In the late 19th century and early 20th century, women in the United States were thought of as inferior. Men did anything they possibly could do, to prevent women from entering certain parts of the industry. They supported their actions with ideas such as "Men are stronger than women". The majority of fighter planes were built by men and it was also men who worked in most of the factories that produced cars and other transportation vehicles, thus implying that technology was a man's job. Women’s jobs included: seamstresses, secretaries, nurses, phone operators, and a majority were housewives. World War II gave middle class women an opportunity to show what they could do. This War changed the social status and working lives of women. World War II helped grow opportunities and confidence among women. It sharpened their skills as they worked in industries that supplied and supported the war. WWII changed the roles of women forever. During World War II there were many job opportunities for women. Since husbands, fathers, sons, and brothers went to fight in the war, the women went to work in factories, offices, and even on military bases. These women went to work in paying jobs that were usually for men. Some women supported the war and became journalists, photographers, nurses and broadcasters. They were covering the biggest story ever, the men that were at war and the women that were at home doing the man’s work. Other women even joined the military. They were not put in front line positions,but they did important jobs like spies, nursing, making guns’ bayonets and aircrafts parts. Women were extremely hard working to the extent that they had to take care of their husband’s businesses back home while they were fighting and many l... ... middle of paper ... ...Networks, 1 Jan. 2014. Web. 16 Mar. 2014. . "Roles for women in WWII." State Library of Victoria Ergo. State Library of Victoria Ergo, 1 Jan. 2014. Web. 16 Mar. 2014. . United States. National Park Service. "Rosie the Riveter: Women Working During World War II." National Parks Service. U.S. Department of the Interior, 1 Jan. 2014. Web. 17 Mar. 2014. . "Women in World War Two." History Learning Site. Chris Trueman, 1 Jan. 2013. Web. 17 Mar. 2014. . Yellin, Emily. Our mothers' war: American women at home and at the Front during World War II. New York: Free Press, 2004. Print. MLA formatting by BibMe.org.
During the World War II women's role were focused on one thing, taking over what used to be the roles of men. Although jobs such as being a nurse, a teacher or working in the textile department swing and making clothes were still essentially classified as the typical “woman's job”, the war provided them not so much a gateway but a wider job opportunity to work in different fields. Such as in munitions factories, earning the name Munitionettes and working in the Armed Forces. In the munitions factories the women worked in all manner of production ranging from making ammunition to uniforms to aircrafts. They counted bullets which were sent to the soldiers at war, they mended aircrafts used by pilots during the war to shoot down enemies like birds in the sky.
Harris, Carol. "Women Under Fire in World War Two". BBC News. BBC, 17 Feb. 2011. Web. 19 Apr. 2014
“At the war’s end, even though a majority of women surveyed reported wanted to keep their jobs, many were forced out by men returning home and by the downturn in demand for war materials… The nation that needed their help in
Red Apple Education Ltd. (2014). Women on the home front. Retrieved March 31, 2014 , from skwirk interactive schooling: http://www.skwirk.com/p-c_s-14_u-91_t-202_c-675/women-on-the-home-front/nsw/women-on-the-home-front/australia-and-world-war-ii/women-in-world-war-ii
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.
For the first time women were working in the industries of America. As husbands and fathers, sons and brothers shipped out to fight in Europe and the Pacific, millions of women marched into factories, offices, and military bases to work in paying jobs and in roles reserved for men in peacetime. Women were making a living that was not comparable to anything they had seen before. They were dependent on themselves; for once they could support the household. Most of the work in industry was related to the war, such as radios for airplanes and shells for guns. Peggy Terry, a young woman who worked at a shell-loading plant in Kentucky, tells of the money that was to be made from industrial work (108). “We made a fabulous sum of thirty-two dollars a week. To us that was an absolute miracle. Before that, we made nothing (108)." Sarah Killingsworth worked in a defense plant. " All I wanted to do was get in the factory, because they were payin more than what I'd been makin. Which was forty dollars a week, which was pretty good considering I'd been makin about twenty dollars a week. When I left Tennessee I was only makin two-fifty a week, so that was quite a jump (114)." Terry had never been able to provide for herself as she was able to during the war. " Now we'd have money to buy shoes and a dress and pay rent and get some food on the table. We were just happy to have work (108).” These women exemplify the turn around from the peacetime to wartime atmosphere on the home front. The depression had repressed them to poverty like living conditions. The war had enabled them to have what would be luxury as compared to life before.
Sorensen, Aja, Rosie the Riveter: Women Working during World War II. Retrieved from http://www.nps.gov/pwro/collection/website/rosie.htm, (n.d.)
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...
Harris, Carol. "Women Under Fire in World War Two." BBC News. BBC, n.d. Web. 16 Apr. 2014.
When we look at the history of women’s paid employment in Canada, we can see that society has come a long way. Previously, women’s work was in the home, in the private sphere. Her work consisted of taking care uniquely of the home and the children. Rarely, would we see women working for a wage expect for poor women; only because, their families needed the income. Mainly, the only jobs that were available for women were domestic service, a job that relates to the private sphere of the home. People believed that if a woman had paid employment, she was taking away a paycheck from a man, or she would become too manly.
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.
Hartmann, Susan M. The Home Front and Beyond: American women in the 1940s. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1982
Williams, Rudi. "United States Department of Defense." Defense.gov News Article: Civilian Women Played Major Role in World War II Victory. 30 May 2004. Web. 20 Mar. 2012. .
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
The article was published on February 6, 1943 in the midst of World War II. Women had become an asset to the war effort and were then considered "At Home Soldiers" or "Riveters". They worked in the factories constructing submarines for the Navy, planes for the Air Force, and became medics.