science

New Zealand Women's Land Army

New Zealand Women's Land Army is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand New Zealand Women's Land Army rather than just read about it. In short: The New Zealand Women's Land Army or Women's Land Corps was formed to supply New Zealand's agriculture during the Second World War, with a function similar to its British namesake. The organisation in New Zealand began in an ad hoc manner with volunteer groups set up in various regions as it became apparent that there was an acute labour shortage due to the mobilisation of male farm workers.

Key takeaways

New Zealand Women's Land Army belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect New Zealand Women's Land Army to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of New Zealand Women's Land Army from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The New Zealand Women's Land Army or Women's Land Corps was formed to supply New Zealand's agriculture during the Second World War, with a function similar to its British namesake.

The organisation in New Zealand began in an ad hoc manner with volunteer groups set up in various regions as it became apparent that there was an acute labour shortage due to the mobilisation of male farm workers. There was some opposition to formation of a women's land army. At a meeting of the Waikato branch of the Farmers' Union in May 1940, an attendee said “it is ridiculous to urge girls to work on farms when there are young men in shops doing work that girls could quite easily do”. A representative from the Women's Division of the Farmers' Union said that women should be trained for "domestic purposes" because home help was what was really wanted, and she did not consider it necessary to have a women's land army. A group of paid workers was set up in Matamata in November 1940. In November 1941 the Government announced that it would establish a national Women's Land Corps. City girls from the age of 18 and up were "sent to assist on sheep, cattle, dairy, orchard and poultry properties". Recruitment of members was originally undertaken by the Women's War Service Auxiliary, but the scheme was reorganised in September 1942 and redeveloped as the Women's Land Service. With the reorganisation the basic wages were increased, the uniform and working clothes were liberalised, farmers could employ their relatives, and district Man-Power Officers became responsible for recruitment. These changes made the Service more attractive to both women and farmers and membership increased during the following two years. Membership peaked in September 1944, when 2088 women were employed on farms, and declined after that due to the return of servicemen from overseas, women leaving to marry ex-servicemen and women resigning to take up better jobs. Recruitment stopped with the end of the war on 15th August 1945. A total of 2711 women were employed as members of the Service from the time it was reorganised in September 1942, making it the largest of the women's services raised by New Zealand during the war. The Service was disbanded in 1946.

References

Further reading Bardsley, Dianne (2000). The Land Girls: In a Man's World, 1939–1946. Dunedin, New Zealand: University of Otago Press. ISBN 9781877133947. Montgomerie, Deborah (1989). "Men's Jobs and Women's Work: The New Zealand Women's Land Army in World War II". Agricultural History. 63 (3): 1–14. Montgomerie, Deborah (2001). The Women's War: New Zealand Women 1939–45. Auckland University Press. ISBN 9781869402440. Taylor, Nancy M (1986). The Home Front Volume II. Wellington, New Zealand: Historical Publications Branch.

External links Women's Land Service images, National Library of New Zealand

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with New Zealand Women's Land Army

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what New Zealand Women's Land Army claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to New Zealand Women's Land Army before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about New Zealand Women's Land Army ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of New Zealand Women's Land Army

In research: New Zealand Women's Land Army appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses New Zealand Women's Land Army in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: New Zealand Women's Land Army is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1940 establishments in New Zealand, 1946 disestablishments in New Zealand, Agricultural organisations based in New Zealand, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for New Zealand Women's Land Army outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study New Zealand Women's Land Army in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what New Zealand Women's Land Army means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain New Zealand Women's Land Army out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is New Zealand Women's Land Army in simple terms?

The New Zealand Women's Land Army or Women's Land Corps was formed to supply New Zealand's agriculture during the Second World War, with a function similar to its British namesake. The organisation in New Zealand began in an ad hoc manner with volunteer groups set up in various regions as it became…

Why does New Zealand Women's Land Army matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study New Zealand Women's Land Army?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on New Zealand Women's Land Army.