What role did Australian women play in World War Two?

Australian women played extensive and varied roles in the Second World War, taking on military, industrial, agricultural, and voluntary work that transformed gender expectations and laid the groundwork for later changes in Australian society. About 500,000 women served in some war-related capacity over the course of the war.

Military service was a new feature. The Women's Royal Australian Naval Service (WRANS), established in 1941 with about 2,600 members at peak strength, operated communications, intelligence, and shore-based administrative roles. The Australian Women's Army Service (AWAS), established in 1941 with about 24,000 members at peak, served as clerks, drivers, mechanics, signallers, anti-aircraft gunners, and in many other roles. The Women's Australian Auxiliary Air Force (WAAAF), established in 1941 with about 27,000 members at peak, served in aircraft maintenance, communications, and other RAAF support roles. Women in these services were paid less than men in equivalent roles and were discharged at the end of the war.

Civilian war work was equally important. The Australian Women's Land Army (AWLA), established in 1942 with about 3,000 full-time and 1,000 part-time members, worked on farms to replace men who had enlisted. Women took over industrial roles in munitions factories, aircraft and shipbuilding, engineering, and many other manufacturing sectors. The Director of Manpower, established in 1942, allocated women's labour alongside men's across the war economy. The Women's Voluntary National Register, established in 1940, had more than 200,000 women registered for war service. About 25 per cent of the Australian workforce was female by 1944, up from about 25 per cent at the start of the war but with very different distribution across sectors.

Pay and conditions for women during the war set important precedents. The 1942 Women's Employment Board ruled that women performing 'male' work in essential industries should be paid at 60 to 100 per cent of male rates depending on the work, far above the pre-war 54 per cent standard. After the war, women were largely pushed out of the workforce by the preferential employment of returned servicemen, but the wartime experience laid the groundwork for later equal-pay campaigns. The Equal Pay Cases of 1969 and 1972 finally established equal pay for equal work and for work of equal value. Recognition of women's wartime service expanded substantially from the 1980s onwards. The Australian War Memorial maintains extensive exhibits on women's wartime service. Each year ANZAC Day marches include women veterans, and the Women in War Memorial in Canberra (unveiled 1999) honours their contribution. The wartime expansion of women's roles is now widely seen as a foundational moment in Australian gender history.