Roles Of Women In The 1920s Essay

While researching online sources about the 1920’s and the role women played economically and socially, I found a few authors who wrote journals, newspapers and articles about the explicit details surrounding what changed with women. These authors often spoke about how the roles of women varied considerably. An examination of the record, however, reveals that historians have repeated these descriptions not because research and analysis have confirmed their validity, but because no new questions have been asked about women in the 1920s since the initial impressionistic observations were made. The fact that these interpretations have been handed down for forty years with very little modification makes them suspect, and closer analysis confirms

The attitude and role of women changed during WW1, as many women took on the jobs of men. The influence and expectations of women, and their roles in society, increased during the 1920’s. They labored on the home front and overseas. They took jobs on the nation’s farms in factories, and in shipyards, and served in its military forces. Approximately a million women filled the vacancies left by the men who were now in uniform. Many were young girl’s who had previously worked in local shops and department stores or who had never worked before. Many were wives who had once worked, but had left their jobs to raise families. World War I also marked an important “first” for American women. For the first time in the nation’s history, women were permitted to join the armed forces. “Some 13,000, known as “Yeomanettes,” enlisted in the navy to do clerical work stateside. Nearly 300 entered the Marine Corps as clerks and won the name “Marinettes.” More than 230 women traveled to France as part of the U.S. Army Signal Corps. There, they served as telephone operators for the American Expeditionary force” (Boelcke). This led to women working in areas of work that were formerly reserved for men, for example as railway guards and ticket collectors, buses and tram conductors, postal workers, police, firefighters and as bank ‘tellers’ and clerks. Some women also worked heavy or precision machinery in engineering, led cart horses on farms, and worked in the civil service

This did not happen; either the women were sacked to make way for the returning soldiers or women remained working alongside men but at lower wage rates. But even before the end of the war, many women refused to accept lower pay for what in most cases was the same work as had been done previously by men. During WWI When men were at war the women took the place of men at their jobs that were dangerous and a men’s job. These jobs included: Working as conductors of trams or buses and on farms In engineering, in highly dangerous munitions Industries. “There was a high demand of women to do heavy lifting such as unloading coal, stocking furnaces and building ships” (Boelcke). After WWI, more jobs came open for women. These jobs included: Teacher, secretaries, typists, nurses, seamstresses. Even when men came back from war, women continued to stay in the