29 Fascinating Color Photos of British Women During World War II

“The wars were a catalyst for women to work in more roles,” says Jenny Dibden, a director in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. “Now, there’s a much stronger sense that women working within the civil service is normal and natural. The real effort should now be on enabling women to progress to the higher grades.”

Women in World War II took on a variety of roles from country to country. World War II involved global conflict on an unprecedented scale; the absolute urgency of mobilizing the entire population made the expansion of the role of women inevitable.

This set of 29 fascinating color photos shows everyday life of British women during wartime.

On the River Avon, 1944

British war workers take a seaside break on a beach in Cornwall, 6th September 1943

Cambridge Market Square, 1944

Day Nursery, Hatfield, June 1943

Feeding and cleaning time, 1944

Flowers grow on bomb site in Gresham Street, London, July 1943

Hill street, Richmond in Sept. 1939

Land Army girls in 1944

Land Army girls quenching their thirst, 1944

London window shopping, 1941

Marlow, Buckinghamshire, May 1944

Models wearing Berketex utility fashions designed by Norman Hartnell, June 1943

Models wearing Berketex utility fashions designed by Norman Hartnell, London, June 1943

Pupils from a primary school out walking, rest beside a river path at Saxton Road, Abingdon, July 1944

Refugees from Plymouth at Tapeley Park, October 1942

Soldier embraces his wife and children at his home in Irby in Cheshire, at the start of seven days leave, 14 April 1944

The family butcher from Aswell, Hertfordshire, 1944

War Workers on holiday in Cornwall enjoy a day on the beach surrounded by rugged cliffs on a sunny day, September 1943

Wartime bride, 1945

Wartime fashion, 1944

Woman learns to use with gas masks, 1940

Women bicycling on Cambridge street, 1944

Women painting finished petrol self-sealing tanks, Dec. 1942

A Land Army girl busy with her Standard Fordson tractor in Oxfordshire, 1944

A woman at Anderson Shelter, 1940

A young woman comforts her kid on a beach in Cornwall, 6th September 1943

Aiding the war effort, October 1943

Bishop's Stortford, Essex, June 1944

British servicewomen enjoying a 'garden' on a bombed-out site in London, 1944