Women in child search: a gendered view of post- World War II reconstruction

One of the most crucial sections of the International Tracing Service, was the Child Search Branch (CSB), which had the complex task of assisting
‘unaccompanied children’ who were discovered in far larger numbers
after 1945 than anyone had expected.
This article examines the role of three women relief workers who ran the CSB in the post-war period:
Eileen Blackey, Cornelia Heise and Eileen Davidson. Focusing mainly on
these exemplary cases, the authors evaluate and centre the women’s
leadership and decisions, showing how women who worked for the
CSB played roles that subverted the general rule in the United Nations
Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) and its successor
organization, the International Refugee Organization (IRO), which
was that women were directed into ‘feminine’ posts