Most women who participated in WWII did not work in combat roles. Instead many women filled jobs such as agents, radio operators, nursing, air raid signaling, hospitalization, rationing, couriers (in spreading information related to the resistance movements against Germany in many Nazi-occupied countries/regions), machine gunners, political officers, tank drivers, communication personnel, administrative positions, clerical positions, and many more. Many organizations were formed specifically for women such as the DYSK (Women's Sabotage Unit) in Poland, the Lotta Svard organization in Finland, the WRNS (Women's Royal Naval Service) in Britain, the ATS (Auxiliary Territorial Service) in Britain, The Air Transport Auxiliary in Britain, the Danish Women Army and Naval Corps in Denmark, the WAAC (Women's Army Auxiliary Corps) in the United States, and the WAC (Women's Army Corps) in the United States.
For many women who did not actively participate in WWII, they had to fill the jobs left by the men that went off to fight the axis. The aircraft industry saw most of the women in action as more than 310,000 women worked in the U.S. aircraft industry in 1943, representing 65% of the industry's total workforce. The munitions industry also recruited female workers heavily. This was represented by the U.S. government's "Rosie the Riveter propaganda campaign. A mainly fictional character but based on real-life munitions worker, the tough, bandanna-sporting Rosie became one of the most successful recruitment tools in American history and the most iconic representation of working women during WWII. The Rosie the Riveter campaign emphasized the patriotic need for women to enter the workforce and many did, in very large numbers. However, though women were crucial to the war effort, their pay remained significantly less than their male counterparts. Female workers rarely earned more than 50% of male wages.