Standard and Supremely Smart: Luxury and Women’s Service Uniforms in World War II

Abstract This article examines the conflicted messages and construction of identity associated with women in uniform during World War II. Uniforms are developed as a unifying equalizer for a body of individuals; dress as a symbol, the part standing for the whole. Women’s military dress from this period, however, subverted this aim due to the ambiguous governmental and societal response to the women’s services, and the recruits’ desire for femininity in their military lives. How women used their uniforms to gain access to luxuries that would have been previously unavailable to most of them, such as travel is also explored. These themes will be examined with the help of advertisements, original documents and oral histories.