Australian Women In The First World War Essay

INTRO

There is a very diverse issue of the impact World War 2 had upon the lives of women in Australia. On one hand, women contributed massively to the war effort. However, they were also made ‘fun of’ and were valued as less than men.

VALUED

In source A, we read about the enthusiasm that was women when thought of as independent. They strived at the thought of contributing to the war effort, country and society. In source B, we see a picture of strong women nursing the wounded, which plays a huge part to any war. For starters, without nurses, there would be no uninjured soldiers to defend our country. In front of them, we see 2 women. One woman is making a mockery of the other by making her seem stereotypical as a lady, and therefore useless when it comes to serious matter, the actual fighting. The irony of this is that she is also a woman. “Women faced strong opposition when they

Alas, the most valuable service performed by women on the home front was in the Australian Women 's Land Army (AWLA), established in July 1942.

Women worked in factories in tasks varying from food production to steel manufacturing. They also became bus drivers and drove delivery vans. Thousands of ladies were employed in munitions factories, commerce and transport

The purpose of the AWLA was to supplant the work of male agricultural workers who had enrolled to serve in the military. It was a deliberate association open to Australian women between the ages of 18 and 50. These ladies lived in provincial areas in hostels on farms.

There, they were given official farming training. The most of their work was involved with primary manufacturing - cultivation, shearing, crop and harvesting. Each woman was required to work 48 hours a week, while only being paid 75% the wage of a man. The long hours and difficult work did not faze these women as they were driven by a sense of patriotic duty and