Australia in WW2

How the role of women changed during World War 2: When the men went off to fight for the first time the American/Canadian Governments asked the women to help their Nations by working in the plants and other industries while the men were off fighting the war. That they did! That's where the American "Rosie the Riveter" came from. They helped build planes, worked in munitions plants, packed parachutes, became secretaries in the Corps, etc. The big mistake the governments made was when the men came back from war the women were basically told to go back home to their ironing and cleaning house and the men got their jobs back! The women for the first time had a taste of working and they knew they could do more than stay home and scrub, clean, look after kids and keep their mouths shut. They fought back, and some did get jobs and every generation is proving that women are quite capable of doing many jobs and holding high positions in corporations. Women today are scientists, doctors, lawyers, etc.

As World War II approached, the government started to realize how many men were needed to fight on the frontline in order for Britain to realistically win the war. In order for that to happen, women had to take the other traditionally male jobs, and so in 1940 Sir William Beveridge demonstrated in a secret report the necessity for the conscription of women. By 1943, 17 million women aged between 14 and 64 were in the forces or involved in war work.

Women worked in skilled jobs as mechanics, engineers, carpenters, code-breakers, farmers and pilots. The sudden gift of authority made some people respect women more, and realise that their fixed status was an unfair one. Women were more confident and independent, and showed this through a new wave of daring fashion statements. Many women were paid 5 times more per week than they were before the war, although they were still paid less than men, as they often earned 75% of a man's wage for doing the same work.

The government began to recognise the importance of child-care for working women. They set-up nurseries and encouraged employers to allow women with children to job share. This liberated women more as their role became less child-dominated. Also, the TUC campaigned to make sure that women were treated equally to men. They successfully complained that women were paid 25% less and received lower accident compensation than men in the Rolls-Royce armament factories.

Also, the attitude towards married women working adjusted slightly, and it became more acceptable for them to do try and find work. Therefore the number of employed, married women had increased by 1951.

Women were greatly affected by these factors, but they also had to adjust to the degeneration of many of these changes after the war. A government survey in 1947 displayed that 58% of women believed that married women should not work. Nurseries shut down at the end of the war so many women who wanted to carry on working were forced to return home. In addition, employment opportunities returned to their former state, and in 1961 15% of doctors and 3% of lawyers were female. The Equal Pay Commission suggested that pay should not change or become more balanced, but instead women should look for different jobs so that they would not be in competition with men, and therefore "equal pay would not be an issue".

Finally, women were still portrayed in their traditionally domestic role by the media, which confirmed the post-war attitudes that had already returned.

Here is a web site that gives you a pretty extensive coverage of how WW2 impacted Australia.

http://home.st.net.au/~dunn/index.htm

Some women in World War 2 volunteered for the land army because all the men were away. So the Australian land army was set up to get girls to take the men?s places. They worked on farms at places like Mt Compass, Buckleboo and Gumeracha. They were looked after because they got free work clothes and food.

In the war women were cooks, stewardesses, transport drivers, signallers, coders, writers, cinematographer operators, visual signallers and there were girls working in classified sections. Others were trained as nurses and motor mechanics. The women go told they would never be permitted to go overseas but in 1941 the government announced that women would now be allowed to enrol in the armed forces. Only nurses would serve overseas and in battle zones. Some 300,000 women served in the army, navy and nursing corps, and a quarter of these served overseas.

The Women?s Royal Australian Naval Service was formed in 1941. They did not go overseas. They worked with communications. The Women?s Australian Auxiliary Air Force was also formed in 1941. They worked as radio communications and did mechanical repairs. Australian Women?s Army Service formed in 1941 if Australia was attacked they could fight but they could not replace the men fighting. The Australian Army Medical Women?s Service formed in 1942. They were nurses in Britain, Greece, North Africa, Malaya and Papua.

WAAF in 1941 had 29 women and 300 men. The WAAF put signs at universities reading ?if you are about to graduate, apply for a commission in the WAAF. Each person does a course from navigational and operations to accounts or equipment/

At home during the war women made up 40 per cent of the work force in munitions factories. Women worked in aircraft and ship building industries also they worked in industries doing mechanical and maintenance work all the women received training. Women also became tram conductors, bus drivers, taxi drivers, security guards, mail delivers, bread carters and meter readers. Women were paid lower wages then men. Many women hoped that these jobs would still be open to them after the war had ended but they were not.

World War 2 changed the lives of Australian women. Before the war women were housewives and mainly looked after the family and home. When the war started and the men left, women had to take the empty places of the men who were at war. They showed that they could manage work, family and home all together. Also proved that they could do as much work as a man does at his job and still get paid less.

I think that World War 2 improved the place of women in society for the better.

Generally, before World War II, Australia tended to look to Great Britain as a "parent" which could be relied upon in time of need, but under the circumstances particular to Australia in 1942, it was realized that Great Britain could not be of much help.

Some military assistance was obtained from the United States, establishing ties which still remain.

Australia set about to arm its own forces, and on the whole, did an amazing job, considering that whole industrial infrastructures had to be set up in a short time (here I will refer you to the stories of the development of the Australian AC-4 Sentinel Tank, the Australian Owen Submachine Gun, the development of the Boomerang fighter plane, the production of artillery, and also the building of ships, like the "Castle" -class corvette, etc.). It would seem that having been through such tribulations and coming out victorious gave Australia a great deal of national confidence, and a stronger national identity. Since World War II, Australia has been more of a world player in its own right, rather than simply being a member of the British Commonwealth.

Air raid drills occured regularly in larger cities like Sydney and Melbourne. Compulsory black-outs were enforced to minimise the risk of obvious targets in the event of an air-raid.

Air raids in Broome and Darwin affected citizens physically and psychologically. The deaths and injuries that occured affected many locals. Women and children (Asian and White) were evacuated into the country. Aboriginal persons were disregarded and not thought of.

As a result of troops overseas, Australia became economically unstable. Resources taken for granted to make goods such as clothes, butter, milk, bread etc were in short supply, so rationing books were distributed in 1942. A purchase could only be approved with rationing tickets.

Governments during the war attempted to prevent panic by censoring newspapers, magazines and radio. During the raids in Darwin, hundreds were killed and injured, while the government claimed under 30 people were killed or wounded.

Australia's loyalties changed. During WW1 Australia's ties with the 'Mother Country', Britain were strong. Events in the Great Depression, the bodyline attempts in cricket had weakened the ties before the war. Britain wanted Australian force in Britain fighting. Troops were returned home, however, when Australia's PM John Curtin felt Australia was under threat of invasion.

America and Australia became very close. When Australian troops were under threat, American troops came to give us a hand. When American troops were in trouble, we helped them out.

The three Axis counries, Italy, Germany and Japan were despised by the majority of Australians, so during the war, Japanese, German and Italians were sent to internment camps as to prevent any spy networking.

At the beginning of the war, soldiers only enlisted if they wanted to. When enlistment numbers were low, conscription was enforced, and all men between 18 and 33 had to register.

"Without inhibitions of any kind, i make it quite clear that Australia looks to America free of any pangs as to our traditional links or kinship with the United Kingdom. We know ... that Australia can go and Britain can still hold on. We are, therefore, determined that Australia shall not go, we shall exert all our energies toward the shaping of a plan, with the United States as its keystone, which will give to our country some confidence of being able to hold out until the tide of battle swings against the enemy."

The World Economy was bad, with high inflation being the leading effect. But, at the time it became known as the 'Great Depression' in the United States; the world economies where actually getting better. History shows that a group of federal government plans to help end the depression actually made it worse.

Examples of these are:

• President Hoover pasted the Smoot-Hawley Tariff in 1929 which just about destroyed American Agricultural exports
• In 1933 then President FDR's, (Roosevelt), paid farmers NOT to grow corps, this artificially raised the price of these politically selected crops.
• This grew to the U.S. government plowing under 10 million acres of cotton and slaughtering over 6 million piglets in an attempt to raise the price of these product's which by 1935 caused the U.S. to import 36 million bales of cotton and 2 million lbs of bacon and ham.

Actions like these caused people to lose their farm's, job's and caused the U.S. to import products which due to the loss of income caused by destroying and not producing locally, made the products cost more than people could afford. This caused that deeper recession known as the 'Great Depression.'

The Japanese treated ALL Allied prisoners B A D L Y. The Empire of Japan was not a signatory to the Geneva Convention, therefore they were not bound to treat their prisoners humanely. The Code of Bushito dictated that Japanese Soldiers would never be captured. If they were, that brought shame not only to the man who surrendered, but to his family also. The Japanese applied this Code to Allied Prisoners, military & civilian alike, making them sub-human in the eyes of their captors. Simply put, Allied POWs were loathed by their Japanese captors. Richard V. Horrell WW 2 Connections.com Answer AS RICHARD SAID ABOUT THE CODE OF BUSHITO. ALSO I BELEIVE ACCORDING TO THE SAME CODE,A PRISONER THAT WAS EXECUTED BY BEHEADING WAS CONSIDERED TO HAVE DIED WITH HONOR. HOWEVER WESTERNERS FOUND IT A QUITE APPALLING WAY TO GO.(I AGREE)

Further:

Apart from the idological approach, which overstates the realities on the ground, there was a practiclal one. The Japanese army need a labour force. The POW were impressed as slaves to build military railways, work in mines, war production. Australian prisoners were used along with other prisoners and inhabitants of the conquered countries as labourers on the Siam-Burma railway construction and in Japan in mining and industry. This had nothing to do with ideology. As a Japanese said 'many men must die' meaning that the work would be unrelentingly severe to achieve the aim of the railway construction - to support the Burma campaign - nothing to do with Bushido.