Women During Ww2

World War II acted as a catalyst for the women of the United States. During the war, stereotypes of American women in society and the workplace were broken.
The central issue that dominated women’s lives during this time period was how to combine the private sphere of the home, with the new demands of the war economy. For the first time women were working in the industries of America. As husbands, father and sons shipped out to fight in Europe, 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. For

Images of Rosie began to transpire throughout many different parts of the world. She appeared on items such as lunchboxes, refrigerator magnets and T-shirts. Much of the hype created during the war was used to convince the audience that women could balance traditional femininity and wartime masculinity. The campaigns targeted several groups of women. First, women already in the workplace, particularly minority women and those who held low paying positions were encouraged to upgrade to factory jobs with better wages. Furthermore, they went after girls barely out of high school, as well as married women with children who didn’t need to work. Although the greatest benefits accumulated to women engaged in previously male work, many women employed in traditionally female fields also benefited from their new competitive labor market position and experienced improvement in wage levels and working

Although patriotism was certainly an encouragement for many women to sign up for war work, it was only one of the many motivations for such actions. Karen Anderson, the author of Wartime Women states, “economic necessity, the excitement and challenge of war work, a disaffection from housework, a desire for more social independence and the sense of purpose accompanying productive work complemented the desire to help with the war effort” (28). However, depictions have been shifted since the war, but women are still framed as symbols of female power, physical strength, self- sufficiency and self-