ABSTRACT

Britain mobilized its women more efficiently and effectively than any of the other war combatants. Half a million women volunteered or were conscripted into the armed forces and a million more were mobilized as war-workers. By 1944 seven-and-a-half million women were working outside the home. ‘A people’s war meant to a large extent a women’s war.’3 The number of women on the battlefront was tiny, but the blitz ensured that those on the home front saw plenty of action. In the first three years of the war more civilians than soldiers were killed. During the First World War women had taken a great step forward towards equality only to be pushed back once the men returned from the trenches. They had the vote but high unemployment ensured that for all but a small minority their place in society was confined to the home. The Second World War produced a less ephemeral transformation.