Dense, old school academic text. Maybe it was the digital copy I had but I found it hard to parse what was the author's conjecture, quotes from period sources, and citations for those sources. A daunting clerical project. Not the resource I'd hoped.

I love that the author is shining a light on the bravery and hard work completed by women throughout WW1 and WW2. Some of the protagonists are known of but others are less so. These brave women, some of whom sacrificed their lives for their country deserve to be celebrated and this book does that. Featuring women on both the Home Front and those who faced the enemy head-on, this book tells their stories and the sacrifices they made. A fascinating read for anyone interested in this period.

During both World Wars, women were required to undertake new roles in their respective national war efforts.Women internationally experienced severe setbacks as well as considerable societal progress during this timeframe.The two World Wars hinged as much on industrial production as they did on battlefield clashes.While some women managed to enter the traditionally male career paths, women, for the most part, were expected to be primarily involved in "duties at home" and "women's work," especially postwar.On the other hand, the two wars also victimized women and subjected them to numerous incidences of sexual violence, abuse, and death.

Women worked in the military(WAAC, WRNS, WRAF, ATA, WSC, ATS), medicine(War Hospital Supply Depots, Almeric Paget Military Massage Corps for physiotherapy,QARANC,QAIMNS,QARNNS,PCANSR,TFNS,TANS,PMRAFNS,Civil Hospital Reserve Nurses,District Nurses,WRAC aka Green Cross Corps,Hackett-Lowther Ambulance Unit,Hadfield-Spears Ambulance Unit,American Ambulance,Great Britain,midwives,theatre nurses,maxillofacial surgery,VADs,Women's National Service League,Women's Hospital Corps,Endell Street Hospital, Scottish Women's Hospitals for Foreign Services,FANY,special military probationers,Munro Ambulance Corps,Women's Sick and Wounded Convoy Corps,Ambulance trains).Women also worked in agriculture (WLA, Women's Forage Corps, Women's Defence Relief Corps, Women's Farm and Garden Union, WTC etc.) Women also worked in industry such as shipbuilding,aircraft manufacturing, small arms manufacturing,with munitionettes working in national filling, projectile, and ordnance factories, textile, engineering, trades, chemical industries, printing, food and beverage and transportation.Women also served in the WPAC and in prisons, as well as in the SOE and PWE and at Bletchley Park.Women were also drivers in the MTC.Women also volunteered in war relief societies, as well as the WI and WVS,Joint War Organisation,Red Cross,YWCA and NAAFI,ENSA and also in Civil Defence as Air Raid Precautions and NFS.Women also worked as war correspondents.

A very educational book. Perfect for any library or home where learning is done about history and the sacrifices people made.

Thank you netgalley for an advanced ARC of this book

Reading this gave me a lot of information 9n first and second world war of the work effort and about how w0man where treated, I enjoyed reading this and I saw this book as me learning about history and I l9ve learning about the past.

Paul Chrystal brings the home front to life in this fantastic history book. Exploring women’s work across the United Kingdom in both world wars, he explores the industrial, white-collar, military auxiliary, and government jobs that women took up as Britain’s men went to war. Focusing on a variety of jobs and different individual narratives, Chrystal cleverly divides the book into two sections, one for each war, which allows readers to clearly see the connections and the transformation of women’s work over this thirty-year period. By exploring the roles of women in the workforce on the home front, readers understand how the economic wheel keeps turning and how wartime provided women with dozens of opportunities to cross the gender divide, enter the workforce, and more overtly contribute to the national war effort. Chrystal’s use of primary documents and a variety of narratives and examples adds to the detail, depth, and complexity of this book, and his investigation of women’s contributions to the war efforts of World Wars I and II provide a necessary lens into this aspect of military and women’s history. Chrystal’s book is a fascinating insight into a complex, rich history, and he uses such detailed, precise prose to explicitly convey his historical information.

Princess Fuzzypants here: It may be difficult for women who were born in the last few decades to wrap their heads around just how restrictive life was for women even into the 1950s, 60s, and 70s. I can recall guidance counsellors in the 1960s not being able to fathom why a female would not want to be a teacher, nurse or secretary and married. Those of us with wider dreams were still looked upon as oddities. As challenging as it was for the generation of Women’s Liberation, it is almost impossible to imagine what life must have been like before WWI.

This book is a great reminder of the misogyny that hamstrung war efforts because men could not give up total control and only grudgingly permitted women to contribute to the war effort. Which, I might add, they did remarkably well. To a large degree, it helped secure the vote but many wanted things to return to the ‘good old days” until, once again, the male shortage demanded that women be allowed to do things that were male only jobs. This time it was harder for men to put the genie back in the bottle but progress was slow and arduous until the late 60s and 70s and beyond.

We all owe a huge debt of gratitude to those tough “birds” who refused to be denied and when given the chance, proved the barriers were nothing but constricts of those guarding their turf. This book does an admirable job of telling their stories. Five purrs and two paws up.

An absolutely fascinating account of a neglected aspect of history. The two world wars changed so much for so many people and this book shows the impact on industry and the economy - how the wheels kept turning and how women made this happen. Well researched, well written and very interesting indeed.

This book explores the vital but often overlooked roles of women during the World Wars, spanning their wartime contributions in factories, farms, and more. Despite discrimination, women supplied troops, sustained nations, and cared for the wounded, shaping the outcomes of both wars.

This is a fascinating look at the world wars through the lens of the roles of women. It’s inspiring to see how these pioneers redefined the roles of women in the workplace. The book is engaging and easy to read.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.

An interesting book telling of the contribution of women both home and abroad during WWI and WWII. Full of facts and figures it also tells of some of the lesser known organisations that helped the war effort and saw us through those turbulent years.
My thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

This book offers a comprehensive scan of women's surprisingly varied roles during the two world wars. At first I thought it would offer little that was new compared with my previous reading on this topic, but soon found it contained many new insights and fascinating nuggets of detail. Some were amusing, some exasperating due to the level of discrimination women faced (such as women not being allowed leave to give birth from universities, as men would never request leave for this), and some were sad, like the story of the pregnant munitionette who was seriously injured in the course of her work and lost her hands as well as her eyesight - the author reports that she could only identify her baby with her lips.
I did spot numerous typos, which may have been as mine was an ARC which hadn't yet been proofread. These included mention of the "Pembury" factory in Carmarthenshire, which should have been Pembrey. Hopefully these will be corrected for future editions.

A great look at the work women proved they could do during the World Wars and the prejudice they faced by a world determined to keep them on the home front.

This was a really great read to see the work women did during the war, its sad that women's contributions isn't more widely recognised in our society.