Battle Angels of WW2

Just a thought. What if FDR had decided to permit women to enter combat in limited roles in WW2?

I'm not talking Infantry duties or anything, but more comparable to the Soviets. Basically in roles where their "more delicate stature" wouldn't negatively affect performance, or even where their smaller average size might be a boon. For example, on tank crews, flying fighters, or maybe even all female submarine crews that might not be as adversely affected by the tight quarters.

How would this affect things in the short and long term?
 
Social mores of 1940s American make this proposal borderline ASB.

It'd basically require a successful invasion of the mainland or complete exhaustion of American manpower, which doesn't seem all that likely. Another to consider with this, besides social mores, is the very real consideration by the USG on who exactly they were fighting; Given we know for a fact the IJA took White "comfort" women for example, I wouldn't put it past them (the IJA) to enact "revenge" on captured American women.
 
It'd basically require a successful invasion of the mainland or complete exhaustion of American manpower, which doesn't seem all that likely. Another to consider with this, besides social mores, is the very real consideration by the USG on who exactly they were fighting; Given we know for a fact the IJA took White "comfort" women for example, I wouldn't put it past them (the IJA) to enact "revenge" on captured American women.

How well was that last bit known in, say, 1942?
 
How well was that last bit known in, say, 1942?

I'm unsure, but there had been enough incidents occurring in China to give the US well founded concern on this irregardless. If the Allied Intelligence agencies were any good in 1942, they were probably well aware of what was happening to Dutch women in the East Indies as an example. I also seem to recall (I may be wrong on this one) some sort of semi-official Australian policy to enact local revenge killings on any Japanese in the event they come across clear evidence of rapes occurring.
 
To get to this a 19th Century PoD is required, & a profound one. The largest situation of women in 'male' roles was the among the pioneer frontier population. By this I absolutely dont mean the Hollywood version, but harsh ugly reality as it was through the early and middle 19th Century frontier & agrarian communities. Some how fix that as the norm vs the urban middle class culture norms that expanded as the 19th Century ran out & you can get to women in secondary combat roles in the US military. As it was there were a few who came close. ie: The six female nurses put ashore with a hospital unit in the Anzio beach head. But, those numbers are so small they are near irrelevant.

The use of women in Red Army combat units was not entirely a emergency measure. The development of the urban middle class was as not as far along in Czarist Russia so women commonly doing rough manual labor was more common than in 1914 US. Soviet era practice diverged from US European norms somewhat. Women on the large construction sites, on cargo ships, in heavy industrial operations was a bit more common than in the US. Perhaps if somehow the US population had accepted a different set of norms in the 19th Century we might have reached a portion of women in male roles similar to the Soviet population.
 
They could take the place of many men in the stateside U.S. coastal artillery establishment...
 
Just a thought. What if FDR had decided to permit women to enter combat in limited roles in WW2?

I'm not talking Infantry duties or anything, but more comparable to the Soviets. Basically in roles where their "more delicate stature" wouldn't negatively affect performance, or even where their smaller average size might be a boon. For example, on tank crews, flying fighters, or maybe even all female submarine crews that might not be as adversely affected by the tight quarters.

How would this affect things in the short and long term?

The US used women to ferry air craft from the factory to England. I am not sure about the Pacific theater. If my memory serves me right at least one Axis plane was shot down by them.
 
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