How War has Effected the Role of Women in Society

913 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The role of women in WW1

How War has Effected the Role of Women in Society The 20th Century has been the period where women in society have got the chance to be 'accepted' in various divisions such as labour, military and voting. I think that the period where war had a drastic effect on the role of women was in the First and Second World War. However, I believe that the war did effect the role of women in many ways, but this only lasted for the period of war. In order to examine how the war effected the role of women in society, we must examine what were the roles of women before the wars. In the years preceding the War women had been employed mainly in service oriented jobs, such as waitress, working as secretaries, laundresses, telephone operators, dishwashers along with doing light industrial work in garment factories and teaching. This statement clearly indicates that women were excluded from jobs which were 'reserved' for men. These included jobs in heavy industry such as production of cars, ships, steel, etc. There was a legitimate reason for this as many people believed that lifting steel for example, was not the job for women. This was total discrimination of women, and resulted them to do service oriented jobs. Most men believed that women's place for in the home, taking care of the family and doing chores. As soon as war arrived, the role of women in society had clearly changed. The author of www.historyplace.com, stated in his 'Women and War' page that propaganda played an important role in changing the roles of women in society. I clearly agrees with this as propaganda which appeared in newspapers, magazines, radio broadcasts, movies and advertisements generally portrayed women as white, middle-class housewives and women who were ... ... middle of paper ... ...ver, in the long-run much could be said about women's performance during the War for women had proven themselves every bit as capable as men in doing male work. This 'Freedom' was experienced by many women and portrayed a change in modern day societies due to the war. Bibliography: www.historyplace.com. The author for the 'Women and War' article is not stated. It is presumed that the author of the article is written by an American respectively. This might have effected the article, as bias and the author's own perspective could have been included. Researcher Program in Library Computers. Most statistics in this essay has been retrieved from the 'Research Program'. The Researcher Program provides significant amount of information with sufficient evidence. Encarta (Version Unknown). Information about the women in Britain was obtained from here.

Show More
Related

  • Norman Rockwell, Rosie The Riveer

    1773 Words  | 4 Pages

    During the time of 1940-1945 a big whole opened up in the industrial labor force because of the men enlisting. World War II was a hard time for the United States and knowing that it would be hard on their work force, they realized they needed the woman to do their part and help in any way they can. Whether it is in the armed forces or at home the women showed they could help out. In the United States armed forces about 350,000 women served at home and abroad. The woman’s work force in the United States increased from 27 percent to nearly 37percent, and by 1945 nearly one out of every four married woman worked outside the home. This paper will show the way the United States got the woman into these positions was through propaganda from

    Read More

  • 20th Century Canada History Essay

    912 Words  | 2 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Women in World War Two

    1430 Words  | 3 Pages

    American women in World War II brought significant changes which although people expectation that life would go back to normal they modify their lifestyle making women free of society pressure and norms, because the war changed the traditional way to see a woman and their roles leading to a new society where women were allowed to study and work in the same way than men. Creating a legacy with the principles of today’s society.

    Read More

  • Women's Role Of Women During The Revolutionary War

    1100 Words  | 3 Pages

    Most of their work became invisible and the women were referred to as amateurs. Many historians consider this time after the war as gender amnesia because everyone after the war forgot all the women did. Women were credited for their contributions. This amnesia caused the women to lose the little inclusion that they had and not many fought this because of the urge to go back to normalcy (Berkin). If the need to become a strong and steady nation had not meant a push back to normalcy, the women may not have been set back as much in terms of inclusion.

    Read More

  • Women in WWII

    588 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • World War Two and Its Impact on the Role of American Women in Society

    1950 Words  | 4 Pages

    Never before this time had women across the country been given the chance to express themselves and hold responsibilities outside their own households. They felt that they were needed and enjoyed their ability to contribute to the war effort. They were given opportunities to prove to the male society that they could be independent and financially secure on their own. These new opportunities were not only for the white women of the population but also the blacks. World War Two acted as a catalyst for change for the women of the United States. Many feel that it was the beginning of a whole new era for the Women of America.

    Read More

  • Flappers

    772 Words  | 2 Pages

    When the war started, women had to take over the jobs of men and they learned to be independent. These women exemplified the beginning of change. Coupled with enfranchisement and the increased popularity of birth control, women experienced a new liberation. When the men returned from the war they found competition from the newly liberated woman who did not want to settle for making a home (Melman 17). This new class of women exercised a freedom that shocked society.

    Read More

  • Women In World War I

    1370 Words  | 3 Pages

    When all the men were across the ocean fighting a war for world peace, the home front soon found itself in a shortage for workers. Before the war, women mostly depended on men for financial support. But with so many gone to battle, women had to go to work to support themselves. With patriotic spirit, women one by one stepped up to do a man's work with little pay, respect or recognition. Labor shortages provided a variety of jobs for women, who became street car conductors, railroad workers, and shipbuilders. Some women took over the farms, monitoring the crops and harvesting and taking care of livestock. Women, who had young children with nobody to help them, did what they could do to help too. They made such things for the soldiers overseas, such as flannel shirts, socks and scarves.

    Read More

  • Women's Employment in the 1940s

    6013 Words  | 13 Pages

    The 1940s provided a drastic change in women’s employment rates and society's view of women. With the end of the Depression and the United States’ entrance into World War II, the number of jobs available to women significantly increased. As men were being drafted into military service, the United States needed more workers to fill the jobs left vacant by men going to war. Women entered the workforce during World War II due to the economic need of the country. The use of Patriotic rhetoric in government propaganda initiated and encouraged women to change their role in society. Yet, at the end of the war, the same ideas that encouraged women to accept new roles had an averse affect on women, encouraging them to leave the workforce. The patriotism promoted by propaganda in the 1940s, encouraged Americans to support the war effort and reinforced the existing patriarchal society. Propaganda's use of patriotism not only increased loyalty to America during the war, but also, increased loyalty to the traditional American patriarchal values held in society.

    Read More

  • The Role of Women in World War II

    605 Words  | 2 Pages

    One of the biggest roles of women in the second world war was working war factories. these were regular factories that had been converted to help the war effort. For example instead of making cars they would make tanks or instead of clothing the factory would make uniforms. Before the war started these factories were generally staffed by men but now most men were drafted into the military leaving tons of available factory jobs open for the taking. Women jumped at the chance to fill these positions, bring in some extra spending money, and support their family, country, and the feminist rights movement. During the war effort Canada actually ended up producing elven billion dollars in munitions two million tonnes of explosives and even uranium for the manhattan project none of this work could have been finished without woman and without the work the woman's rights movement would have never gotten the spark it needed to start.

    Read More

  • Women's Fight to Reform their World in the Early 1900s

    1115 Words  | 3 Pages

    Women’s role in society changed quite a bit during WWI and throughout the 1920s. During the 1910s women were very short or liberty and equality, life was like an endless rulebook. Women were expected to behave modestly and wear long dresses. Long hair was obligatory, however it always had to be up. It was unacceptable for them to smoke and they were expected to always be accompanied by an older woman or a married woman when outing. Women were usually employed with jobs that were usually associated with their genders, such as servants, seamstresses, secretaries and nursing. However during the war, women started becoming employed in different types of jobs such as factory work, replacing the men who had gone to fight in the war in Europe. In the late 1910s The National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) had been fighting for decades to get the vote for women. As women had contributed so much to the war effort, it was difficult to refuse their demands for political equality. As a result, the Nineteenth Amendment to the constitution became law in 19...

    Read More

  • The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter

    1656 Words  | 4 Pages

    Since the war began women were led to believe that they were the ones who had to be the patriotic sacrifice until the men came home from war. The film reveals how the government used the media to alternately urge women to give up such elements of their feminin...

    Read More

  • The Lack of Women's role in society in the 1950s

    1155 Words  | 3 Pages

    However, when the war was over, and the men returned to their lives, society reverted back to as it had been not before the 1940s, but well before the 1900s. Women were expected to do nothing but please their husband. Women were not meant to have jobs or worry about anything that was occurrin...

    Read More

  • Women in World War One

    918 Words  | 2 Pages

    This was the start of a new age in the history for women. Before the war a woman’s main job was taking care of her household more like a maid, wife and mother. The men thought that women should not have to work and they should be sheltered and protected. Society also did not like the idea of women working and having positions of power in the workforce but all that change...

    Read More

  • The Changing Role of Women in Society

    494 Words  | 1 Pages

    A women's role has changed tremendously and is making its greatest impact in our society today. Many years ago, women's contribution to society was limited and controlled by men. Women are standing tall and are playing a major role in many important areas. Women's role has changed at an accelerating rate and have part in areas such as Politics, Professional Training Jobs, Medicine,Business and Law. Formerly they were not part of any political matter, but they have advanced in many aspects. For example, women have attained power and have been growing in political office.

    Read More

More about How War has Effected the Role of Women in Society

Open Document