Women in the Paid Workforce- Additional Information

black and white photograph, 4 women are working on a large piece of metal machinery, it might be an airplane. It has rows and rows of little rivets or screws that the women are attaching. The women all wear boilersuits and have their hair in fashionable 1940s style with headscarves.

Some of the jobs performed by women during the war were both difficult and dangerous, especially the work of those in the munitions industry. Discover more about these women, dubbed Munitioneers!

Adele Shelton Smith head

The war created opportunities for women, including Adele Shelton Smith (pictured) and Elsie (surname unknown).

Shelton-Smith was the first woman to travel from Australia to report from an overseas military theatre.

Elsie tried to join the public service before the war and was unsuccessful, but decided to try again after the fall of Singapore. This time she was successful.