Women’s participation in WWII is always acknowledged but rarely given the significance it deserves. While it is true that women were not holding guns on the front lines of the war, approximately 200,000 served in military support or combat nurse positions that put them in harm’s way. American women both home and abroad risked life and livelihood to support their men and more importantly their nation during World War II.
Women at Home
In many cases, “women at home” is a misnomer. While young wives across America were left to care not only for themselves but their children and aging parents too, they were also left to care for the country itself. Women, who for so long had been taught that their life’s work was as a mother and a housewife, stepped up and filled roles in every segment of society. In Hollywood, on the sports fields, and even in factories women were taking up traditional male roles.
While most people are familiar with the image of Rosie the Riveter, few consider what these role changes really meant for women of the 1930’s and 1940’s. The majority of these women had at best worked as secretaries, seamstresses, or school teachers. Some had never worked at all. And yet they put on their husband’s work shirts, rolled up their sleeves, and started doing manual labor.
Women Abroad
Even as the housewives joined the assembly lines back home in America, other women were moving toward the front lines of the battle in Europe. These women too were housewives, mothers, and in some cases even celebrities serving in the SSO.
Perhaps the most commonly recognized female contribution to the war is nurses. The Army Nurse Corps has received a lot of publicity; unfortunately much of it has been romanticized by the media. These women did not have time to do their makeup and flirt with soldiers. They were instead administering medication and dressing wounds in field hospitals situated in the midst of the battleground, on military trains, ships, and even on transport planes.
Meanwhile, other women served in military uniforms as members of The Women’s Army Corps (WAC). While these women received less benefits and recognition than their male counterparts, they never hesitated to give 100%. Initially the traditionalist male military leaders were reluctant to accept their female charges, and insisted on placing them in limited positions. Essentially, the first WAC members were glorified secretaries; filing, typing, and running errands for higher ranked officers.
As the war continued, not only the military but society as a whole began to accept that it needed American women in ways that transcended feminine ideals. Women’s roles in the war expanded until they were working in many of the most skilled and critical positions in the military. While women were still not allowed to command men, they were finally working side by side with them and earning their respect; not as subordinates, but as equals.
World War II changed the world in many ways, and not least of those was the evolution of American women. Now women had been both caretakers and breadwinners, nurses and soldiers, and while taking on both roles was no doubt a burden, it also proved liberating. It should be no surprise that the daughters of these women would later lead the feminist movement of the 1960’s and 1970’s.
Alana Morgaine
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