Women's roles WWII

[St Germain]

What was the role of women in WWII Britain in relation to transport? I remember my Grandma telling me that she had something to do with trains and that she cleaned the engines. Was there a specific name for her role and what she did? eg. Land Girls worked in agriculture what was their industrial equivalent?

[paddywak]

In both wars women played a major role in virtualy every field. In regards to transport in WW11you will find they were involved in everything from building and maintaining various types of vechicles to driving them, everything from taxis to ambulances to military. There was even a unit that flew new fighters and bombers from the factories to their bases. I dont know if they had special names for the different groups but they did a great job

[heathfield]

Your Gran would have been known as an 'Engine Wiper'. Pre-WWII, this was the traditional start point for those men who wanted eventually to become engine drivers.

As to the others, different industries provided different job descriptions, just as today.

You mention transport. Strangely, perhaps, I cannot recall ever seeing a woman bus driver until many years after the end of WWII, though they did drive ambulances.

[Octavius]

At the end of World War 2, those women who had found alternate employment from the normal for women, lost their jobs. The returning soldiers had to be found jobs and many wanted society to return to normal. Therefore many young girls found employment in domestic service. That might explain why heathfield didn't see women drivers for a long time after the war.

As you mention there was The Women's Land Army (WLA); Factory Work; The Women's Voluntary Service (WVS mostly elderly); The Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS); The Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) and FANY

Historically the term Engine-Wiper was a title for those who were assigned to do any job that came along that wasn't skilled. In that role she could have belonged to any of the above.

[St Germain]

Thanks very much for those answers.

[heathfield]

Actually I meant I didn't recall seeing any women bus drivers during the WWII. Plenty of conductresses, though.

[battersby]

One of my aunt's drove? an overhead crane in a steelwork's.

[paddywak]

since my last answer i've been talking to my aunt who is 80 and she tells me that during WW1my gran worked in an ammunition factory near Bulwell and that the chemicals in the explosives handled gave the girls a yellow skin which led to them being called "canaries" and that this effect lasted for quite a while after the war. I dont know if the same thing happened in WW11,

[St Germain]

That's interesting. Thank you Paddywack.

[mike b]

Many women worked also on the canals, where they were nicknamed 'Idle Women', from the initials of Inland Waterways...