The lives of many Australian women changed dramatically between 1940 and 1945 when there was pressure for young women to participate in the war effort, particularly in the armed services.
A few hundred Australian nurses had served both during the Boer War and World War I – nursing being the only available service role for Australian women at that time. It was not until World War II that women were asked to serve in non-nursing roles.
During 1941, it became apparent that women would need to be employed in the armed services so that servicemen in non-combatant roles could be released to combat units. Brightly coloured recruitment posters encouraged young women to join up and more than 66,000 of them enlisted in the three services – just under 7% of the nearly 1 million Australians who served.
Thousands of young Australian women left home to join the new women's auxiliary services: the Women's Auxiliary Australian Air Force (WAAAF), the Women's Royal Australian Naval Service (WRANS) and the Australian Women's Army Service (AWAS). Newly qualified, as well as experienced, nursing sisters joined the two new nursing services: the Royal Australian Air Force Nursing Service (RAAFNS) and the Royal Australian Naval Nursing Service (RANNS) as well as the existing Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS). In December 1942, the Australian Army Medical Women's Service (AAMWS) was established and members served as nursing aides alongside army nurses.