Addresses the argument that enlistment of women in the Australian Women's Army Service during the Second World War impacted significantly on the social structure of the 1940's.

This dissertation addresses the argument that enlistment of women in the Australian Women's Army Service during the Second World War impacted significantly on the social sbucture of the 1940s. It focuses on the question whether enlistment resulted in liberation for women from the restrictions of the social mores of the period, or whether it was merely an exchange of home discipline for military regimentation. By considering their work in units such as artillery batteries, it demonstrates that in the performance of the work allotted to them, members of the Australian Women's Army Service played an important role in paving the way for acceptance of women into new and stimulating areas of employ-ment which were not available to them pre-war. The dissertation points to misconceptions based on an historicist perspective adopted by some modern feminist historians which misinterprets the social behaviour of servicewomen. It considers these misconceptions also arise from their failure to take Army organisation and control, and the range of circumstances in which women serving in the defence forces lived and worked, into account. Because their approach has perpetuated the view of service-women as immoral and tmfeminine this work adopts a revisionist approach to the question of the immorality of servicewomen as presented by these recent historians.