Between 1917 and 1919 women enlisted in the Women's Land Army, a national organisation with the task of increasing domestic food production. Behind the scenes organisers laboured to not only recruit an army of women workers, but to also dispel public fears that Britain's Land Girls would be defeminized and devalued by their wartime experiences.

An “insightful and extensive” history of the women who took over agricultural duties in England during World War I (Sussex Living Magazine). One could be forgiven for supposing that the story of the Women’s Land Army starts in 1939 during World War II. But it’s a much older and more complicated history . . . British agricultural policy during the First World War was held up as a success story; domestic food production was higher at the end of the war than at the start, the average calorific value of the British diet barely changed, and bread never had to be rationed. As the press reported starvation and food riots overseas, the 1918 harvest was held up as “one of the great achievements of the War.” In 1917, at the darkest hour, when Britain’s food security looked most precarious, it was said that, “if it were not for the women agriculture would be absolutely at a standstill on many farms.” Using previously unpublished accounts and photographs, this book is an attempt to understand how the return of women to the fields and farmyards impacted agriculture—and, in turn, an examination of how that experience affected them. “Caroline’s wonderful book sets the record straight with beautiful illustrations and witting testimony from people who were there and saw how hard these wonderful women worked to keep Britain going during their darkest hours. Superb.” —Books Monthly “This is a well-researched history of the British Women’s Land Army in WW1 and how it paved the way for the success of the WLA in the Second World War.” —World War One Illustrated

A compelling study of the sea change brought about in politics, society, and gender roles during World Wars I and II by campaigns to recruit Women's Land Armies in Great Britain and the United States to cultivate victory gardens. Cecilia Gowdy-Wygant compares and contrasts the outcomes of war in both nations as seen through women's ties to labor, agriculture, the home, and the environment. She sheds new light on the cultural legacies left by the Women's Land Armies and their major role in shaping national and personal identities.

The women who kept the farms going while the soldiers were Over There

Land girls of two world wars depicted by the nation's artists.

Published under the auspices of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, this work is illustrated with photographs depicting land-girls in nearly every branch of the work undertaken during the war. The text by Vita Sackville-West aims at giving a human picture of the land-girl's life. A number of tables of facts and statistics are also included. It is thus a comprehensive survey of an important branch of women's work in the war.

The Women's Land Army was the forgotten victory of the Second World War. While troops fought on the front line, a battalion of young women joined up to take their place as agricultural workers. Despite many of them coming from urban backgrounds, these fearless, cheerful girls learnt how to look after farm land, operate and repair machinery, rear and manage farm animals, harvest crops and provide the work force that was badly needed in the years of the war. Back-breaking work such as thinning crops, continuous hoeing and digging made way for disgusting tasks such as rat-killing. Yet despite it all, the land girls were exuberant, fun-loving and hard-working, and became known for their articulate, feisty, humorous and modest attitude. It therefore comes as no surprise that despite hostility and teasing at the beginning, these robust farm workers won the hearts of the nation, and at the disbandment of the Land Army in the 1950s, the farming community were forced to eat their words. With delightful photographs documenting the camaraderie of the Land Army and real-life memories from those who joined, this nostalgic look at one of the real success stories of the Second World War will make modern women stand proud of what their grandmothers achieved in an era before our own.