Women in World War II
This led to bureaucratic issues that would be solved most easily by absorbing the civilian corps governed by military organizations, into women's divisions as soldiers.
[7] Women had numerous reasons for wanting to join the effort; whether they had a father, husband, or brother in the forces, or simply felt it a duty to help.
[7] Women had to undergo to medical examinations and meet fitness requirements as well as training in certain trades, depending on the aspect of the armed forces of which they wanted to be a part.
"An Alberta mother of nine boys, all away at either war or factory jobs – drove the tractor, plowed the fields, put up hay, and hauled grain to the elevators, along with tending her garden, raising chickens, pigs, and turkeys, and canned hundreds of jars of fruits and vegetables".
On a much larger scale, non-military auxiliaries of the Catholic Centro Italiano Femminile (CIF) and the leftist Unione Donne Italiane [it] (UDI) were new organizations that gave women political legitimacy after the war.
Their most important role was as couriers carrying messages between cells of the resistance movement and distributing news broadsheets and operating clandestine printing presses.
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 female prisoners-of-war.
Stefania Wilczyńska cooperated with Janusz Korczak working in a Jewish orphanage in Warsaw Ghetto, they were murdered in Treblinka extermination camp.
[19] 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.
[24] The roles of women shifting from domestic to male-dominated and dangerous jobs in the workforce made for important changes in workplace structure and society.
[25] Britain underwent a labour shortage where an estimated 1.5 million people were needed for the armed forces, and an additional 775,000 for munitions and other services in 1942.
In this propaganda film a wealthy factory owner's daughter begs to do her part in the war, but her father carries the stereotypical belief that women are meant to be caretakers and are incapable of such heavy work.
[28] Single or married women were eligible to volunteer in WAAF, ATS or WRNS and were required to serve throughout Britain as well as overseas if needed, however the age limits set by the services varied from each other.
[28] After applying, applicants had to fulfill other requirements, including an interview and medical examination; if they were deemed fit to serve then they were enrolled for the duration of the war.
[28] Women, for the first time, were given the opportunity to help in their native land's defense, which explains the high number of female volunteers at the beginning of the war.
[28] By 1941 the demands of the wartime industry called for women's services to be expanded so that more men could be relieved of their previous positions and take on more active roles on the battle field.
[28] Married women were exempt from conscription, but those who were eligible had the option to work in war industry or civil defense if they did not want to join one of the services.
[28] Women also played an important role in British industrial production during the war, in areas such as metals, chemicals, munitions, shipbuilding and engineering.
However the gap between male and female earnings narrowed by 20–24% in metals, engineering and vehicle building and by 10–13% in chemicals, which were all deemed important to the war effort.
Mahatma Gandhi opposed fascism and on his advice youths from India joined the armed forces to fight with Britain alongside her allies.
Bose spent a good deal of effort on developing a nationalist ideology designed to mobilize models of women as mothers and sisters in the Indian tradition.
It stressed its dedication to women's rights and gender equality and used the imagery of traditional folklore heroines to attract and legitimize the partizanka.
The low status of female peasants in areas of Yugoslavia where Chetniks were strongest could have been utilized and advantageous in military, political, and psychological terms.
Their organization was called Lotta Svärd, named after the poem, where voluntary women took part in auxiliary work of the armed forces to help those fighting on the front.
When the German economy was mobilized for war it paradoxically led to a drop in female work participation, reaching a low of 41% before gradually climbing back to over 50% again.
However, in terms of women employed in war work, British and German female participation rates were nearly equal by 1944, with the United States still lagging.
Red Cross nurses served widely within the military medical services, staffing the hospitals that perforce were close to the front lines and at risk of bombing attacks.
[69] Mussolini's Italian Social Republic, a puppet state of Nazi Germany, gave their women roles as "birthing machines" and as combatants in paramilitary units and police formations (Servizio Ausiliario Femminile).
Stations were located in Japan, China, the Philippines, Indonesia, then Malaya, Thailand, Burma, New Guinea, Hong Kong, Macau, and French Indochina.
Inspired by the Finnish Lotta Svärd, the Ministry of the Air set up a specialized air ambulance unit called the 108th Medevac Light Transport Squadron, better known as the White Squadron (Escadrila Albă), which included mostly female pilots and included Mariana Drăgescu, Nadia Russo, Virginia Thomas, and Marina Știrbei.
