The Extraordinary Women Who Helped Win WWII with Lena Andrews

Here's Where It Gets Interesting

Sharon McMahon

Government, History, Storytelling, Education

4.9 • 15.1K Ratings

🗓️ 26 May 2025

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This Memorial Day we take a moment to remember the 350,000+ American women who served in uniform during the war, in every service branch, in every combat theater, and in nearly two-thirds of the available military occupations at the time. Their service ranged from critical support roles flying planes across the country, drawing maps to help men get through Normandy, codebreaking, and building & maintaining the behind-the-scenes infrastructural work that made the heroics possible. Sharon is joined by CIA military analyst, WWII expert, and debut author, Lena Andrews, to unveil the scale and scope of what women in uniform contributed during WWII. Credits: Host and Executive Producer: Sharon McMahon Supervising Producer: Melanie Buck Parks Audio Producer: Craig Thompson To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, friends. Welcome, delighted that you're here, and happy Memorial Day.
0:09.6	Today's conversation is very fitting for a day like today. I am speaking with historian Lena Andrews about valiant women,
0:17.1	women who served in important military roles in the United States. And I think you'll love this
0:22.6	conversation. So let's dive in. I'm Sharon McMahon. And here's where it gets interesting.
0:31.1	I was really excited to see your book come out because this is a topic that interests me greatly.
0:41.0	I've produced a number of podcast episodes and series on this topic and I just can't get enough. It's one of those things where it's like if I could
0:45.0	make 25 more episodes about it, I would. So I know so many people listening to this are going to be
0:50.9	very, very interested in what you have to say today. So welcome. Thank you for
0:55.6	your time. And I would love to have you give us just a little bit of an overview about what this book is
1:01.0	about and how you even became interested in this topic. Well, it's one of my favorite questions.
1:08.0	So thank you for asking it. Thank you for having me here. I've listened to many of your podcasts on this very topic. So thank you for asking it. Thank you for having me here. I've listened to
1:11.0	many of your podcasts on this very topic. So thank you for taking an interest in it. You know, I think so few
1:16.6	people sort of understand the scope and magnitude. And you've done a lot of really great work to
1:21.4	bring that to your listeners. So I'm delighted to be here. It's all it's all to say. So I think as you
1:26.9	probably know, and many of our listeners already know,
1:29.6	we all know about Rosie the River, but I think what's most interesting to me is that I consider
1:36.2	myself a World War II experts. I have a background in World War II. I've been studying it for a decade
1:40.3	or more. And even someone like me was surprised at the scale and scope of women's
1:46.4	contributions, particularly in uniform in World War II. And for whatever reason, even as we
1:51.6	started to get a richer understanding of women's contributions in World War II, we have sort of,
1:57.2	I don't want to say, cut out women in uniform, but I don't think they've gotten as
2:01.8	much of the credit that they've sort of deserved. Over 350,000 American women served in military
	...

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