what jobs did women do in ww2

During World War II, women played important roles both at home and in uniform. With men off to fight a worldwide war across the Atlantic and the Pacific, women were called to take their place on the production line. Women worked in factories producing munitions, building ships, aeroplanes, and in the auxiliary services as air-raid wardens, fire officers, and clerical jobs in the armed forces in order to free men to fight. They also drove trucks, repaired airplanes, worked as laboratory technicians, rigged parachutes, served as radio operators, analyzed photographs, flew military aircraft across the country, test-flew, and performed clerical duties. Approximately 350,000 American women joined the military during World War II. They worked as nurses, drove trucks, repaired airplanes, and performed clerical duties. Women also took on other roles, such as cooks, drivers, and mechanics. Women’s work was vital to the British war effort in World War Two, so much so that it soon became compulsory. Women were also conscripted for war work, and they worked in the Women’s Land Army, Women’s Timber Corps, as pilots and ground crew in the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA), in the Women’s Auxiliary Service, as voluntary policewomen, as military nurses or volunteer nurses (VADs) with the Voluntary Aid Detachment, and even as spies with the Special Operations Executive (SOE) .