Women in World War II US & Canada

The United States

Women on the Home Front

Women in the Workforce

Employment in Factories Work force increased 60% (Women) 1/3 of paying jobs in 1945 More likely to be married and older than in the past Besides those in uniform, over 2,300,000 of our women have gone into war industries; 1,900,000 of them are doing regular factory work.

Rosie the Riveter! Replace males in the military Jobs categorized by gender & race Patronized women in industry Taking on heavy jobs considered “man’s jobs” Joined Unions Helped to erode prejustice

Civil Service

Recruitment campaigns directed at women played upon their patriotism. The messages appealed to their domestic and nurturing roles. Self-sacrifice was required to bring their loved ones home safely and to preserve the way of life they cherished. The temporary nature of this required shift in roles was stressed.

The number of women in civil-service jobs jumped from fewer than 200,000 in 1939 to more than 1 million in 1944, a 540 percent increase. Their share of federal positions increased from 18.8 to 37.6 percent. Although clerical work continued to be the typical female job, by 1943, women were being hired as mechanics and press, crane, and tractor operators as well as in professional classifications usually filled by men the percentage of all wives who worked outside the home grew from 13.9 in 1940 to 22.5 in 1944.

Government Girls Bureaucracy expansion=need for workers Flood of workers-Washington DC! Clerks, typists, secretaries aka “govt girls” Distinctively female communities

New Problems with Women Working Scarcity of child care “latchkey children” Eight-hour orphans Locked in cars at factories Increased rate of marriage Lower the age of marriage Divorce rate soared “baby boom”

Women in the Armed Forces

The Women's Army Corps in World War II  Over 150,000 American women served in the Women's Army Corps (WAC) during World War II.  Members of the WAC were the first women other than nurses to serve within the ranks of the United States Army.  Both the Army and the American public initially had difficulty accepting the concept of women in uniform.

 However, political and military leaders, faced with fighting a two-front war and supplying men and materiel for that war while continuing to send lend-lease material to the Allies, realized that women could supply the additional resources so desperately needed in the military and industrial sectors.  By the end of the war their contributions would be widely heralded.

The Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) was established to work with the Army, "for the purpose of making available to the national defense the knowledge, skill, and special training of the women of the nation." The Army would provide up to 150,000 "auxiliaries" with food, uniforms, living quarters, pay, and medical care. Women officers would not be allowed to command men. Applicants had to be U.S. citizens between the ages of 21 and 45 with no dependents, be at least five feet tall, and weigh 100 pounds or more. Over 35,000 women from all over the country applied for less than 1,000 anticipated positions.

The first auxiliary units and their officers to reach the field went to Aircraft Warning Service (AWS) units. The U.S. Army Air Forces could not rely on volunteer civilians to man stations twenty-four hours a day. WAACs manned "filter boards," plotting and tracing the paths of every aircraft in the station area. Some filter boards had as many as twenty positions, each one filled with a WAAC wearing headphones and enduring endless boredom while waiting for the rare telephone calls reporting aircraft sightings.

Where they served…. Later graduates were formed into companies and sent to Army Air Forces (AAF), Army Ground Forces (AGF), or Services of Supply (renamed Army Service Forces [ASF] in 1943) field installations. Initially most auxiliaries worked as file clerks, typists, stenographers, or motor pool drivers, but gradually each service discovered an increasing number of positions WAACs were capable of filling. A few AAF WAACs were assigned flying duties. Two WAAC radio operators assigned to Mitchel Field, New York, flew as crew members on B-17 training flights. WAAC mechanics and photographers also made regular flights.

WAACs assigned to the Corps of Engineers participated in the Manhattan Project. Women's Army Corps members served worldwide-in North Africa, the Mediterranean, Europe, the Southwest Pacific, China, India, Burma, and the Middle East. Overseas assignments were highly coveted, even though the vast majority consisted of the clerical and communications jobs at which women were believed to be most efficient. Only the most highly qualified women received overseas assignments.

Nurses Six months after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, there were 12,000 nurses on duty in the Army Nurse Corps. Few of them had previous military experience, and the majority reported for duty ignorant of Army methods and protocol.

From July 1943 through September 1945 approximately 27,330 newly inducted nurses graduated from fifteen Army training centers. At home, many women have become nurses in civilian hospitals. With so many of our regular nurses at the far corners of the earth, these women have a heavy load to carry: they are just as much a part of the war effort as though they were actually at the front.

In the Navy…. While traditionally female secretarial and clerical jobs took an expected large portion, thousands of WAVES performed previously atypical duties in the aviation community, Judge Advocate General Corps, medical professions, communications, intelligence, science and technology. The wartime Navy's demand for them was intense as it struggled to defeat Hitler and Mussolini in Europe and the Japanese in the Pacific. At the end of the conflict, there were well over 8,000 female officers and some ten times that many enlisted WAVES, about 2 ½ % of the Navy's total strength. In some places WAVES constituted a majority of the uniformed Naval personnel. And many remained in uniform to help get the Navy into, and through, the post-war era

OH Canada!!

Women on the Home Front Industry

With World War II came the dire need for employees in the workplace, without women to step in the economy would have collapsed. By autumn 1944 the number of women working full-time in Canada’s paid labour force was twice what it had been in 1939, and that figure of between 1,000,000 and 1,200,000 did not include part-time workers or women working on farms.” Women had to take on this intensive labour and while they did this they still had to find time to make jams, clothes and other such acts of volunteering to aid the men overseas.

“Bren Gun Girl” Some of the newly-working women felt that equality had been reached during WWII, “when Canadian girls left desks and kitchens, elevators and switchboards,” and “stepped into overalls and took their places in the lines of workers at lathes and drills, cranes and power machines, tables and benches in the munition plants of Canada.” It was a fresh, exciting time for women of all ages.

Attracting rural & small towns.. Attractive wages, especially in War Factories Amended income tax laws Unmarried & married without Children to begin…child care was a problem!

But similar to today’s wage gaps, women were paid less than men for doing the exact same work. Some women accepted it, others vocally objected without much success. According to author Jean Bruce, the employers argued that women did not have “the same family responsibilities as a man” and therefore did not require the same pay. It did not matter if they were as good as, or better than, men on the jobs.

“Jill Canucks” Women in the Armed Forces!

1941: For the first time in Canadian history the call goes out for women to enlist in women's divisions of the Army, Navy and Air Force. Recruiting films make training bases look like holiday camps and highlight the newfound glamour of a woman in uniform. By the thousands women answer the call. They leave behind roles as homemakers or department store clerks to become "Wrens," "CWACs" and "WDs."

In July, 1941, the Women's Division of the RCAF (Royal Canadian Air Force) was authorized by the government. Thousands of young women flocked to the recruiting offices to enlist. By 1945, 17,000 Women were in the Canadian Armed Forces.

In August 1945, the Canadian Women's Army Corp was established. Training bases were established in Kitchener, Ontario; St Anne de Bellevue, Quebec; and Vermilion, Alberta. 21,000 served in the Canadian Women's Army Corp (CWACs.) The Women's Royal Canadian Naval Services (WRENs) began recruiting in This division grew more slowly, but all women who served wanted to be part of the "real" war.

In the military…. Duties proper to their gender Subordinate to men of same rank Commanded only other women Release men to fight overseas English-speaking only Moral superiority 50,000

one in nine served overseas Women were not allowed in combat during the war, but they did contribute an enormous amount to the war effort. Job descriptions included nursing sister, clerical worker, welder, pilot, and munitions inspector. Today, Canadian women serve their country in just about every way that men do, including on the front lines.

Canadian Nurses… the nursing service was expanded to all three branches of the military: navy, army and air force With the average age of 25, by war's end 4,480 Nursing Sisters had enlisted, including: 3,656 with the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps, 481 with the Royal Canadian Air Force Medical Branch, and 343 with the Royal Canadian Naval Medical Service

The army sisters, after training in Canada, were the first to go overseas, where they joined units which had preceded them to the United Kingdom After three years in England, Nursing Sisters were sent into action on the continent—first women in Sicily With the end of the war in Europe, the medical units gradually disbanded. Some of the Nursing Sisters as well as other personnel stayed on with the Army of Occupation to care for both military and civilian prisoners of war being released from the horrors of the camps