Being a woman in World War II

A look at the female universe in the 40s: at home, on the street and in the war effort

Abstract

Wars are made by men, but women have always been involved in them, directly or indirectly. In general, however, they tend to be relegated to the role of supporting characters, as victims of war conflicts or in the shadow of male stories. But during the Second World War, German, French, English, Soviet and Italian women were encouraged to take on work for the opposite sex or to become involved as volunteers, in the case of Brazilian women. They formed committees to help soldiers in combat, send clothes, medicines, letters. They were snipers, nurses, war correspondents, saboteurs, aviators. They broke taboos by filling spaces and jobs previously considered exclusively male, but they remain invisible combatants of the Second World War, over whose actions a veil of oblivion still extends.