HEADLINES OF OLD: WOMEN IN WAR... TROVE TUESDAY 10TH OCTOBER, 2017

Tuesday 10 October 2017

WOMEN IN WAR... TROVE TUESDAY 10TH OCTOBER, 2017

First World War Recruitment Poster

WOMEN IN WAR?

It will never happen... or would it?

Even in 1902, prior to WW1, articles appeared telling of the history of women in war... was this some kind of premonition or just acknowledging that women have always stood up for what they believed in.

Please click on articles to enlarge...

By 1911, more articles were appearing..

this was published in

Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate (NSW : 1876 - 1954) , Wednesday 27 September 1911,

National Library of Australia

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article135414137

Recruitment Poster UK & Australia

Shepparton Advertiser (Vic. : 1914 - 1953), Monday 25 January 1915, page 2

National Library of Australia

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article91364583

By WWII, it had become to be taken for granted that women would be involved in far more than raising funds and nursing... The Australian Women's Land Army was just one organisation that had little trouble recruiting women.

Australian War Memorial

The following photos are from the Argus Newspaper Collection of Photographs, State Library of Victoria and are out of copyright. All were sourced from TROVE Pictures, photos,objects

Below:

Women of the Australian Women's Land Army at work

Shows a girl driving a harvester at the Research Farm, Werribee, Vic.; girls using a transplanting machine; stacking hay; Y.W.C.A. Women's Garden Army ploughing land made available by the Brighton Council; Connie Woodward on stack of grass hay with Margaret Creswick;

Below:

Shows part of the group of A.A.N.S. women, civilian nurses and other women involved in war work after being held for over 2 years. They had been captured at Rabaul and taken to Manila and then to Japan.

Australian War Memorial

Women were involved worldwide

National Library of Australia

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article131546358

Tweed Daily (Murwillumbah, NSW : 1914 - 1949), Tuesday 10 February 1942, page 2

National Library of Australia http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article194547374

Australian War Memorial

Barrier Miner (Broken Hill, NSW : 1888 - 1954), Wednesday 1 July 1942, page 1

National Library of Australia

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article48370821

This was thought to be a vast improvement...

By 1944, women were no longer a novelty in many fields...

Central Queensland Herald (Rockhampton, Qld. : 1930 - 1956), Thursday 24 September 1942, page 17

National Library of Australia

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article76110396

Courier-Mail (Brisbane, Qld. : 1933 - 1954), Wednesday 15 December 1943, page 2

National Library of Australia

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article42030428

We don't hear a lot about the effect that the war had on the children...

Sun (Sydney, NSW : 1910 - 1954), Wednesday 6 January 1943, page 5

National Library of Australia

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article231744860
Many well known personalities became involved in the war effort...

WOMEN IN WAR WORK was a regular column in TRUTH, Brisbane...

Truth (Brisbane, Qld. : 1900 - 1954), Sunday 24 January 1943, page 20

National Library of Australia

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article202377880

However, post war, with the men returning, there was a cry for women to resign and give the jobs to the men... something, many were reluctant to do, as they had gotten used to working in all manner of jobs. Also not all women had husbands to support them now.. a social problem which was very much a problem of the times.
Editorials such as the one below cried out that the women should stand aside...

Sun (Sydney, NSW : 1910 - 1954), Tuesday 19 March 1946, page 1
National Library of Australia

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article228791944

As things do, eventually it all settled down, though it took many years to recover from the war.. if we ever do...another story for another time.

One of the most famous photos of the celebrations at the announcement of the end of the war in the Pacific.