Women’s Military Uniform During the Second World War: How Women Maintained Their Femininity

Abstract

The study explores how women in military uniforms maintained their femininity during the Second World War. It considers the uniforms that women belonging to the Women's Royal Naval Service (WRNS), the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS), and the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAC) wore. Previous research on women's military uniforms during the war has been done from above: why the authority did not allow women to wear trousers and how the government tried to control their uniform. It is necessary to explore women's military uniform from below as well as from above: how women themselves think of their uniforms, what feelings and mentalities to their uniforms they had and how women in military uniform tried to retain their femininity even in the war. This study mainly uses advertisements in the magazine <i>The Woman</i>, read by women in military service even during the war. The study finds that although servicewomen were provided with skirts rather than trousers and several other ‘feminine’ clothing such as rayon knickers, boned corsets, and lisle stocking, the basic uniform of the women's services was similar in style to that of their male 'parent' forces. As the war continued, the work clothing of servicewomen became more 'masculine'. WRNS members, for instance, wore 'bell-bottoms’. However, as some servicewomen shortened their skirts to conform to a fashionable length, they tried to retain their femininity by adapting their uniform to their tastes. Many advertisements for the promotion of selling parts of uniform such as boned corset, and the encouragement of using hair salon, appeared in magazines. In them, for example, camp hairdressers introduced the hairstyle suitable for service caps. These advertisements probably helped women keep their femininity. As women in the same uniform were very proud of belonging to the war service, their ideal was a woman who balanced military duty with feminine beauty and maintained both ladylike quality and a sense of discipline.