Use the sources, and your own knowledge, to explain why the Government produced so many leaflets and advertisements about food and cooking during the war.

as guns are to men, food is to women. It is encouraging people to ration food properly and wisely to make sure they can live off it. It also states food can be used as an advantage on the ‘Fighting front’, meaning the soldiers, and the ‘Kitchen front’ meaning the housewives at home. The text speaks as if the housewives following rationing guides economically etcetera is an integral part of winning the war. Source D is an advertisement produced by the ministry of food like source C, so it is likely that it is propaganda but from a very reliable source. It was produced in 1941, the same year as conscription, so it is likely that it was made to encourage women to follow rationing guidelines correctly and do their part for the war effort. This shows how important womens role in the kitchen was in th governments eyes to winning the war. The advert uses the idea that women at home carrying out tasks on the ’kitchen front’ are doing their part in winning the war. It says women should be awarded medals for menial tasks such as ’making delicious dishes with home-grown vegetables’ and for ’saving all the bread crusts and crumbs’. Propaganda like this was produced help women live economically and make them feel good about what they are doing as well. Another important point is that the source contains text comparing the soldiers at war to the women in the kitchen, such quotes as ''kitchen front'' compared to the 'Fighting front' from source D and ''medals for housewives'', the fact that women are awarded medals just as soldiers are awarded with medals of honour for fighting for their country.Source E is a series of cookery notes also produced by the ministry of food during the war. Its message to housewives is to ‘stretch’ rations and it contains a guide on how to do this. Nearly every meal on the guide contains vegetables and potatoes as they could be grown in England by the city landgirls, and therefore it did not need to be imported which saved money what could be used for more important necessities and conditions such as higher pay for women workers who had a very poor pay compared to men and money for more materials to make the ammunition. Also the cookery notes were published in newspapers and women’s magazines and were therefore easily accessible. This source is useful as it shows us the length the government went to, so it could notify British women on how to conserve food and spread the rations carefully. I conclude in my beliefs that so many leaflets and advertisements were produced to help women make the transition from normal life to life with rationing and they were also made to eliminate Britain’s food problems.The governemnt targeted women through adverts and leaflets as they believed women were the key to solving the food crisis and on a larger scale the war. This prediction paid off as we know that women working in the kitchen led to a chain of effects which helped the British soldiers win World War 2.