The Destructive Role Of Women In World War II

World War Two was a destructive time that allowed women in the United States, Great Britain, and Soviet Union to play crucial roles that ultimately lead to their country’s immense success. Beforehand women had dealt with gender inequality by society placing them in positions that were traditional at the time. This meant that they stayed at home cooking as well as cleaning, and if they tried to break that barrier by having a career then it would be socially unacceptable. Since WWII was a total war countries were urgent to have their populace get involved, especially women because of the circumstances. The significance of females in the war made countries realize they could actually utilize women allowing them to have more opportunities that
Since allied nations were recruiting women in the military which allowed more men to fight, it increased the amount of equipment needed. As the war progressed in Great Britain, factories and shipyards began multiplying to help manufacture military weapons, aeroplanes, as well as ships. These industries started employing women because as more men left companies needed people to fill the positions. When females were working in shipyards they produced 1.2 million tons of warships and roughly 4.5 million tons worth of merchant vessels. This was crucial because if they didn’t build enough ships to defend the country Hitler would have attacked with U-Boats winning the Battle of Britain. In the munitions factories millions of women worked seven days a week producing ammunition and bombs. Since this was a dangerous job it became common for women to be seriously injured or killed if not cautious. The industries that created tanks and armored vehicles increased production greatly by hiring thousands of women all over the country to roll steel, and fit guns into the cars. In the United States the aviation industry increased the most with over 310,000 female
Once the SOE and OSS realized the Germans handled both genders the same, they changed their training techniques for the women. When women trained they learned how to handle weapons, silently murder someone, parachute, and pretended they were captured by being stripped then held their breaths underwater. The most famous female spy at the time was Virginia Hall, she voluntarily worked for SOE when a new government claimed control over Paris. After her training was complete, Hall returned to France and helped the underground resistance, assisted three French battalions, and provided intelligence activities for Allied forces. She had to disguise herself often because of being declared the most wanted spy by Germany, and was successfully not captured. When women became spies it benefitted their country because enemies only suspected men giving females the advantage to retrieve more information to help the nation advance in the war. Overall, when countries began utilizing women in World War Two they realized it was more beneficial because of the amount of success that came from