Women's Role Of Women During The 1940s

During the late 1930s and early 1940s women roles were changing with the war happening. Women were kept at home doing housework, taking care of the children and husbands. When the First World War came, society started seeing women come out and work. By the end of the war women were put back into their homes and back again doing housework. Once the Second World War came along women went back to work to help out their solider husbands. Most women liked the changes and some did not. This change also sparked many arguments whether women should be allowed to work. Women changed their clothes and their forms of employment during the 1940s. Once the men went off to serve in the war, spots were left vacant in many factories. The employers needed production

“At the same time more women than ever entered paid employment to fill the gaps in the market left by their soldier husbands.” (Vaizey, pg. 1) With the men away at war, their spots at their everyday job were empty, many women took the jobs of their husbands and men that had left to serve. Some women who have been relocated were not happy at first. Stepping out of their comfort zone and into the field that only men worked was stressful for them. The roles of women in American society was presented as men the producers and providers and women as mother and wives. The only women that worked at that time were of those families that didn’t have enough money if their husbands had jobs. If any of these working women had jobs, the women were limited to feminine jobs such as clerking and teaching. A poll in 1936 stated that 82 percent of men believed that women with working husbands should not be allowed to work. Many jobs have sent out advertisement and propaganda to target women to work for them. Some of the propaganda that was influenced had models dressed up being feminine patriotic. After Pearl Harbor many men and women had to help and do their part for the

Some women did not want to adapt into the uniform that was given. Many of those women did not want to lose their identity portrayed as a women when wearing their uniform with large aprons covering their dresses. The changes in the workforce in becoming the provider caused many conflicts for women. There were restrictions in fabric materials by the government order L-85 on clothing designs. All materials were being rationed. It was a hard for women to find the right clothes that matched what was portrayed as women clothes because of the shortage of materials. “Furthermore, the modern product category of women’s pants was not commercially available on a national level during World War II.” (Hall pg. 6.) Many women did not like the clothes that was given to them to work with, but there were also restrictions in the clothing materials. Many women made up strategies to appear feminine at work. At this time propaganda was showing models dressed up as workers and dressed up for work. The uniforms were made to flatter the women bodies, specifically their waist and breast area. One major conflict in the work field was that women had to be available and responsible to men’s sexual desire. Men would grab and call out at women, teasing and whistling. Some of the companies did not like the idea of women dressing up, because they believed men would be distracted from their own work when they were