Rodarte 1

Manuel Rodarte
Mr. Thomas
English II, Period 4
29 January 2014
During the twentieth century, womens roles in the world wars became indispensable. In
the First World War, women began to be needed for any services they could offer. In the Second
World War, the need for women arose again. Whether it was on the home front or the front-lines,
the World Wars started a new era for womens opportunities to contribute in war and be
recognized for efforts outside of the home. Without women helping out during the war, the Allies
would not have been able to defeat the Axis.
Before the First World War, the traditional female role in western countries was limited to
domestic work, though not always to their own home, and to certain available jobs. For example,
in Great Britain, before World War I, of around the 24 million adult women, about 1.7 million
of them worked in domestic services, 800,000 worked in the textile manufacturing industry,
600,000 worked in the clothing trades, 500,000 worked in commerce, and 260,000 worked in
local and national government, including teaching. The British textile and clothing trades, in
particular, employed far more women than men and were regarded as 'women's work'.
(roleofwomeninww1).
In Canada, over 2,800 women served with the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps
during the First World War and it was during that era that the role of Canadian women in the
military first extended beyond nursing. Women were given training in small arms, drill, first aid
and vehicle maintenance in case they were needed as home guards.
World War II involved global conflict on an unprecedented scale; the urgency of

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mobilizing the entire population made the expansion of the role of women an inevitable
occurrence. In the United States, the hard working woman was represented by Rosie the Riveter,
a woman factory laborer performing what was previously considered men's work. They [the
government] promoted the fictional character of Rosie the Riveter as the ideal worker: loyal,
efficient, patriotic, and pretty. Rosie was a success and managed to convince many more
women to join the war efforts.
With this expanded horizon of opportunity and confidence, women's roles in World War
II were even more extensive than in World War I. By 1945, more than 2.2 million women were
working in the war industries, building ships, aircraft, vehicles, and weaponry. Women also
worked in factories, munitions plants and farms, and entered professional areas of work that were
previously the preserve of men. In the Allied countries, thousands of women enlisted as nurses
served on the front lines. Many also gave their time to work for the Red Cross. Thousands of
others joined defensive militias at home and there was a great increase in the number of women
serving in the military itself, particularly in the Red Army.
In the World War Two era, approximately 400,000 U.S. women served with the armed
forces and more than 460, though some sources say the number is closer to 543, lost their lives as
a result of the war, including 16 from enemy fire. Women became officially recognized as a
permanent part of the armed forces with the passing of the Women's Armed Services Integration
Act of 1948.
Many women served in the resistances of France, Italy, and Poland, and in the British
SOE which aided these.
When Britain went to war, a previously forbidden job opportunity opened up for women.
Women were called into the factories to create the weapons that were used on the battlefield.

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Women took on responsibility of both managing the home and became the heroines of the home
front. According to Carruthers, this industrial employment of women significantly raised
womens self-esteem as it allowed them to carry out their full potential and do their part in the
war. During the war, womens normative roles of housewife transformed into a patriotic duty.
British Womens Propaganda was issued during the war in attempts to communicate to
the housewife that while keeping the domestic role, she must also take on a political role of
patriotic duty. Propaganda was meant to eliminate all conflicts of personal and political roles and
create a heroine out of the women. The problem with propaganda would be that it asked women
to redefine their personal and domestic ideals of womanhood and motivate them go against the
roles that had been instilled in them since birth. Despite being limited in their roles, there was a
great amount of respect between the men and women in the mixed batteries.
When war began to look unavoidable in the late 1930s, Canadian women felt obligated to
help the fight. In October of 1938, the Womens Volunteer Service was established in Victoria,
BC. Soon, all the provinces and territories followed suit and similar volunteer groups were
emerged. Husbands, brothers, fathers, boyfriends were all joining up, doing something to help
win the war. Surely women could help as well! As the war progressed the military leaders began
to see the substantial impact the women could make. In many cases the women had
outperformed their male counterparts. This was taken into account and the women received a
raise to four-fifths of the wages of a man. Though this was still far less than what men would
have made, it was still considered a triumph and was accepted. One main reason women decided
to go to war was because patriotism. There is no doubt in my mind that patriotism was my
main motive for joining the army, one CWAC recalled, I had already been working in a
munitions plant, but I decided that wasnt enough. (canadianwomensarmycorp)

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Once women decided to join the forces, they went through an invigorating training. Once
in training, some women felt that they had made a mistake. Several women cracked under the
pressure and were hospitalized. Other women felt the need to escape, and simply ran away. The
easiest and fastest ticket home, though, was pregnancy. Women who found out that they were
expecting were given a special, quickly executed, discharge.
In occupied Poland, as elsewhere, women played a major role in the resistance
movement, putting them in the front line. Their most important role was as couriers carrying
messages between cells of the resistance movement and distributing news broadsheets and
operating clandestine printing presses. During partisan attacks on Nazi forces and installations
they served as scouts.
During the Warsaw Rising of 1944, female members of the Home Army were couriers
and medics, but many carried weapons and took part in the fighting. Among the more notable
women of the Home Army was Wanda Gertz who created and commanded DYSK . For her
bravery in these activities and later in the Warsaw Uprising she was awarded Poland's highest
awards - Virtuti Militari and Polonia Restituta. One of the articles of the capitulation was that the
German Army recognized them as full members of the armed forces and needed to set up
separate Prisoner-of-war camps to hold over 2000 women prisoners-of-war.
The Soviet Union mobilized women at an early stage of the war, integrating them into the
main army units, and not using the "auxiliary" status. Some 800,000 women served, most of
whom were in front-line duty units. About 300,000 served in anti-aircraft units and performed all
functions in the batteriesincluding firing the guns. A small number were combat flyers in the
Air Force.
The Marine Corps created the Marine Corps Women's Reserve in 1943. That year, the

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first female officer of the United States Marine Corps was commissioned; the first detachment of
female marines was sent to Hawaii for duty in 1945. The first director of the Marine Corps
Women's Reserve was Mrs. Ruth Cheney Streeter. Captain Anne Lentz was its first
commissioned officer and Private Lucille McClarren its first enlisted woman; both joined in
1943. Marine women served stateside as clerks, cooks, mechanics, drivers, and in a variety of
other positions. According to the Armed Forces Museum website by the end of World War II,
85% of the enlisted personnel assigned to Headquarters U.S. Marine Corps were women.
Of course, throughout this whole process, there were many people who opposed to the
idea and action of women joining any kind of military service. As time passed, most of these
military men found out they were wrong in their interpretations of women forces. Commanders
who had once stated that they would accept women over my dead body soon welcomed them
and asked for more. General Eisenhower told Congress after the war, that when the formation of
women's units was first proposed, I was violently against it. Then he added, Every phase of
the record they compiled during the war convinced me of the error of my first reaction.
Eisenhower went on to fight for a permanent place for women in the US Armed Forces. (women
in us military)
Throughout the war, many people arose and became great heroes of their nations. Many
people forget that many of our nations heroes were of the female gender. With militaries opening
their minds during the Second World War, more military branches opened up for women. These
branches allowed many women to serve in militaries and help the male soldiers during World
War II. Without the help of all the women in World War II, it might be possible that the Allies
would not have succeeded in their victory over the Axis.

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"We Can Do It!" Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 31 Jan. 2014. Web.

Rosie the Riveter was one of the most famous Propagandas to be used during the Second World
War. Rosie represented everything that women should be when helping out the war: loyal,
efficient, patriotic, and pretty. Because of this poster, the rate for which women signed up for
helping out and joining the army rose significantly.

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Works Cited
"How Life Changed - The Role of Women in World War 1." The Role of Women in World War
1. N.p., n.d. Web.

"The Canadian Womens Army Corps, 1941-1946." Canadian War Museum. N.p., n.d. Web.

"Women in the US Military - World War II." Women in the US Military - World War II. N.p., n.d.
Web.

"WOMEN IN WWII AT A GLANCE:." The National WWII Museum. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Feb.
2014.