critical services and industries. As the war progressed and came closer to Australia’s shores, this need for more “manpower” grew even more pressing. Eventually it was conceded that women’s services would be required, though one question was still perplexing some: what exactly could women do?
Queensland Country Life, 21 May 1942, p.5.
“What Land Work Can Women Really Do?” in Queensland Country Life, 21 May 1942, p.5.
When WWII began, the only women’s unit in the Australian Army was the Australian Army Nursing Service. Within three years, women would grow their skills to meet wartime demands and register themselves for enlistment into several more auxiliary service units and dozens of voluntary groups and legions. By 1942, women’s units had been formed across all arms of the defence forces: the Women’s Australian Auxiliary Air Force (WAAAF), the Women’s Royal Australian Naval Service (WRANS), the Australian Women’s Army Service (AWAS) and the Australian Army Medical Women’s Service (AAMWS). By the end of the war, 50,000 Australian women had served in these units, with women employed in over 70 different occupations in the WAAAF alone.
Aviation basics for the Australian Women's Corps, October 1941
Aviation basics for the Australian Women's Corps, October 1941.
John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, Negative 102813.
Women's Auxiliary Transport Corps with salvage metal, 1942
Women's Auxiliary Transport Corps with salvage metal, 1942.
John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, Negative 202644.
The Australian Women’s Land Army (AWLA), which saw women taking up essential roles on farms and in land management, was another key unit, though it was not officially included as an army service unit. (To learn more, read this blog about the AWLA).
Other civilian occupations were also taken up, energetically. Almost a third of women of working age would participate in paid work during WWII, many in roles unavailable to them before the war. Valuable duties were also performed by women volunteers, often without any government funds or other subsidies for their work, let alone for them; some women who were keen and who could afford the expense bought their own uniforms and paid for their own equipment and costs. Whether remunerated at the rate of a man (women tram conductors achieved this milestone), or at the typical rate of half or two thirds that of a man, or not paid at all, many of these women proudly demonstrated they were more than capable of doing the job that was needed.
New tram conductor recruit in training, Brisbane, 1942
New tram conductor recruit (Mrs J. Burgess, left) in training, Brisbane, 1942.
John Oxley Library,State Library of Queensland, Negative No. 201036.
Postwomen with their mail bags and bundles of mail, Brisbane February 1943
Postwomen with their mail bags and bundles of mail, Brisbane February 1943.
John Oxley Library,State Library of Queensland, Negative No. 161590.
One woman who took up the challenge of a “man’s job” was Mary Emma Martin (nee Jackson). Before the war, Emma’s husband Bob was an ice vendor, delivering blocks of ice to Brisbane’s inner-northern suburbs, in the days before refrigerators when everyone relied on an icebox in their home to keep foodstuffs from perishing. Ice delivery was such an essential service that at first ice vendors were excused from military service; it was still quite a novel idea to think a woman could handle the job. However, when Bob Martin and other men enlisted for service, Emma took on the role, along with an estimated 50 other women ice vendors in Brisbane alone (including Emma’s sisters Hannah and Amy shown in the last picture below). Amid wartime crisis, these women literally kept cool and carried on!
Women selling ice in the suburbs, Brisbane, 1942
Women selling ice in the suburbs (L-R Mrs T. Quinn, Mrs R. Martin and Miss Margaret Briscoe), Brisbane, 1942.
John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, Negative No. 22136.
“They Deliver Ice”, in The Telegraph, 29 Jan 1944, p.4.
“They Deliver Ice”, in The Telegraph (Brisbane), 29 Jan 1944, p.4.
For women more comfortable with “traditional” women’s roles, there were other opportunities to work in hospitality or with fundraising and patriotic groups. Carrying on a proud tradition, women from the “Comfort Funds” knitted their way through the war, making socks, scarves and mittens, and gathering other items to package and send to the troops. Established service groups such as The Red Cross also enlisted women in new roles, including as part of the Voluntary Aid Detachment where they worked as medical orderlies.
Women collecting for the Freedom Fund, Brisbane, ca. 1943
Women collecting for the Freedom Fund, Brisbane, ca. 1943.
John Oxley Library,State Library of Queensland, Negative No. 161594.
Voluntary Aid Detachment members in training, Brisbane, ca. 1942.
Voluntary Aid Detachment members in training, Brisbane, ca. 1942.
John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, Negative No. 4988.
Enterprising women also formed and operated their own associations, such as the The Silver Hut Free Canteen, which was installed near Anzac Square in Brisbane and provided free refreshments to service personnel, seven days a week, from morning until evening, from May 1941 until the end of the war, staffed entirely by women volunteers.
Soldiers enjoying a cup of tea at the Silver Hut, Brisbane, ca. 1942
Soldiers enjoying a cup of tea at the Silver Hut, Brisbane, ca. 1942.
John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, Negative No. 195041.
After the war, many women would find themselves relegated to the home once again, as men returned to civilian life, and society returned to a new version of the old status quo. However, the example these women set during WWII ignited a confidence in their own and subsequent generations of women that perhaps they could and would like to do more, and that, more shockingly, perhaps they even deserved to be paid equally for their efforts!
It would be a few more decades after the end of WWII, and would require the efforts of many more generations of progressive women and like-minded men, before Australian women would achieve equal pay entitlements and their employment rights would be enshrined in legislation like the Sex Discrimination Act. Even today, equal pay and women’s rights remain topical issues. But for all the battles yet to be fought, it is undeniable that the ingenuity, guts and resilience demonstrated by women during WWII impacted the course of history for the millions of Australians that followed in their footsteps.
Over 77 years since theend of WWII, we salute those women and thank them for the service they did for the nation, then and now. When asked, “what can a woman do?” they answered, not by doing a “man’s job” but by doing their jobs and doing them as only they could.
Ex-servicewomen marching at the Brisbane Exhibition Grounds, 17 March 1954
Ex-servicewomen marching at the Brisbane Exhibition Grounds, 17 March 1954.
John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, Image No. 4793-0004-0002.
Australian Women's Land Army (5)
Second World War (53)
War (16)
Employment of women (2)
World War 2 (27)
Anzac Square Memorial Galleries (42)
Women at Work (1)
Women in Service (4)
Women in Defence Forces (1)
More information
Anzac Square Memorial Galleries - https://www.anzacsquare.qld.gov.au
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FAQs
What did Australian women do during World war 2? ›
During the Second World War, many Australian women joined the workforce, filling essential industry positions left vacant by men who had gone overseas to fight. In doing so, they performed duties that were usually considered part of the male domain, including farming, building and manufacturing.
What did women do in the workforce during ww2? ›Women labored in construction, drove trucks, cut lumber and worked on farms. They worked in factories, building munitions, planes, trains and ships.
How Australian women contributed to the war effort and how it affected their lives? ›Women in Australia helped the war effort through charitable work such as fund-raising, knitting or sending food to the troops. Some Australian women travelled overseas to work as ambulance drivers and chauffeurs.
What happened to women in the workplace after ww2? ›After the war, most women returned home, let go from their jobs. Their jobs, again, belonged to men. However, there were lasting effects. Women had proven that they could do the job and within a few decades, women in the workforce became a common sight.
How life changed for women in Australia in WWII? ›In all, 200,000 women joined the workforce during the Second World War, forever transforming the role of women in society. Female workforce participation increased 31 per cent between 1939 and 1943 as women took up positions in munitions, textile and clothing factories.
What did women do in ww2 facts? ›From 1941, women were called up for war work, in roles such as as mechanics, engineers, munitions workers, air raid wardens, bus and fire engine drivers.
How did women feel about working during ww2? ›During the Second World War, women proved that they could do "men's" work, and do it well. With men away to serve in the military and demands for war material increasing, manufacturing jobs opened up to women and upped their earning power. Yet women's employment was only encouraged as long as the war was on.
What were working women during ww2 called? ›Its members, known as WACs, worked in more than 200 non-combatant jobs stateside and in every theater of the war. By 1945, there were more than 100,000 WACs and 6,000 female officers.
What were three jobs that women often held? ›They did the cooking, cleaning, sewing, and child rearing. They helped with the crops and animals. As better-paying opportunities in towns and cities became available, more women began working outside the home. By 1900, one in five American women held jobs; 25 percent of them worked in manufacturing.
What were 3 contributions of women during the war? ›Women in the war
They worked as nurses, drove trucks, repaired airplanes, and performed clerical work. Some were killed in combat or captured as prisoners of war. Over sixteen hundred female nurses received various decorations for courage under fire.
How did women's role change after World war 2 Australia? ›
they fought for and achieved improved education, representation in parliament and anti- discrimination legislation. they took control of their own lives. Some symbolically burned their bras to express their liberation.
How did women's rights change after ww2 in Australia? ›World War II was important for Australian women because it set off some long-term changes. In the following decades, women gained greater access to the paid workforce and won the legal right to equal pay for work of equal value.
How were women treated after WWII? ›Women's roles continued to expand in the postwar era.
Women who remained in the workplace were usually demoted. But after their selfless efforts during World War II, men could no longer claim superiority over women. Women had enjoyed and even thrived on a taste of financial and personal freedom—and many wanted more.
After the war, women were still employed as secretaries, waitresses, or in other clerical jobs, what we often call the "pink collar" work force. Those jobs were not as well paid, and they were not as enjoyable or challenging, but women did take those jobs because they either wanted or needed to keep working.
What impact did the war have on women in Australia? ›Loss and mourning. The death toll from the war left many women to mourn sons, brothers, husbands, fiancés, friends and community members. Other women welcomed male family members home, only to find the men who returned were not necessarily the same men -- physically and mentally -- who had gone to war.
What rights did Australian women not have? ›150 years ago in Australia women had no political voice, few protections from poverty or harm and Indigenous women had no rights at all.
What was life like for women during ww2? ›While the most famous image of female patriotism during World War II is Rosie the Riveter, women were involved in other aspects of the war effort outside of factories. More than six million women took wartime jobs in factories, three million volunteered with the Red Cross, and over 200,000 served in the military.
How did women change during ww2? ›Most women labored in the clerical and service sectors where women had worked for decades, but the wartime economy created job opportunities for women in heavy industry and wartime production plants that had traditionally belonged to men.
What roles did women play in the war effort? ›With millions of men away from home, women filled manufacturing and agricultural positions on the home front. Others provided support on the front lines as nurses, doctors, ambulance drivers, translators and, in rare cases, on the battlefield.
What jobs did women have in the 1940s? ›They broke gender stereotypes at the time and filled many paid jobs that previously had been held by men – such as a bank teller, shoe salesperson or aircraft mechanic. It's hard to believe but some of your grandmothers actually made bomber planes!
What is the most popular female job? ›
| Occupation | Number of women |
|---|---|
| Cooks | 497,042 |
| Teaching assistants | 492,318 |
| Social workers, all other | 484,979 |
| Waiters and waitresses | 482,214 |
| Occupation | % of women in these jobs | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dental practitioners | 55.6% |
| 2 | Cleaners and domestics | 76.8% |
| 3 | Financial accounts managers | 58.6% |
| 4 | Sales and retail assistants | 63.6% |
Noun. A warrior of the female variety. female warrior. warrioress.
What difficulties did women and minorities face in the wartime work force? ›What difficulties did women and minorities face in the wartime work force? Women and minorities faced discrimination. Some defense plants refused to hire blacks. Women were not paid as much as men.
How were women's lives changed during the war? ›When America entered the Great War, the number of women in the workforce increased. Their employment opportunities expanded beyond traditional women's professions, such as teaching and domestic work, and women were now employed in clerical positions, sales, and garment and textile factories.
Did women fight in ww2 Australia? ›When WWII began, the only women's unit in the Australian Army was the Australian Army Nursing Service. Within three years, women would grow their skills to meet wartime demands and register themselves for enlistment into several more auxiliary service units and dozens of voluntary groups and legions.
What were the roles of females during the war? ›With millions of men away from home, women filled manufacturing and agricultural positions on the home front. Others provided support on the front lines as nurses, doctors, ambulance drivers, translators and, in rare cases, on the battlefield.
What did Australian women do on the homefront? ›The home front
Women invested a lot of emotional labour in the war effort by caring for the troops and sending comforts to the war front. They knitted vests, mufflers, mittens and socks; packed parcels; wrote letters; and became involved in fundraising for armaments and ambulances.
350,000 women served in the armed forces during World War II. After the war, many women were fired from factory jobs. Nevertheless, within a few years, about a third of women older than 14 worked outside the home.
Did women physically fight in ww2? ›Each service branch eventually opened to women, and by the end of the war, over 350,000 women wore American service uniforms. Though they did not serve in combat roles, 432 women were killed and 88 taken prisoner.
Did women have rights in ww2? ›
Women who remained in the workplace were usually demoted. But after their selfless efforts during World War II, men could no longer claim superiority over women. Women had enjoyed and even thrived on a taste of financial and personal freedom—and many wanted more.
How did women help on the homefront during ww2? ›As the men fought abroad, women on the Home Front worked in defense plants and volunteered for war-related organizations, in addition to managing their households. In New Orleans, as the demand for public transportation grew, women even became streetcar “conductorettes” for the first time.
How were women treated in Australia? ›150 years ago in Australia women had no political voice, few protections from poverty or harm and Indigenous women had no rights at all. We've come a long way since then, but there's still important work to be done. Trace the history of women's rights in Australia and the issues still lagging behind.
How did women's role change during World war 2 essay? ›World War II led many women to take jobs in defense plants and factories around the country. “These jobs provided unprecedented circumstances to move into occupations previously thought of as exclusive to men, especially the aircraft industry, where a majority of workers were women by 1943” .