The British government was better prepared for the Second World War, with the women's armed forces already in place. The WAAF and the WRNS were joined by the women's Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) which took over from the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps. All the women's services were run more professionally, with women taking on a greater range of military tasks. They were augmented by the Women's Land Army, under Lady Denman; the Women's Voluntary Service for Civil Defence under Lady Reading and many smaller groups such as the Women's Timber Corps and the ATA. Amy Johnson was ferrying a plane for the Air Transport Auxiliary when she was killed.
In 1941, all single women aged between twenty and forty were obliged to register for war work. This was later extended to include women up to the age of fifty, and married women, though with exemptions for women who were pregnant and who had young children. Like their foremothers in the First World War, they were recruited into government departments and key occupations like nursing, train driving and civil defence. Again, they were the mainstay of the munitions industry. In order to help women juggle their home and working lives, hundreds of nurseries were set up along with works canteens. Some enlightened workplaces even gave women time off for shopping or to collect children from school. By 1943 almost 90% of single women and 80% of married women were involved in some kind of war work.
The war was fought equally on the home front, with women at the forefront of government initiatives such as "make do and mend". They were the ones who knitted socks for "our boys", who were expected to cope with shortages and rations and to keep their families safe during air raids. They were the ones entrusted with keeping the nations' spirits up.
