How do the sources you studied help to create a better understand of women in industry in the two world wars

Wasim Aamir Noordin

Candidate number: 3105

Question 1 (15 marks)

Source 5 is yet another propaganda poster from World War Two created by Phillip Zec, a leading British cartoonist and illustrator. As with source three, we are immediately aware that this source is propaganda as it is created by a leading British cartoonist – who is likely to be affiliated with the government due to his high status. What we can infer from the source on first glance is that it is very similar to source 3, being a recruitment poster. This is evident due to the text, firstly, which indicates that “Women Come into the Factories”, acting as a statement which says that women working in the factories is standard or the norm and any woman who is not working in a factory is negligible in terms of helping to create a balanced and strong economy and society. Moreover, we can infer that it is a propaganda poster due to the glorified picture of a woman, which acts as the main focus of the source. The woman is holding her arms out, with the planes in the background looking like birds along with her arms out; she looks as though she is a symbol of freedom. The government want women to feel as though they are free to choose whatever they wants but are contradicting themselves by imposing on the same omen to “come into the factories”. The picture is effective in delivering a propagandised image as there are dark skies in the background, only to be illuminated by this woman’s aura of light and freedom, which is a glorified image of what some would perceive as an angel; she has a radiant face and around her face us a halo which acts as being sudo-religious, implying that the working in factories is encouraged by God and that doing so will please him. This same transce...

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...ore was created for educational purposes and not as propaganda, unlike sources 3, 5 and 6. Finally the book, “Forgotten Voices of the Great War” gives the views of normal people and not specifically selected ones, whom have a certain aspect to them that makes them desirable to interviewers. These people, like Mrs M Hall, are just average people who worked in factories and ‘got on with it’, rather than claiming that the war did miraculous things to their lives (like source 1 does). Ultimately, sources 1 and 2 are useful and 3, 5 and 6 are limited in informing us about the involvement of women in industry. As a result, source 2 is the most useful source in informing us about women in industry in the two world Wars, as it gives a woman’s view, a common woman’s view, and a working class common woman’s view – with a “Forgotten Voice” that should be remembered as valuable.