29 Fascinating Color Photos of British Women During World War II

   

“The wars were a catalyst for women to work in more roles,” says Jenny Dibden, a director in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. “Now, there’s a much stronger sense that women working within the civil service is normal and natural. The real effort should now be on enabling women to progress to the higher grades.”

Women in World War II took on a variety of roles from country to country. World War II involved global conflict on an unprecedented scale; the absolute urgency of mobilizing the entire population made the expansion of the role of women inevitable.
This set of 29 fascinating color photos shows everyday life of British women during wartime.

 
On the River Avon, 1944

 

British war workers take a seaside break on a beach in Cornwall, 6th September 1943

 

Cambridge Market Square, 1944

 

Day Nursery, Hatfield, June 1943

 

Feeding and cleaning time, 1944

 

Flowers grow on bomb site in Gresham Street, London, July 1943

 

Hill street, Richmond in Sept. 1939

 

Land Army girls in 1944

 

Land Army girls quenching their thirst, 1944

 

London window shopping, 1941

 

Marlow, Buckinghamshire, May 1944

 

Models wearing Berketex utility fashions designed by Norman Hartnell, June 1943

 

Models wearing Berketex utility fashions designed by Norman Hartnell, London, June 1943

 

Pupils from a primary school out walking, rest beside a river path at Saxton Road, Abingdon, July 1944

 

Refugees from Plymouth at Tapeley Park, October 1942

 

Soldier embraces his wife and children at his home in Irby in Cheshire, at the start of seven days leave, 14 April 1944

 

The family butcher from Aswell, Hertfordshire, 1944

 

War Workers on holiday in Cornwall enjoy a day on the beach surrounded by rugged cliffs on a sunny day, September 1943

 

Wartime bride, 1945

 

Wartime fashion, 1944
 

 

Woman learns to use with gas masks, 1940

 

Women bicycling on Cambridge street, 1944

 

Women painting finished petrol self-sealing tanks, Dec. 1942

 

A Land Army girl busy with her Standard Fordson tractor in Oxfordshire, 1944

 

A woman at Anderson Shelter, 1940

 

A young woman comforts her kid on a beach in Cornwall, 6th September 1943

 

Aiding the war effort, October 1943

 

Bishop's Stortford, Essex, June 1944

 

 
British servicewomen enjoying a 'garden' on a bombed-out site in London, 1944