EnglishHistoryAuthors blog has two articles about British women in the military during World War II.
The Naval units, the WRNS, were voluntary and egalitarian, and quickly morphed from cooking and cleaning and secretaries
Soon the duties assigned WRNS expanded to motor transport, storekeepers, messengers, mechanics, telegraphists and R/T operators, signalers and small-boat handlers. Eventually there were 129 trades including plotters, radar operators. meteorologists, codes and cipher specialists, intelligence officers and anti-aircraft crew. Fundamentally, from 1941 onwards, the WRNS took on all shore-based jobs that did not require physical strength or sea experience, including training RN personnel for their duties at sea.
the larger ATS units had some minor problems since they were led by officers who were chosen for their upper class background, but with time they too proved themselves. Most of the anti Aircraft units included women, for example, and of course, then Princess Elizabeth was a truck driver in one unit.
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