Women played an important role in both World War I and World War II, and this had long lasting after effects.

Prior to the First World War women's role in society in western countries was confined to the domestic sphere. While some women managed to receive a tertiary education and others to go into non-traditional career paths, for the most part women were expected to be primarily involved in 'home duties'. Before 1914, only few countries had given the vote to women, and women were little involved in the political process.

During both World War I and World War II, women were called on, by necessity, to do work and to take on roles that were outside their traditional gender expectations. More than any previous wars WWI and WWII hinged as much on industrial production as they did on battlefield clashes. With millions of men away fighting and with the inevitable horrendous casualties, there was a severe shortage of labour in a range of industries, from rural and farm work to city office work.

Women moved into the labour force to fill this need. During World War I, for example, thousands of women worked in munitions factories, offices and large hangers used to build aircraft. Of course women were also involved in knitting socks and preparing hampers for the soldiers on the front, as well as other voluntary work, but as a matter of survival women had to work for paid employment for the sake of their families. Nursing became the one and only area of female contribution that involved being at the front and experiencing the horror of war.

Not only did they have to keep ‘the home fires burning’ but they took on voluntary and paid employment that was diverse in scope and showed that women were highly capable in diverse fields of endeavor. There is little doubt that this expanded view of the role of women in society did change the outlook of what women could do and their place in the workforce. However the extent of this change is open to historical debate. In addition, the role of women tended to differ in scope and importance between World War I and World War II.

In part because of female participation in the war effort in the years after the First World War, Canada, the United States, Great Britain, and a number of European countries extended suffrage to women. It seems that the turbulence and the despair of World War I had caused a reexamination of many of the treasured values in many western societies, including gender expectations. The so-called Jazz Age of the 1920s saw women 'letting their hair down' and leaving the confines of the home to experience greater independence. With the advent of the Great Depression women became pivotal not only to providing for their families but for providing cheap labour for industry.

In Russia the role of women in the Russian Revolution combined with the equality doctrines of communism also saw women given far more rights than they had had before the War.

With this expanded horizon of opportunity and confidence, and with the extended skill base that many women could now give to paid and voluntary employment, women's roles in World War II were even more extensive than in the First World War. So, women not only worked in factories, munitions plants and farms but also drove trucks, provided logistic support for soldiers and entered professional areas of work that were previously the preserve of men.

This necessity to use the skills and the time of women was heightened by the nature of the war itself. While World War 1 was mainly fought in France and Germany and was a war arguably without clear aggressor or villain, World War 2 was truly a global conflict where countries were invaded or under the threat of invasion from leaders in Germany (Adolf Hitler) and Japan that had ambitions of world domination. In these circumstances the absolute urgency of mobilizing the entire population made the expansion of the role of women inevitable. The hard skilled labour of women was symbolized in the United States by the figure of Rosie the Riveter.

The contribution by women to the war effort in the United Kingdom was acknowledged with the use of the words "Home Front" to describe the battles that were being fought on a domestic level with rationing, recycling, and war work, such as in munitions factories.

The shear desperation of the conflict, especially in the Soviet Union saw many women in fighting roles, notably as snipers. In the Allied powers thousands of women enlisted as nurses serving on the front lines throughout the conflict. Thousands of others joined defensive militias at home.

There is little doubt that women's work in the two world wars of the twentieth century was an important factor in the course of both wars. This involvement changed the social status and working lives of women in many countries from that point onwards.

See also

• Dorothy Lawrence British reporter who posed as a man in the First World War.
• Women's Royal Naval Service