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Womanhood during wwi
Womanhood during wwi
Research paper on women in the military
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By the start of the Second World War in 1939, women had proven themselves capable of more than just motherhood and housewifery. In the first three decades of the 20th century alone, they won the right to vote, sought higher education, joined the workforce, and held strikes to attain better working conditions. Time and time again, women have overcome adversity and shown their full capacity to the world. However, the world is often blind to reality and chooses what it wants to see. This was the unfortunate case for military women during World War II. Recruits for the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) were not respected as their male counterparts were. To many, their enthusiastic involvement in military work was an anomaly and threat to both men and gender norms. As such, they were treated not as humans, but as women, an inferior being who needed guidance, rules to abide by, and others to control the most intimate aspects of their lives.
The belief that women are the gentler, weaker sex is one that has been held since the dawn of time. Women have always been expected to live their lives as quietly and unobtrusively as possible. When the women’s branch of the army formed in May 1942 this already fragile belief began to crumble even more. In the years preceding the war, the scope of women in society was gradually beginning to expand. Women could now work outside the home and earn their own wages, albeit in still typically “feminine” jobs and for less money than men. But many saw the participation of women in the military as more than a threat to jobs. The army was now a threat to a woman’s sexuality. The public worried that by joining a workforce so undeniably masculine women would start to behave like men. Complaints that the army would turn...
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...the many accomplishments of women display the spectrum of their capabilities, society’s idealized view of them is too ingrained to change overnight. To this day women are too often seen as inferior objects that more sentient beings (men) must protect the purity of by any means necessary. In the military this was achieved in a wider range by officers who strictly limited the actions women took and the information they received. On a more intimate, but equally controlling level, female soldiers used homophobia and secrecy to gain freedom. Just as the women of today continue to do, women of the World War II era were born into and perpetuated a cruel and controlling world.
Works Cited
Meyer, Leisa D. “Creating G.I. Jane: The Regulation of Sexuality and Sexual Behavior in the Women’s Army Corps during World War II.” Feminist Studies 1992: 590, 595. Web. 08 Nov. 2013.
Within Megan H. Mackenzie’s essay, “Let Women Fight” she points out many facts about women serving in the U.S. military. She emphasizes the three central arguments that people have brought up about women fighting in the military. The arguments she states are that women cannot meet the physical requirements necessary to fight, they simply don’t belong in combat, and that their inclusion in fighting units would disrupt those units’ cohesion and battle readiness. The 1948 Women’s Armed Services Integration Act built a permanent corps of women in all the military departments, which was a big step forward at that time. Although there were many restrictions that were put on women, an increase of women in the U.S. armed forces happened during
Later, in World War II, there was another change in women’s rights. During World War I, women were unable to join the military; they were only able to help out as nurses and support staff; however, during World War II, women were able to join the military but were unable to fight in combat missions. In summary, as you can clearly see women’s rights experienced extreme levels of change during the 20th
“There was much more to women’s work during World War Two than make, do, and mend. Women built tanks, worked with rescue teams, and operated behind enemy lines” (Carol Harris). Have you ever thought that women could have such an important role during a war? In 1939 to 1945 for many women, World War II brought not only sacrifices, but also a new style of life including more jobs, opportunities and the development of new skills. They were considered as America’s “secret weapon” by the government. Women allowed getting over every challenge that was imposed by a devastating war. It is necessary to recognize that women during this period brought a legacy that produced major changes in social norms and work in America.
World War Two was the period where women came out of their shells and was finally recognized of what they’re capable of doing. Unlike World War One, men weren’t the only ones who were shined upon. Women played many significant roles in the war which contributed to the allied victory in World War Two. They contributed to the war in many different ways; some found themselves in the heat of the battle, and or at the home front either in the industries or at homes to help with the war effort as a woman.
The events of World War II have established a new public perspective on women. Through women’s accomplishments, they justified females were capable of achieving high standards that existed once as only attainable by men. Once vulnerable to prejudices, they’ve given an opportunity for all to comprehend there can be a life when the populaces aren’t segregated by race or gender. Women have rehabilitated the faded thought of their rights and responsibilities, bringing history closer to a more righteous and responsible dawn.
“ The courage of women in the munitions factories has never been sufficiently recognized. They had to work under conditions of real danger to life and limb, and what some of the...
My interviewee went through a lot during World War II and sharing her amazing story left me evaluating her words for a long time, rethinking and still not willing to imagine the pain. She was one of the 150,000 American woman served in the Women’s Army Corps during the war years. They were one of the first ones to serve in the ranks of the United States Army. She recalls being teased a lot about being a young woman in a uniform but was very proud of it. Women finally were given the opportunity to make a major contribution to the national affair, especially a world war. It started with a meeting in1941 of Congresswoman Edith Nourse Rogers and General George Marshall, who was the Army’s Chief of Staff. Rogers asked General to introduce a bill to establish an Army women’s corps, where my interviewee, Elizabeth Plancher, was really hoping to get the benefits after the World War II along with other women. ( Since after World War I women came back from war and were not entitled to protection or any medical benefits. )
"From Home Front to Front Line." Women in War. Ed. Cecilia Lee and Paul Edward Strong. N.p.: n.p., n.d. N. pag. The Churchill Centre. Web. 23 Apr. 2014.
In a 1944 magazine article, Eleanor Roosevelt claimed that American “women are serving actively in many ways in this war [World War II], and they are doing a grand job on both the fighting front and the home front.”1 While many women did indeed join the workforce in the 1940s, the extent and effects of their involvement were as contested during that time as they are today. Eleanor Roosevelt was correct, however, in her evaluation of the women who served on the fighting front. Although small in number due to inadequate recruitment, the women who left behind their homes and loved ones in order to enlist in the newly established Women’s Auxiliary Army Corp (WAAC), and later the Women’s Army Corps (WAC), were deemed invaluable to the war effort.
World War I is remembered as a soldier's conflict for the six million men who
Before 1939, women were looked at as weak, incompetent and incapable of doing a man’s job. However, when World War II broke out, women were called to maintain the jobs that the men once occupied and it became evident that America’s best chance for success in World War II would have to include the efforts of American females. Women played a key role during World War II in the U.S. More than six million women took wartime jobs in factories, three million volunteered with the Red Cross, and over 200,000 served in the military. Through these jobs, women were able to show society that they were capable of doing bigger and better things.
With the advent of the 1920s and the signing of the Nineteenth Amendment came a rapid movement toward women’s rights. It sped up with the beginning of World War II where six million women went to work in military factories, producing ammunition and other military goods for the sixteen million troops fighting abroad. The end of the war brought the realization that American women could work just as hard and efficiently as American men. Thus the idea of feminism was born. From here, the momentum continued before taking a hit with the loss of the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1980s. This only caused women to fight harder and soon a new generation of independent women arose in the early 1990s. Nowadays, self-sufficient women can be found everywhere as CEOs in companies like PepsiCo and Kraft Foods or as associate justices on the Supreme Court. However, all the strides taken thus far had its origins not in businesses or the government but in the military. Since Joan of Arc first picked up a sword to fight for the French, women have disguised themselves as men in order to fight for their country and for their own personal independence. For example, during the Civil War (1860-1865), nearly three hundred women fought bravely in support of both the Northern and Southern cause (Weiser). Yet despite their bravery, three hundred seems trivial next to the approximately three million male soldiers that fought next to them (Weiser). The majority of contributions came from the women who stayed within the societal boundaries of the time. Unfortunately, most accounts of women in the Civil War focus on the hidden soldiers and not the supporting housewives. With such a small amount of women defying the norm, one has to wonder to what extent did women ...
Various socioeconomic classes of women were targeted by wartime propaganda mobilizing them to “do their part”. Customarily, single women of the lower and middle classes were recruited into the...
The film titled, “The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter”, looks at the roles of women during and after World War II within the U.S. The film interviews five women who had experienced the World War II effects in the U.S, two who were Caucasian and three who were African American. These five women, who were among the millions of women recruited into skilled male-oriented jobs during World War II, shared insight into how women were treated, viewed and mainly controlled. Along with the interviews are clips from U.S. government propaganda films, news reports from the media, March of Time films, and newspaper stories, all depicting how women are to take "the men’s" places to keep up with industrial production, while reassured that their duties were fulfilling the patriotic and feminine role. After the war the government and media had changed their message as women were to resume the role of the housewife, maid and mother to stay out of the way of returning soldiers. Thus the patriotic and feminine role was nothing but a mystified tactic the government used to maintain the American economic structure during the world war period. It is the contention of this paper to explore how several groups of women were treated as mindless individuals that could be controlled and disposed of through the government arranging social institutions, media manipulation and propaganda, and assumptions behind women’s tendencies which forced “Rosie the Riveter” to become a male dominated concept.
When the war began men had to leave their families and jobs behind. World War I was a complete war because all of the world’s assets had to be used and the entire nation’s population was involved. Anyone that had the ability to work had to work. The women had to take up jobs and went through a lot changes in order to support their families during the war. World War I gave women with the chance to have a significant part in the victory of the war which had an impact them and changed the lives of all women forever.