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When we think of war, our minds often picture the front lines—mud-soaked trenches, battlefield strategy, and the echo of marching boots. People and history often remember the ones who marched into battle, but they forget those who stayed behind and quietly held the country together from the behind the curtain.

During both World Wars, the Women’s Land Army played a critical role in Britain’s survival: not through combat, but through cultivation. As men left farms to fight overseas, women stepped in to work the land, maintain food supplies, and keep an entire nation from going hungry.

So, who were these women, really? What made them trade city life for rural hardship, and how did they cope with the isolation, the physical demands, and the societal backlash? Click through this gallery and dig deeper into the story of these formidable women.

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During World War I and World War II, the Women’s Land Army (WLA) was a civilian workforce of women who filled in for men, all to ensure that Britain’s food production stayed strong amid the ongoing wars.

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As the men fought abroad, the urgent need to feed families and troops pushed thousands of British women to trade domestic duties for the heavy demands of agricultural labor across the countryside. Between 1939 and 1950, the WLA had employed well over 200,000 women.

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Members of the WLA were known as “Land Girls.” They performed a vast array of jobs that included harvesting fields, plowing land, picking fruit, milking cows, cutting timber, and even catching rats to protect valuable food supplies.

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Land Girls played a critical role in both global conflicts, from its early days in 1917 to its eventual disbandment in 1950, supporting Britain through resilience and toil.

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In 1915, the First World War drained the United Kingdom of its male farm workers, who had been conscripted to fight in the war. This made it nearly impossible to manage seasonal agricultural work while German U-boats cut off overseas supplies.

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To assist in the war effort, women independently volunteered to help on farms. Not long after, the Women’s National Land Service Corps was founded in 1916 to bring structure to female farm labor. This marked one of Britain’s first attempts to mobilize women for agricultural work.

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War Agricultural Committees often dismissed women’s involvement due to gender biases, believing they were too physically weak for farm work. Determined to change perceptions, the Board of Agriculture organized rallies and demonstrations to prove women were capable.

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In 1917, Director Meriel Talbot led the establishment of the Women’s Branch of the Board of Agriculture, forming a nationwide program to train women in practical farming. Training centers were established on selected farms or agricultural colleges, where women attended four to six weeks of hands-on instruction before deployment to struggling farms.

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The recruitment process included medical exams and labor aptitude tests. Preference was given to unemployed women and those with prior farm experience, especially over the age of 20.

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Land Girls wore trousers (which was considered scandalous at the time) for functionality, and many adopted bobbed hairstyles. Many of the societal expectations around femininity were disregarded in favor of efficiency.

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Posters that illustrated a starving Britain encouraged women from across the UK to serve, while uniformed rallies also stood as emotional appeals that showcased the pride and purpose of being a Land Girl.

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By the end of World War I, 23,000 women had served in the WLA. The organization was disbanded after WWI, but as the world teetered toward another global conflict in 1939, the call for women’s agricultural labor again grew urgent.

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When WWII began, the WLA was reinstated, and by the fall of 1941 over 20,000 women had volunteered to rejoin Britain’s food production army on the home front.

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Volunteering soon became mandatory. By late 1941, women could be conscripted into the Land Army, officially becoming part of Britain’s wartime strategy. Many women from urban centers like London were shocked by the isolation of rural farms. Used to city life, they found adjusting to the quiet countryside difficult.

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To support Land Girls and their host families, over 700 hostels were built across Britain by 1944, housing 22,000 women and easing domestic burdens on farm households.

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Despite working long hours and in harsh conditions, women earned less than men (only 28 shillings weekly, while their male counterparts earned 10 shillings more for similar work). To put that into perspective, a weekly earning of 28 shillings would be worth only £55 today, or about US$71.

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The WLA grew essential crops like potatoes, cabbage, carrots, beetroot, and tomatoes, distributing produce both to civilians and to wounded soldiers aboard hospital ships.

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In 1943, 40,000 Italian prisoners of war worked with the Land Girls, planting and harvesting across British farmland under supervision while forming unique wartime working relationships with the impressive women.

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Dairy farming became a major focus by 1944, with nearly one-fourth of Land Girls overseeing up to 40 cows at a time, managing milking routines and equipment sanitation. Caring for livestock also meant assisting births, raising piglets and lambs, feeding animals, and even keeping detailed breeding records.

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Unsurprisingly, vermin were a major threat to stored food, so some Land Girls joined anti-vermin squads. They hunted rats, foxes, and rabbits with fierce determination, all to protect harvests from ruin.

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Land Girls also maintained the landscape by laying hedges, clearing ditches, and trimming trees to keep animals from escaping or injuring themselves on overgrown land. In East Anglia, the Women’s Land Army played a vital role in helping the government drain thousands of acres of land, reclaiming it for agricultural use.

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Plowing with tractors and operating machinery became part of the job. Women developed technical skills that expanded future employment options beyond traditional female roles of the era.

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The Land Girls became particularly adept at threshing during the harvest seasons, which entailed separating the edible part of grain from the chaff. While the work was exhausting, it was also dangerous, as the women had to constantly fight off vermin.

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In 1942, a branch of the WLA known as the Women’s Timber Corps was founded to cut wood for mine supports and communication lines. Previously, Britain had relied on imported timber, but this supply line was decimated due to Germany’s occupation of Norway.

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Lumber Jills received stricter physical exams compared to other women in the WLA. They cut, measured, and loaded timber, burned brush, and learned to handle axes and lorries in male-dominated forest zones.

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About 6,000 women joined the Timber Corps. Their efforts helped fuel coal mining, communication networks, and national infrastructure during wartime shortages.

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Though WWII ended in 1945, the WLA continued until 1950 to maintain agricultural output while men and prisoners of war gradually returned to their previous roles.

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Despite rigorous recruitment, training, and uniforms, members of the Women’s Land Army were denied the recognition given to other women’s military units. Some members referred to the WLA as a “Cinderella Service” due to their neglect.

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Though long underappreciated, the Women’s Land Army proved that women could handle grueling, skilled labor. They didn’t just keep Britain alive; they helped rewrite what women could be at a time when men doubted their capabilities.

Sources: (TheCollector) (Imperial War Museums) (National Women’s History Museum) (Britannica)