Intruders on the Rights of Men? 1940s Women at War and Work

The 1940s saw women moving into war work at home and away from home. Some went into the services, some went into jobs vacated by men who had enlisted. Some women remained in jobs they held before the Second World War began. Questions then arose as to levels of pay. If women were doing ‘men’s work’ in ‘men’s jobs’ should they be paid at the same rate as the departed men. If they went into the services—Women’s Royal Australian Naval Service (WRANS) (Navy auxiliary) or Australian Women’s Army Service (AWAS) (Army auxiliary), or joined the Women’s Auxiliary Australian Air Force (WAAAFS) (Air Force auxiliary) should their pay rates be set according to those of the enlisted men. What about the Women’s Land Army (WLA)—women working on the land, keeping the agricultural industry operating for the domestic market and for export, feeding the troops at home and abroad. What then of the existing women’s pay rates for women already in the paid workforce, and what about women working as volunteers knitting socks and working in clubs and rest-and-recreation venues. Clare Stevenson, ‘drafted’ to run the WAAAFS, fought for equal pay against discriminatory notions of women’s war contribution. The Women’s Employment Board (WEB), established to set women’s pay rates when working men’s jobs, found few if any women warranted men’s pay. Where women in men’s work did gain higher wages, women in women’s work were affronted—their years of experience counted for nothing against the work of ‘Rosie the Riveter’. Then, at war’s end, what was to become of women whose expertise was built up during the war years (or had at least been recognised as there, simply because the exodus to the front meant women went into jobs ordinarily the exclusive domain of men)? And what of women discharged from the services. What happened to the jobs and the wages and the women workers?