Women in Second World War

Women in the Second World War

These women risked their lives in order to show the world what the war was doing to the people and to surrounding countries. They used their talent, passion, and dedication to produce historic material. Some women such as Toni Frissell took thousands of pictures "of nurses, front-line soldiers, WACs, African-American airmen, and orphaned children". Frissell worked for Vogue and Harper's Bazaar magazine where she mainly worked on fashion photography. She wanted to break away from prior generations of typical news reporting of fashion and society. After the war started she volunteered for the American Red Cross and many of her images became front page news.

Other women used their voice to report news about the war. One woman Marvin Breckinridge Patterson originally a freelance photojournalist became one of the first women to broadcast for CBS in Europe. She also was one of the first to use a short-wave transmitter to report on location throughout Europe. Using her voice she was able to report the horrific scenes that were displayed everywhere during World War 2. Patterson eventually was forced to end her career after marrying the American Diplomat Jefferson Patterson.

Dorothea Lange is known for being a skilled documentary photographer during the War. Although, her artwork did not receive large recognition until later in time, she was determined to use her photographs to call attention to the present condition of the poor. After studying photography in New York, Lange began traveling the world using money she had earned from selling her artwork throughout her travels. At the time, her photographs gained much criticism from the United States government as they enforced censorship on her images of the poor and starving migrant workers and children of displaced families. Lange's artwork has more recently been recognized as true representation of the crimes that took place at the time of the War, receiving a Guggenheim Fellowship as well as being hung in the Library of Congress.