During the Second World War the women of the UK were crucial to national survival and, ultimately, victory. By the time war began in September 1939 there were already organizations such as the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry and the Auxiliary Territorial Service to harness the talents of women for the national good. However, in 1939 no one foresaw how disastrously the first two years of the war would unfold nor how close to defeat the UK would come. In the event, the nation came to depend on the contribution of women far more than expected.

Before the war there was only a very limited range of jobs open to women in the UK. There was clerical work, 'service' as a housemaid or cook, nursing or teaching, for instance, but on marrying women had to resign and stay at home. All this was now set to change. As more and more men volunteered or were conscripted into the Services, traditionally 'mens jobs' had to be done by women. Factories recruited women on a massive scale to maintain and increase production. They learned new skills, previously claimed (by men) to be beyond them, and did the work needed to produce the guns, the artillery, the aircraft, the munitions and the tanks the war required. By spring 1941 every woman aged 18-60 was required by law to register with the government, giving name and family occupation. The National Service Act (2) of December 1941 then made conscription of women legal. At first only women aged 20-30 were called up, but this was soon extended. By 1943 ninety per cent of single women and eighty per cent of married women were in work. For married women this often meant running a home and holding down a war job single handed, with a husband far away; and this without most of the labor saving devices we enjoy today and with the problems of strict rationing.

Women filled a variety of roles apart from vital factory work. Food shortages due to U-Boat activity in the Atlantic meant Britain had to increase home grown food production dramatically or be starved into submission. Along with ploughing up golf courses and exhortations to 'Dig for Victory', the Women's Land Army was one response. Some eighty thousand, mainly young, women were sent to work on farms, often with no prior experience. They faced back breaking work in all weathers, picking potatoes, ploughing, hand milking, threshing and so forth, under the watchful eye of the farms' owners. They faced a 48 hour week, (50 hours in the summer) for one pound sixty pence a week!

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