Women's Role In Ww2 Analysis

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Usually when the topic of war is mentioned, images of brave men in khaki uniforms, poised with guns and ready for anything. Additionally, when wars are covered in history the curriculum tends to place emphasis on battles, strategy and how wars have initiated through treaties and the greedy intentions of usually a few powerful men. However, in most accounts of war history women are barely mentioned despite their vital contribution. This essay will examine the various roles that women have played during periods of war and the extent of the effects that war has on the lives of women. Furthermore, this essay will provide examples of women in various wars within the past two hundred years; with particular focus on the Second World War. In doing …show more content…
Namely to make up some of the lost household income that was created by the absence of husbands who had enlisted. Otherwise women felt that it was their patriotic duty to assist in the war effort in any way they could. However, whilst this labour shortage allowed for women to get a taste of working life, it did not last. According to Goldin and Olivetti, 20 percent of married women between the ages of twenty seven and fifty one years who had been employed during the Second World War had remained employed by 1951. This is because “Women were forced off their jobs at war 's end, and the war propaganda machine went into reverse gear after VJ-Day, extolling the virtues of women 's role in the home”. It was expected that, once the soldiers returned from the war, women would happily relinquish the newfound employment back to their men and return to their domestic …show more content…
For example, during the Second World War, the Soviet Union had up to eight hundred thousand female soldiers, making up eight present of their armed forces. Such roles that the women filled include: medical support, which unlike other nursing roles ha a lot of combat detail integrated into the job, doctors and nurses which is estimated to be made up of forty present of women, infantry soldiers, combat aviation, armour and partisan forces. However, most well-known units of the Soviets women participants are those in the air force. According to Goldstein, all antiaircraft units were undergone by women, both as pilots and gunners who were renowned for their accuracy and efficiency. Even to the extent that German pilots were fearful of these women, even to the extent that they’d rather fly over a hostile country ten times than “pass once through the fire of Russian flak sent up by female

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