Podcasts About Women in World War II

My class project, Soldiers Without Guns: The Patton Girls in World War II, is a series of interviews with my mother and aunts about their experiences during World War II. 

I decided to look for similar podcasts – whether done as family history or oral histories.  I found a couple of examples I’ll describe over the next few posts.

First, Women Welders in World War Two, is a podcast from a BBC Radio Show called Woman’s Hour.   The 8:05 minute podcast describes the work of Dr. Margaretta Jolly, who found letters written by women welders in Yorkshire, England, and turned the letters into a book, Dear Laughing Motorbike.  Although this podcast focuses on women in the United Kingdom, whereas my family is all in the United States, I found one point particularly interesting:

“We don’t want to exaggerate the idea that this work was, in any simple sense, liberating.  We often tend to do, now, looking back.  That’s one of the images.  Rosie the Riveter is standing for some kind of simple image of women going into the workplace or being liberated.  I realize through interviewing the women today and through reading the letters that it wasn’t in any way glamorous or romantic.  They did it, first of all, for money.  And they went into those jobs because they were called up by the Labor Exchange.”

But as one of the woman welders emphasized,

“When you were doing it, you felt that you were helping the war.”

I found similar sentiments in my interviews.  My mother and aunts recognized it was a good opportunity, especially to make money, which was important because they had grown up relatively poor.  However, they believed they were helping the war effort in their own way and were proud of it. 

Woman’s Hour: History and Science Archive lists other podcasts regarding women’s role in history.