"This is a war to end all wars." - Woodrow Wilson, Not exactly but at the time it was fitting for America to stay strong. America has had it's fair share of panics and crashes in our economy because of greedy money grubbers. I see this as a fitting topic as the topic of the Great Depression discussed in class was a little short for me so, what happened to jobs before, during, and after The Great War. Now Before World War one America was still doing fine other than having Germany and France duking it out while America just wanted to stay safe by being neutral and keep things under control by restricting the use of submarines. Unfortunately the Germans sink American ships and now it's on for America as soon as it's agreed upon by congress.
Now you may be wondering when do I get to the job portion of this I will right now. The Great War had provided a great opportunity for women to be recruited into the workforce in the absence of men because of The Great War. The largest employer for women because of the war was, a Munitions factory because war can't be fought without ammo. There was an initial resistance in the beginning from allowing women to work for something that was meant for man but if they had, the Allies may have suffered much more losses, possibly even have lost. They gave in to allow the women to work a man's job, they still didn't give them equality by giving them less pay than a man which will lead to protests for equal pay.
Women
(Yes this actually exists)
Government
Government
The women employment rate had jumped up by about 30% and they weren't very pleased with what they did because of the effects of working in the munitions factory had ended up killing over 400 women because of overexposure to TNT. When the war was finally said and done, when the soldiers returned home guess what the ladies were sacked, some stayed but still had the same pay as during the war. Strikes began to occur and the government was questioning whether they should give them equal pay and jobs because the strikes were getting to be a bit much. An example of this is when women were being payed only 11 shillings whereas men were payed 26 shillings. The government wanted to put an end to this because of the many protests that were occurring because of it but some companies would not accept this change such as, Cradley Health. In 1910 before The Great War even began, Cradley Health wouldn't accept the law that the government had created and still paid the women workers there 5-6 shillings a week for working 54 hours. The National Federation of Women Workers(NFWW) met and decided that it was unfair and, over 800 women workers began a strike daily. One of the workers Macarthur a worker at Cradley Health created a film the terrible working conditions calling them akin to medieval torture chambers. After this, their strikes had gained much more support and, after a month they made over 60% of employers agree to the minimum wage rates. Six weeks after this, the rest of the boycotting employers finally give in and the women had won minimum wage. Cradley Health had doubled it's pay to 11 shillings per week and, had 1700 workers in 1911. The Great War was a terrible experience but, not everything was bad about the war occurring, in fact it helped women to have equal pay.
Links:
http://www.striking-women.org/module/women-and-work/world-war-i-1914-1918
http://americainclass.org/sources/becomingmodern/prosperity/text6/text6.htm
http://www.greatwar.nl/quotes/immortal33.html
https://www.treasurydirect.gov/kids/history/history_wwi.htm
Links:
http://www.striking-women.org/module/women-and-work/world-war-i-1914-1918
http://americainclass.org/sources/becomingmodern/prosperity/text6/text6.htm
http://www.greatwar.nl/quotes/immortal33.html
https://www.treasurydirect.gov/kids/history/history_wwi.htm
The home front fight against the war was just as important! Many women ran their homes and took care of their families while the men were away at war. In addition to taking up jobs, like you said, they also managed finances and shopped creatively. Even as women worked during the war, their pay was often lower than men's. Sometimes, though, more dangerous jobs would have better pay. For example, women working in the munitions factory you mentioned were better paid than those who worked cleaning houses or sewing clothes.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/0/ww1/26439020
Paolo, I thought that your post clearly and thoroughly discussed how many women were able to gain more opportunities and even have equal pay. However, I don't think that all women were able to gain this privilege as the Equal Pay Act, which granted everyone equal wages regardless of sex, was not enforced until 1963. Despite the fact that women were unable to gain equal pay during the time of the war, I definitely think that they played a significant role in society. Building onto Jayde's idea, with many men headed out to war, women also supported "the war effort on the home front." Thus, in addition to more job opportunities, women also gained the right to vote as a result of the war. While women were not able to achieve full equality, I think that their privileges did significantly improve with World War I.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.eeoc.gov/laws/statutes/epa.cfm
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/president-woodrow-wilson-speaks-in-favor-of-female-suffrage
I love your post! Not about the women and the lack of quality in terms of pay, but the fact that this issue is still relevant today. I like how you end your post on a good note, especially because yes we didn't have equal pay and we still don't, but as you said it launched around 30% of American women into the work force. Which is a big step and on top of fact that the women ran there own movement and ended up winning what they wanted, minimum wage! Huge steps! MacArthur as you said was a role model in women wage but did she do anything else. What movements occurred when the war was over and all the men came back and took there jobs back? Any women movements? I found some links below that are related and hope will be beneficial.
ReplyDeleteP.S. Like the meme...very cute!
Links:
http://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object-groups/women-in-wwi
http://www.striking-women.org/module/women-and-work/world-war-i-1914-1918