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Australian Women In Ww2 Essay

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Australian women had a very broad range of duties and responsibilities during World War II. Their roles also changed a lot for a long time during 1939 to 1945. There are some factors that show how their roles changed. These factors are participation in military services, education to work in skilled employment and transformation of attitudes and beliefs of society.

An important change in the role of Australian women was their participation in military services. In October 1940, the Women’s Auxiliary Australian Air Force was established and quickly followed by the women’s Army and Navy forces. Women began to join in the military services and to work in these services. “They lived and worked under the same conditions as the men.” It was said by Lorna Byrne, who was a member of the AWAS (Australian Women’s Auxiliary Service). By the end of the war, the AWAS had 24,000 women, the Women’s Auxiliary Australian Air force was made up of 18,500 women. These are large numbers which shows that women also played an important role in the war and that their roles in society also change a lot.

Another change was women’s education to work in skilled employment. After 1940, 35,000 Australian women were working in skilled labour, such as, technicians, nurses, engineers and so on. Under Manpower regulations, women could be deployed in occupations that suited their …show more content…

Women participated in the military services, got the education to work in skilled labour so that they did much better than before and received popular recognition step by step because of their own hard work. “You learn a lot from living in with a group of girls; we were all much enriched by the experience. Better people for it. You were not just yourself, you behaved, became party of something much bigger than yourself.” Sheila McClemans in Patsy Adam-Smith Australian Women at war said. Now, they are able to say that women also did a good job in the war

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