During World War II, this belief changed; women now had to be an essential part of the workforce. Women were desperately needed to replace men at work while they were off fighting the war. Essentially, World War II opened the gates to female work outside the home and redefined women’s role in the paid employment industry. The Second World War redefined Canadian women’s work in the factories as well as typical male jobs. This time period allowed white women and black women to find a place in the workplace.
Even though women were needed, trade unions in industries such as ship building strongly protested women doing “men’s work.” Once the war ended, women lost the jobs they were doing to cover for the men while the men were at war. However, because of the strong effort and pa...
During World War 1 over six million men enlisted to go fight overseas, so there were many jobs that were unoccupied. Women took over traditional work that men previously were responsible for. They were responsible of both managing the home and became the heroes of the home front. However, their appearance into the workforce was most of the time greeted with hatred because male workers were worried that their determination to work for lower wages would put them out of work. Women contributed towards the military a lot during the war by working in munitions factories. The type of work these munitionettes did consisted of making explosives, gun shells, and other materials that supplied the war. The working conditions were horrible because the work they were responsible for was extremely dangerous and hazardous to their health. They were constantly surrounded by toxic fumes and had to handle dangerous machinery and explosives. In addition, they were to handle these explosives and chemicals with very limited training, but they were still expected to make them quickly so that the weapons could be shipped off to the men at war. Another common job that women were responsible for was transportation. They worked as bus, train and ambulance drivers. Since ...
At the start of World War II, most nations were experiencing a shortage of resources. In the United States, food, gasoline, and other scarce goods were being heavily rationed, and many government controls were initiated to lessen the economic burden of the war. At the same time, unemployment was at a record low. Wartime production created a huge labor market, eclipsing the available workforce. Due to the military conscription, most able-bodied men were led overseas to fight in the war, so the country turned to civilian workers, including women. Soon, “Rosie the Riveter” had become a national heroine, representing women laborers, who began replacing men in every facet of industry and performing with excellence (Carl, 34).
On July 8th, 1914 the way Women were perceived changed forever. July 8th, 1914 was the start of the Great War. The Great War was not only a vigorous combat fought for fours years, but it was a change in women’s history as well. World War One permitted Women to have the opportunity to labor alongside the men towards the nationwide aim of conquest and triumph. The War allowed the women to get rid of their home life and move into a more prominent role allowing them to change the way society looked at them. The war not only facilitated employment but it also facilitated Women’s Movements. Throughout the 19th and 20th century women pushed for the chance to redeem themselves within and unaccepting and cruel society. Women tried to participate and be involved as much as they possibly could because of the need for their rights. Astonishingly enough by the end of 1914 there was 5.09 million women out of the 23.8 million employed in the military commerce. World War I headed several substantial developments and improvements for women’s history.
The war brought challenges, new jobs, new skills and lots of opportunities for women. Women were needed for jobs that were traditionally deemed for males only. According to Mathis (1994), government propaganda was responsible for much of the change in society’s acceptance of women in
But the war had changed the perspective of nature of work that women were into
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.
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.
With a growing female labor force during the Progressive Era, it would make sense that the government became more reliant on the female work force. During World War I, the government used propaganda posters, containing images of working as a means to provide a united front and encourage emphasize the impact that women could have on the war. These forms of propaganda continued to become an important aspect as iconic images like “Rosie the Riveter” were placed in cities all over America in order to encourage women to participate in the workforce. After Pearl Harbor, most Americans joined in the wartime effort. For the first time, groups like Women’s Army Corps and the Marine Corps Women’s Reserve took in thousands of women who volunteered for the wartime effort alongside several of thousands of female nurses. In addition to this, women would continue to work past the gender barrier as jobs, such as mechanics and welder, began to take in more women. For the first time, the idea of women working in factories alongside men became socially accepted, primarily due the lack of male workers. Images of “Rosie the Riveter” had a sharp contradiction to those propaganda images used during World War 1 that often depicted a damsel in distress. While some women worked solely for economic growth,