This is indeed an important viewpoint, as the war was inevitably going to cause upset to normal everyday life. Women were empowered as they never had been before, stepping in to the spaces that the servicemen had left. " They played an important role in agriculture, industry, the armed services, civil defence and other vital work during the second world war." The underlying principles of Marwick's argument, are that war inevitably affects society in four main ways: disruption, institutions, the involvement of previously destitute persons and the psychological impact of the war. However some of his assumptions on the subject do not take in to consideration the pre- war position of women. He believes that there was a visible migration of women from the sexually defined roles that were present. Moreover it is assumed that women welcomed the chance to become involved in the efforts of the home front. " In many respects however, women found the wartime changes undesirable, and responded by seeking to re- establish an idealised version of pre- war relationships." Naturally there were those who must have relished the opportunity to go in to the factories and undertake some challenging work. However women were not used to the pressures associated with industrial working, and many found the work boring and repetitive.
The view that the experience of war re- defined traditional sex roles is one that is echoed in the fact that when War on Germany was declared, many women were turned in to hostesses for evacuees, which meant that they carried out tasks such as housekeeping and caring for children, who were often not their own. " For these women the war reinforced their traditional role." .
Housewives have often been neglected when examining the effect of the second world war on the status of women. They are important to consider as even when the conflict was at its highest, in terms of the volume of woman power involved, there were 8,777,000 women working at home.
