A Plan of the Investigation The aim of this investigation is to research the question, “How did the involvement of women in World War II on the home front affect the role and position of women in society?” The scope of the investigation has one main focus: women who remained in the United States and how they pushed the role of women in society forward. Within this topic, it is broken down into women who joined the labor force and women who remained in the household. B Summary of Evidence There were varying levels of involvement of women during World War II, but this investigation will be looking at women who remained in the United States of America. There are two subsections: women who joined the previously male-dominated business realm, and women who continued to work in the domestic sphere. At the beginning of WWII, it was evident that to win the war, weapons and aircraft would have to be produced; but because most men were overseas, women had to manufacture those goods (Weatherford 154). It was recorded later that of 1950s female workers, 22% entered the work force during the war (Goldin 8). Some manufacturers modified their factories to make them better for female workers, but most did not approve of women in the workplace. To discourage them, women were paid less for doing the same job as men (Weatherford 173). The average skilled female worker in 1944 made $23.44 less than the average man per week, earning just $31.21 (Hartmann). Fortunately, many women were not working for the pay, they were working for the war effort (Weatherford 180). Women wanted to decide whether or not they could start a career, so they came in droves to work (Weatherford 170). At most, there were 19,170,000 female workers (Hartma... ... middle of paper ... ...II. Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2009. Print. Library of Congress. Women Come to the Front: Journalists, Photographers, and Broadcasters During World War II. Washington D.C.: Library of Congress, 1995. Print. McEuen, Melissa A. Making War, Making Women: Femininity and Duty on the American Home Front, 1941-1945. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2011. Print. "Rosie the Riveter." Gale Encyclopedia of U.S. Economic History. Ed. Thomas Carson and Mary Bonk. Detroit: Gale, 1999. Student Resources in Context. Web. 15 Apr. 2014. Weatherford, Doris. American Women and World War II. New York: Facts on File, 1990. Print. “Welcome.” Jordynn Jack, PhD. n.p., 18 Nov. 2011. Web. 30 April 2014. "World War II." Gale Encyclopedia of U.S. Economic History. Ed. Thomas Carson and Mary Bonk. Detroit: Gale, 1999. Student Resources in Context. Web. 15 Apr. 2014.
“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.
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.
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.
World War II opened a new chapter in the lives of Depression-weary Americans. The United States of America had an unusual importance in the war, it had been spared the physical destruction that had taken place throughout the world. Americans on the home front did not see the fighting and brutality as other countries experienced it. However, the events and changes on the home front due to the World War transformed America. One of the greatest conversions was that of the American woman. Women around the country were transformed from the average house wife into a person with a voice and most importantly a purpose.
World War I and industrialization both brought greater economic autonomy to American women. With immigration curtailed and hundreds of thousands of men needed for the armed forces, women’s labor became a wartime necessity. About 1.5 million women worked in paying jobs during the war, with many more employed as volunteers or secretaries and yeomen for the Army, Navy, and Marines (James and Wells, 66). Women retained few of those 1.5 million jobs after men returned from war, but the United States’ industrialized postwar economy soon provided enough work for men and women alike. Once confined to nursing, social work, teaching, or secretarial jobs, women began to find employment in new fields. According to Allen, “They ...
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...
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.
Many factors affected the changes in women’s employment. The change that occurred went through three major phases: the prewar period in the early 1940s, the war years from 1942-1944, and the post war years from around 1945-1949. The labor shortage that occurred as men entered the military propelled a large increase in women’s entrance into employment during the war. Men's return to the civilian workforce at the end of the war caused the sudden drop to prewar levels. The cause of the sudden decline during post war years of women in the paid workforce is unclear. Many questions are left unanswered: What brought women into the war industry, ...
World War II affected the workforce of men and women in different ways, men were drafted to war while women took their place in factories and workyards. Patriotism influenced women into working while the men were at war. Once at work, women were convinced to go to work by the economic incentives, the women learned about the nonmaterial benefits that come with working such as learning new skills, contributing to the public good, and proving that women can do the jobs meant for men just as good as the men could do the work (1940s.org). Women in the 1940s were hesitant to join the workforce, that was until Norman Rockwell’s fictional character “Rosie the Riveter” inspired multiple women to join the workforce to help dedicate their services to the war. The creation of “Rosie the Riveter”lead to, many other images of “Rosie” to help bring forth volunteers for the
Women played a crucial role during World War II, both with the production of war materials, and keeping our country from sliding back into a depression. Since the 1940s, women have continued to struggle to prove that they can do the same jobs that a male worker can do, and should get paid the same amount for it. Equal pay for women has continued to be an intensely debated subject since World War II, when women stepped up to fill the void in the workforce that men left behind when they courageously fought to defend our country.
During America’s involvement in World War Two, which spanned from 1941 until 1945, many men went off to fight overseas. This left a gap in the defense plants that built wartime materials, such as tanks and other machines for battle. As a result, women began to enter the workforce at astonishing rates, filling the roles left behind by the men. As stated by Cynthia Harrison, “By March of [1944], almost one-third of all women over the age of fourteen were in the labor force, and the numbers of women in industry had increased almost 500 percent. For the first time in history, women were in the exact same place as their male counterparts had been, even working the same jobs. The women were not dependent upon men, as the men were overseas and far from influence upon their wives.
The 1940’s was an interesting and critical time for the United States of America. World War II began in the late 1930’s and moved on into the 1940’s. The United States Army joined in 1941 and “when the United States entered World War II, every aspect of life in America was affected by the conflict” (The 1940’s). New opportunities arose for women because of all the men out at war, so women had the chance to show off their skills and capabilities. They operated machines in factories and worked with heavy artillery. If a person did not fight the war for their country, they made weapons for the brave soldiers. This caused a drastic increase in the growth of the economy in the United States.
1995). Although women made a lot of progress during the war, their roles changed again after the war ended as men returned to their jobs. Women were expected to “give up their wartime jobs and resume their homemaking role full-time” (Women Aviators in World War II). In 1944, the US Women’s Bureau took a survey of women “in ten war production centers around the nation [and] found that 75 percent of them planned to keep working in the postwar period. Moreover, 84 percent of the women employed in manufacturing… wanted to keep their factory jobs” (Milkman, R. 1987). Surveys conducted during the war “consistently found that the overwhelming majority of women war workers intended to continue working after the war and to stay in the same line of work” (Milkman, R. 1987). Although women wanted to maintain their jobs, “women were forced out by men returning home and by the downturn in demand for war materials” (Women in WWII at a Glance). The same propaganda agencies that had begged women to work during the war, “now extolled the virtues of giving up their jobs so returning men had work” (Farm Life). A year after World War II ended, “three and a half million women had voluntarily or involuntarily left the labor force” (Colman, P. 1995). Over time, women returned to the labor force “either because of economic convenience, the desire to buy more consumer products, or economic necessity. Other women returned to work simply because they wanted the satisfaction [of working]” (Farm Life). As a result, women began occupying new jobs that had not existed when the war began. These jobs “came about from the technological advances made throughout the war” (A Change in Gender Roles). For example, women sold Tupperware because they could earn money and work from their homes. Their schedules were flexible and could accommodate the needs of their children while they worked (American
In this semester, we have read several books arguing that wars brought women the opportunity to enter the presumed men’s spaces such as entering military industry to replace the drafted male soldiers. However, was the gain permanent? From Home/Front edited by Hagemann and Schüler-Springorum, we learned that the postwar German authorities desperately attempted to restore the status quo ante in gender relations. Ruth Milkman’s social history Gender at Work presented a similar scenario faced by American female workers in their workplace during and after the WWII.
Women showed their skill and ability to work, changing their role in society. “Women were hired for traditionally male occupations” (“Women in business”). After being hired for male jobs, women were portrayed differently and not as the average housewife. In 1944 women addressed the fact they do not get equal pay for equal work and to have working conditions improved (“Women in Society”). That included having childcare for working mothers. This prepared women to be more aggressive and be more demanding so society would accept them and so they could continue taking on these nontraditional roles after war (“Women in Society”). Working made women more demanding and they stood up themselves. It did take some convincing to have women join the workforce. The concept of working women was encouraged and advertised during the war because employment was necessary. Rosie the Riveter was also a shaped image and type of role model for women to follow (“Women in Society”). Women were comfortable being housewives before the demand for workers, but things had to change. Women’s viewpoint changed from staying home and taking care of the household, to them not wanting to be known as a housewifes anymore. “They demanded participation in the public arena and refused to accept the restrictions of traditional gender roles”(“Women in Society”). Women wanted to participate more in the community and contribute more to the country. Not only did they want to participate more in society, but they wanted to be viewed as equal to men in society. In 1944, women addressed the fact they do not get equal pay for equal work and to have working conditions improved. That included having childcare for working mothers. This prepared women to be more aggressive and be more demanding so society would accept them and to continue taking on these nontraditional roles after the war (“Women in Society”). After witnessing how they were able