WOMEN AT WORK IN WORLD WAR TWO ACTIVITY - ANSWER KEY

1. Match the intitials of the four women's armed services on the left with the full names on the right.

a. AWLA       -------------------- iii. Australian Women's Land Army
b. WAAAF    -------------------- i. Women's Australian Auxillary Air Force
c. AWAS      -------------------- iv. Australian Women's Army Service
d. WRANS    ------------------- ii. Women's Royal Australian Navy Service 

2. List four of the main tasks performed by women in the armed services:

  • nursing

  • cooking

  • cleaning

  • typing

3. These duties were seen as mainly 'traditional feminine roles'. What does this mean?

  • This means that these duties were tasks that women were already doing. They were not new duties that women hadn't done before.

4. How many women had enlisted in the armed services by the middle of 1943?

  • over 46,000

5. The four women listed in the table below were able to be 'a voice for women' at a time when women were not well represented in politics or on government committees. Write any interesting facts you can find about each one in the space provided.

Mary Ryan

  • nurse
  • member of the Country Women's Association
  • appointed to the Commonwealth Housing Commission in 1943

Kathleen Best

  • service woman
  • appointed Assistant Director of Women's Re-establishment in 1944

Enid Lyons

  • first federal female parliamentarian in the House of Representatives in 1943

Dorothy Tangney

  • first female Senator in 1943
  • represented Western Australia in the Senate

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