"Introduction" [to The W.A.A.F. in Action]

Bates introduces this volume of photographs of Women's Auxiliary Air Force women at work by briefly discussing the minor participation in war by women prior to World War I, the formation of women's corps in that war, and the crucial role of women in the current war.

Displaying prevailing attitudes, Bates notes that while W.A.A.F. "girls" serve in more than sixty trades that would astound "the ardent feminist of 1870," much of the work is still "domestic" and the women are "still unmistakably feminine."

In The W.A.A.F. in Action (London: Adam and Charles Black, 1944, pp. 7-12, attached).