Although WWII was not the first time that women worked outside the household, it was a time of a huge surge in working women. During 1940-1945, five million women joined the workforce. This was due to many young and middle aged men going off to war, leaving open many job positions that needed filling. On top of that, due to the fact that there was a war going on, factories had to produce massive amounts of products to sustain the United States during the war. However, although most women were fired from their factory jobs following the war, this was a definite step to equal working opportunities.
The home front was not the only place that women supported the war effort from. During WWII, a total of 350,000 women served in the armed forces. Although there was some cultural resistance to women fighting in the war, they were undoubtedly helpful during the war.
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/ap-us-history/period-7/apush-us-wwii/a/american-women-and-world-war-ii
https://www.nationalww2museum.org/students-teachers/student-resources/research-starters/women-wwii
This seems to be a pattern during war. However, unfortunately there is also a pattern of society returning to traditional gender relations after the war. In the case of WWII, when men came back there was a huge fear of another depression. So, women were asked to "do their part" by leaving the job market. As such, many were fired from their jobs so the returning veterans could be re-employed. However, at least they proved for a time that those "masculine" jobs could be performed equally by women.
ReplyDeleteForgot the link: http://www.historylink.org/Content/education/downloads/C21curriculum_Unit5/C21curriculum_Unit5%20resources/Unit5_READINGS_WomenandWorkAfterWWII.pdf
DeleteVery interesting! It's fascinating to see how gender roles and social norms change during times of war. Allowing women to serve in the military was a fairly new concept at the time. Women were able to join the military in 1917, towards the end of World War I. Therefore, World War II was the first war in which American women could fight for the entirety of the war. In fact, eighty-eight women were actually captured and held as prisoners of war. Women also helped the war effort in other ways as ambulance drivers, pilots, nurses, and mechanics.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.history.org/history/teaching/enewsletter/volume7/images/nov/women_military_timeline.pdf
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