With the outbreak of war, the majority of men were called upon to fight against Germany.   This created a vast labour shortage and in December 1941, The ‘National Service Act’ was passed by Parliament.   All unmarried women between the ages of 20-30 were called up, later this was also extended to include married women.   Women with young children and those that were pregnant were exempt.   The United Kingdom was the first country to implement conscription for women.

Some of the services that women were able to join were the:                                                             
WRNS -the Women’s Royal Naval Service.
WAAF -the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force.
WVS -the Women’s Voluntary Service.
WLA -the Women’s Land Army
ENSA -Entertainment National Service Association
ATS -the Auxilary Territorial Service
WTC -the Womens Timber Corps
Picture Of Land Army Poster                      Link to bigger Pic of Savings Certificate		 Pic of Auxilary Army girl       
The Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS)
formed in 1938.   When conscription was
introduced in 1941 the women were on an
equal footing with the men, (apart from
pay, they received 2/3rds of the male pay)
and were also subject to military law.   They
wore a uniform of black shoes, khaki uniforms
and even their underwear was khaki!

Bletchley Park employed 2,000 women, deciphering coded German messages sent to their own armed forces.   They also worked on the famous “Enigma Machines”.   Their work helped to reduce the war by some significant period of time.  The results of their deciphering of German messages meant we knew in advance a lot of the German strategy and plans This in turn helped our armed forces take pre-emptive action.   It probably saved thousand and thousand of lives.

EVACUEES Millions of children were evacuated during the first three days of September 1939.

                Pic of Land Army Girl
The Women's Land Army (WLA) filled the
vacancies left by the men going to war, over
45,000 had left the agriculture industry by mid
1940.   This coupled with the fact that crop
production increased by 50% meant that many
of the women often worked 14-hour days.
They would be involved in all aspects of farm work.
      
         Link to Bigger Poster of Factory Girl                National Service Poster
A lot of the work was centred on the war effort, munitions,
tank and aircraft factories.   Women were called upon to
drive trains, operate anti-aircraft guns,civil defence,
nursing, transport and other key occupations.   Most of
this had been seen as ‘men’s work’ prior to the war.
       


            Link to Bigger Pic of Family Having Tea                                         Many women provided food and shelter for those that had been 'bombed' out of their homes.  A great strain was put on personal relationships throughout the war.   Between the years of 1939-1940, many couples rushed into marriage.  4,655,000 children were born between 1940-1945.  305,000 of these were born to single mothers.  Unlike today these women received no financial support from the government.   There were twice as many divorces in 1945 as in 1930.
                       Don't waste food poster                                     Link to bigger cupboard full of food
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