Monument to the Women of WWII

Women approached World War II as wives, mothers, sisters, and daughters but emerged as factory workers, farmers, pilots, and spies. This transformation is well-represented in John W. Mills' design of the Monument to the Women of World War II located in London, England.

World War II (WWII) was a turning point in British feminism that changed the direction and function of women's roles in Britain. The Monument to the Women of World War II design represents all British women's significant military and civilian efforts. Women's varying roles in the war effort factored heavily into the monument's design and evokes varying reactions in those who visit. Despite being an emblem of the changed wartime role and contribution of British women, the memorial managed to stoke controversy because of conflicts between the women who served in official military capacities and those women who stayed behind to support the war effort in other ways, including factory work, Home Guard service, caring for wounded and sick soldiers, and Women's Voluntary Service.

The monument, dedicated on July 9, 2005, is the long-overdue recognition of Winston Churchill's call to arms: "Let the women of Britain come forward." The intent to distinguish the service of all British women faced challenges from the "value hierarchy" of military culture which often gave higher relevance to those who served in official military capacities. The monument's design by sculptor John W. Mills sought to equalize these factions and communicate that every woman in Britain had a part to play. As noted by Peniston-Bird, "The Blitz… gave the Home Front access to that value hierarchy and blurred the distinction between the two fronts..." The monument, with 17 different sets of clothes, represents how all British women supported the war effort.

Women supporting the war effort is not new, but recognition of their significant contribution is. Before the end of World War I (WWI), England was devoid of national monuments for women and their combat roles, with two notable exceptions: Florence Nightingale, for her service in the Crimean War, and Edith Cavill, who was killed at the start of WWI by a German firing squad for her role in aiding in the escape of Allied soldiers. Following the Great War, two women from York raised funds to restore a five-panel window screen in York Minster, known as "Five Sisters Window" or "The Sisters Window for the Sisters," to commemorate all of the women who had died in WWI.

The original concept for a memorial to the women of WWII was to add a small plaque underneath the "Five Sisters Window" to honor the additional losses incurred by British military women during wartime. At this suggestion, many female veterans and allies in government posts began to raise funds for a "proper memorial." The response was overwhelming, and the monument set off on a new path to London to be placed a short walk from the hallowed Cenotaph, the war memorial to those killed while at war. However, as news of the project spread, so did the desire to represent women's roles outside the sphere of combat, beginning the schism that would eventually mar the spirit of the monument itself.

Joy Bone, a veteran, was highly outspoken in her disdain for the final design, claiming her service as a wireless operator in the Auxiliary Territorial Service was more valuable than that of civilian workers and should therefore be commemorated on a monument exclusively for women of the armed services. In a July 23, 2014 interview with the British news magazine Express, she summarized the opposition stating:

"Have you ever heard of servicemen being mixed in with civilians? In every country in every age the military are a class apart. What was intended to be a memorial to British servicewomen morphed into an all-inclusive one, which to me is a flagrant national and historical injustice."
Fortunately for the women of Britain, this vocal minority did not significantly impact the selection and approval of the final monument design. Britain's population favored an all-inclusive monument that recognized the contributions of women who fought in combat support roles and those who handled the horrors of war on the home front. John Mills seemed to internalize the spirit of women at home needing to step in and fill the support roles critical for military success. The representations of women who performed vital war work on the home front recognize that their wartime sacrifices were significant and on par with servicewomen.

Corinna Peniston-Bird detailed the design process employed by John Mills, including developing the concept from a photo he had seen of a dancehall cloakroom taken during the war. Mills said his design "sprung from his own memories of the war, his aunts, neighbors, and not least his mother's work in munitions." The monument is a rectangular plinth surrounded by 17 hanging sets of clothes representing some of the uniforms women wore during the war. They include women from military auxiliary units and civilians who filled many other functions needed to protect the Home Front and keep the men fighting. He declared, "Women had made these contributions with very little external support." He chose to represent this by making the means of supporting the clothing (hooks) invisible. Bird continues, "The final design avoids prioritizing any one service over the other: the viewer can approach the memorial from any angle and is drawn to walk in a circle around it, with no sense of any suggested hierarchy." The individual figures are detailed so that observers can see which services they represent and thus gain a greater understanding of the work women did in support of the war.

Regardless of the original intent of the selection committee, this monument is powerful because of its equality to every British woman who was part of the war effort. July 23, 2002, Baroness (Tessa) Blackstone rose during Parliament in support of the monuments design plan recognizing both the change wrought on women's roles and the recognition of their contributions:

"We owe an enormous debt of gratitude to these women for their contribution to the winning of the war. As has been pointed out, we won the war partly because everyone worked hard and sacrificed an enormous amount to make sure that that happened. […]

Wherever the 7 million women of Britain served, they carried out their work expeditiously and bravely. While the men came home to parades, recognized as conquering heroes and receiving the accolades of a grateful nation, the brave and selfless women returned to their pre-war work of tending gardens and washing nappies. Peniston-Bird states that the art panel in choosing Mills' plinth recognized that:

"When the Women were called by their country they came [forward in their millions] and did what was asked of them. Now the war is over they have hung up their war garments and returned from whence they came."

WWII changed the lives of women worldwide in ways that would forever alter the paths of future generations. The attempts to put women back into the exact circumstances they had been in before the war proved futile. Instead, women had learned to depend on themselves and each other. This monument successfully expresses the feeling of camaraderie, sisterhood, and shared experience: a desire to rebuild a nation and a better future for generations to come. John W. Mills' monument is a window to the world of evolving feminism where the women of Britain symbolically leave their coats and other baggage at the door and head in to swap war stories, both literal and figurative.

(Edited by Brad Poss and Laura Bailey)

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