While much of World War II historiography has traditionally focused on military campaigns and male leaders, recent scholarship has illuminated the crucial but often overlooked contributions of women during this global conflict. Women served not only as nurses and factory workers, but as resistance fighters, code breakers, pilots, and intelligence agents.

In the Soviet Union, women served in combat roles in unprecedented numbers, including as snipers, tank operators, and pilots. The famous "Night Witches" were an all-female bomber regiment that conducted harassment bombing missions against German forces. In Britain, women worked at Bletchley Park breaking enemy codes, contributions that remained classified for decades after the war.

Resistance movements throughout occupied Europe relied heavily on women, who could often move more freely than men and were less likely to be suspected by occupying forces. From the French Resistance to partisan groups in Yugoslavia and Italy, women served as couriers, intelligence gatherers, and active fighters.

On the home front, women's entry into traditionally male-dominated industries—aircraft manufacturing, shipbuilding, munitions production—not only supported the war effort but also challenged existing gender roles in ways that would influence post-war society.