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 The Woman, 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.
| Published in | American Journal of Art and Design (Volume 6, Issue 1) |
| DOI | 10.11648/j.ajad.20210601.14 |
| Page(s) | 26-37 |
| Creative Commons |
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Copyright |
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Science Publishing Group |
Uniform, WRNS, ATS, WAAC, Femininity
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APA Style
Miku Hirata. (2021). Women’s Military Uniform During the Second World War: How Women Maintained Their Femininity. American Journal of Art and Design, 6(1), 26-37. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajad.20210601.14
ACS Style
Miku Hirata. Women’s Military Uniform During the Second World War: How Women Maintained Their Femininity. Am. J. Art Des. 2021, 6(1), 26-37. doi: 10.11648/j.ajad.20210601.14
AMA Style
Miku Hirata. Women’s Military Uniform During the Second World War: How Women Maintained Their Femininity. Am J Art Des. 2021;6(1):26-37. doi: 10.11648/j.ajad.20210601.14
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Download@article{10.11648/j.ajad.20210601.14,
author = {Miku Hirata},
title = {Women’s Military Uniform During the Second World War: How Women Maintained Their Femininity},
journal = {American Journal of Art and Design},
volume = {6},
number = {1},
pages = {26-37},
doi = {10.11648/j.ajad.20210601.14},
url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajad.20210601.14},
eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ajad.20210601.14},
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 The Woman, 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.},
year = {2021}
}
TY - JOUR T1 - Women’s Military Uniform During the Second World War: How Women Maintained Their Femininity AU - Miku Hirata Y1 - 2021/04/12 PY - 2021 N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajad.20210601.14 DO - 10.11648/j.ajad.20210601.14 T2 - American Journal of Art and Design JF - American Journal of Art and Design JO - American Journal of Art and Design SP - 26 EP - 37 PB - Science Publishing Group SN - 2578-7802 UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajad.20210601.14 AB - 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 The Woman, 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. VL - 6 IS - 1 ER -
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