Women's paid work during World War II in Western Australia: Government direction and women's response, 1942-1947

Gail Reekie

Much of the current body of feminist writing relies on a 'manipulation' theory to explain the movement of women in and out of the workforce during World War II; that is, that women as a 'reserve army of labour' were induced into the workforce by state propaganda and 'forced' out again at the end of the war by an ideology which stressed that a woman's place was in the home. Most feminist accounts of women's war work, therefore, stress the importance of ideology in women's decisions whether or not to work, and neglect the part played by the major actors in the drama, the women themselves. This thesis suggests that the manipulation theory on its own is insufficient to account for changes in the female workforce during and after the war, and that theories of women's war work need.to be refined in order to explain the responses of the women themselves. This study examines the relationship between government direction and women's response: it seeks to discover to what extent attempts by the government to mobilise women were successful, and to detail the impact of propaganda at an individual level on women's decisions to work. In contrast to previous studies it describes the feelings, attitudes and motivations of female war workers mainly through the use of oral history. The thesis also endeavours to rectify two major omissions in existing studies: firstly, the process of demobilisation and the fate of women workers after 1945; and secondly, an account of women's experiences in traditional areas of women's work·, including the tertiary sector. It has also been a central concern of this thesis to identify a continuing theme of women's resistance to oppression by employers and the state. It is argued that the movement of women in and out of the war workforce was not the simple result of government direction, but that women responded to propaganda only when the demands of government coincided with their individual needs. Most women either worked in unskilled occupations or in skilled work that they knew was temporary; and within an hierarchical, sexually-segmented labour market which was not only maintained but rigidified by government intervention during the war. Because the structure of the female labour market remained unaltered. as a result of the war there was no need for the Government to persuade women ideologically to leave the workforce in 1945. Married middle class women, faced with the double burden of low status paid work and unpaid domestic labour, left the workforce to return to domestic duties, while those women who had no choice - single and working class married women - returned to areas of 'women's' work.

Women's paid work during World War II in Western Australia: Government direction and women's response, 1942-1947

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