Rationing helped women to cooperate and to be very organised, as they had to work out how to make limited rations last in a critical situation of decisive scarcities.
Adding to the idea of rationing, the government introduced a new pet project of ‘Digging for Victory’. Everyone had to use up all the possible space there was in their gardens, as well as the lawns and flowerbeds which had to be turned into vegetable patches. They had to grow vegetables that were not rationed such as wheat, potatoes and others.
‘Make do and Mend’ was encouraged to be a part of rationing. This helped save up on rationed products, as it consisted of mending things such as clothes and maintaining soaps to last longer, which meant that Britain needed to bring in fewer imports from the countries abroad.
‘Making do’ added to the war effort in a way that it saved up more resources for the army, navy and the air forces of the country.
Apart from contributing to the war effort in such ways, women also had to keep their families and homes safe. Many Children and young mothers were evacuated to the countryside, where households would accept them under their protection from night-time bombing raids, in the cities.
In towns and cities, women had to make sure their homes were compiled with Air Raid Precautions (ARP). Windows at home were blacked out at night, taped to stop glass flying and injuring anyone, in case of any bombing raids. Doors also had to be sealed against gas. Homes had to consist of Anderson shelters dug into the back of their gardens. They were used for emergency, in case a bomb blast had exploded their houses. For safety the shelters were assembled together by six corrugated steel sheets bolted together, with steel plates at either end. All these added to the war effort, as less injuries for the civilians meant that there were less pressure on hospitals, so there were more resources for the soldiers fighting the war.
For comfort inside the Anderson shelter, the woman had to make sure the shelter consisted of an oil lamp, blankets, food, water, a flowerpot heater and a bucket for waste. And if there was an explosion, it was the women’s responsibility to make sure all the members of the family were provided with gas masks.
Life for housewives was hard, because they were responsible for almost everything. All the women in the war had to do their own parts and add to the war effort, forming a chain in which a single misact would break, as all relied on each other.
As said before they were all are under a lot of pressure, stress and responsibility, due to the fact that they suddenly had to do everything themselves, inside and out of their homes. The thing that most pressurised them and also the most successful was probably the rationing and keeping homes safe with Air Raid Precautions (ARP), with things like first-aid kit’s, blackout curtains, taping and blocking the windows with sand bags. This maintained the safety in the country, so as said before, there was fewer burden put on to the hospitals. So the hospitals were able to focus more on the injured soldiers from the army, rather than the minor injuries of the civilians that could be treated with first-aid kits, and who would only be taking up space in the hospitals. There was also rationing in different ways that added to the war effort, as this meant less imports had to come from abroad, also meaning that the soldiers had more resources to use as the women ‘made do’ all their clothes etc. I specifically chose these two points to show how much the government needed women to help the war effort. As this not only added to the war cycle of saving up on resources for themselves, the country, and the soldiers, but also had a great role over Britain’s victory in the war.
By: Saimecan Ali Y/10-17
