FACTSHEETS

WOMEN IN THE SERVICES

In the lead up to World War II, many of the women’s organisations that had been shut down after the end of World War I were started again. These included:

The WRNS

The Women’s Royal Naval Service was restarted in April 1939 and women eventually formed part of every naval unit, both at home and overseas. A few were employed in secret naval communications and solving the codes for secret messages. By 1941, 72,000 women had joined.

The ATS

The Auxiliary Territorial Service was reformed in 1938 and by 1945, over 190,000 women were involved. They drove and fixed vehicles and manned anti-aircraft guns. The Queen was a member of this service.

The WAAF

The Women’s Auxiliary Air Force was formed in June 1939 and many people worked in the top secret Radio Direction Finding (RADAR) stations, which helped win the Battle of Britain. By the end of the war, in 1945, there were 153,000 women in this service.

In total, more that 500,000 women joined the uniformed services. From 1941, women, as well as men, were conscripted. Because more and more men were called to serve in the armed forces, there were not enough to keep factories running or farms producing food. Women had to take over jobs traditionally done by men.

They worked in factories producing aircrafts, ammunition, weapons and parachutes as well as other goods needed for the war effort. Long hours were worked and women could earn as much as 40 shillings (£2.15), which was quite a lot in 1940 but not as much as a man could earn for doing the same job. In 1943, women at the Rolls Royce factory in Glasgow went on strike as unskilled men were paid more than skilled women.

The Women’s Land Army (Scottish Land Army, in Scotland) was reformed in July 1939 and women who joined were sent to live on farms. They were paid 32 shillings a week (£1.60). By August 1940, only 7,000 women had joined, but, with the food shortages caused by Hitler’s U-Boats, a huge recruitment drive took place.

Adverts showed the WLA as glamorous, but in reality, the work was long and hard, with women working in isolated communities, often without any running water, electricity or gas. The adverts didn’t work very well and, in 1943, there was still a shortage of women on the land so the government stopped women joining the armed services. By this date though, 90% of single women and 80% of married women were employed in the war effort. Before the war, only 5 million women were employed: during the war, women made up a third of the total workforce in the metal and chemical industries, as well as working in industries such as shipbuilding and vehicle manufacture.

In 2005, a monument was erected to commemorate the contribution women made to the war effort. It is placed next to the nation’s most important war memorial, the Cenotaph, in London’s Whitehall. The man who campaigned to get this erected was Major David Robertson. He says:

“Women were magnificent during the war. They were truly a breed apart. They were the generation who gave, and I feel tremendous humility when I think of what they achieved in an age when women were, shamefully, considered second class citizens.”