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The 1940’s were a turning point for women in the workforce. Women were perceived to be the weaker sex by society and faced social prejudices in efforts to become part of the workforce. The common belief was that women were intellectually inferior to men, incapable of making decisions regarding their household, and should not work outside of the home. Their job was to maintain the home, raise the children, and be supportive wives of the working husband.
The war brought challenges, new jobs, new skills and lots of opportunities for women. Women were needed for jobs that were traditionally deemed for males only. According to Mathis (1994), government propaganda was responsible for much of the change in society’s acceptance of women in
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the workforce. These changes enabled women to enter factories and proved that women were capable of being more than housewives. The propaganda campaign was to mobilize women and was necessary in order to change the public’s attitude towards women. Propaganda was also used to appeal to women to do their part in order to bring their men home sooner. World War 11 despite the gains in women in the workforce was not viewed as a milestone for working women. According to Yesil, (2004), women entered wartime jobs not simply out of their response to patriotic pleas, but out of the continuity of the working patterns they had established prior to World War 11. It was believed that women who found employment during the war were entering the job market for the first time. However; 29% of women workers in 1944–1945 had actually worked more than 10 years; and another 19% more than 5 years. (Yesil, 2004). As a result of women entering the workforce in large numbers, problems arose in the areas of childcare and domestic work. The biggest problem for the working women was childcare due the lack of provision of childcare as they were working. Transportation was a major problem well, due to the lack of rubber to make new tires. Women had to carpool to get to work at the factories. The war highlighted many problems women encountered in childcare and carrying out their duties of being a housewife. This allowed women to voice their opinions about the difficulties in working and caring for their families and the need to shared household tasks with their families. The women’s actions highlighted the need for change in the gender role. This was an era in which women were able to form new identities. Women assumed traditional male roles as more men left to continue to fight in the war. It was a period that symbolized freedom for women as it allowed for role changing status, but women still had to struggle with discrimination, gender harassment, and physical pain from working long hours. World War 11 brought major changes to the military.
In 1942, according to Goldin (1991), women were inducted into the armed services. A bill was presented to the House of Representatives to establish a women’s auxiliary in the Army. As a result, the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps was formed. The Navy had the (WAVES) Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service, the Coast Guard established the (SPARS) Semper Paratus – their motto meaning “Always Read”, and the Marines accepted women. IN 1943, two other groups were formed giving women the opportunity to fly airplanes. The (WAFA), Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron) and the WASP (Women’s Airforce Service Pilots) who tested planes and ferried them from one American coast to the other.
Mathis (1994) stated that in 1944, over 100,000 women had entered branches of the military service to release men from combat duty. Moves were used as part of the propaganda to influence them to join the armed forces. Newspaper and magazines were also used to glamorize military life. During the war, nurses were on duty, and the need for more nurses arose. As a result, in 1943, congress passed a bill to provide funding for the nursing school to fill the need for the severe
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shortage. Propaganda campaigns were used for many things during the war. Women were called to “do their part” to support the war efforts. Hegarty (1998), states that women’s behaviors challenged gender relations and sexual morality. As women made more public appearances, (doing their part) unaccompanied by a male, the media called attention to it. The media posed a double message about women. They responded to and reinforced the liberation of women. The media encouraged women through sexual innuendoes to provide support for their servicemen. However, when the women showed support sexually for the military men, whether it was done publically or in private, they were demoralized by the same media that was encouraging them. They were referred as prostitutes. Women’s efforts during World War 11 enabled women to break down the stereotypical gender roles. Women became free to create their own lives and senses of self. World War II gave women the chance to prove that they are just as capable as men. Greater numbers of women began to take control. For the first time, women in the United States were learning to work as factory workers, nurses, journalists, drivers, farmers, mail delivery personnel, garbage collectors, builders, and mechanics. Life for women was changing. They earned their own money and became more independent. Though short-lived, World War II provided a way for women to do what they wanted. Fewer obstacles stood in the way for women to prove that they were extremely capable. Women’s efforts in the war left an everlasting mark in American history. They had demonstrated amazing work and courage during the war. However, in 1945 after the war was over, and the men returned; women was forced to retreat from the job pool. The auto industry saw a drastic decline in women on the assembly line. The women on the assembly line decreased from 25% to 7% (Mathis, 1994) During the war and post WW11, women were wage earner, had independence and proved themselves to be worthwhile.
However, the progress made by women was met with resistance. In 1947, a book titled: The Modern Woman: The Lost sex was written by Marynia Farnham (a psychoanalyst) and Ferdinand Lunberg (sociologist). According to Farnham & Lunberg (1947), women were aggressive, maladjusted and unable to accept their “fundamental role as wife and mother”. It was believed that women’s discontent and desire to pursue masculine strivings also had unfortunate consequences for their husbands. Instead of supporting and encouraging male dominance, she was imposing feelings of inadequacy and
weakness. Women made a great stride in gaining independence but had little support in maintaining that independence. Farnham & Lunberg (1947) called for widespread psychoanalysis, public education to reaffirm women’s tradition work, government subsidies to women, the employment of married women to teach public schools opposed to spinsters to teach girls in feminine subjects. This was all intertwined with what was happening post WW11. Women were asked to withdraw from the workforce as men were returning from the war and assuming their jobs. During World War II, over six million women took part in the workforce. At the end of the war, women were laid off from the job held during the war. Women were thrown into the life of being a housewife. During the 1950’s after the war, there was an upsurge in the economy as a result of the military power held by the United States. As a result of the booming economy, new homes, cars and consumer goods were available to more people. Millions of babies were born, hence the term “baby boomers”. However, women were dissatisfied with just being mothers and housewives. Women wanted more than what was offered to them. They focused on their place in society and strived to achieve more.
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 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.
The 1940s provided a drastic change in women’s employment rates and society’s view of women. With the end of the Depression and the United States’ entrance into World War II, the number of jobs available to women significantly increased. As men were being drafted into military service, the United States needed more workers to fill the jobs left vacant by men going to war. Women entered the workforce during World War II due to the economic need of the country. The use of Patriotic rhetoric in government propaganda initiated and encouraged women to change their role in society.
also managed to prove that they could do the jobs just as well as men
Before 1939, women were looked at as weak, incompetent and incapable of doing a man’s job. However, when World War II broke out, women were called to maintain the jobs that the men once occupied and it became evident that America’s best chance for success in World War II would have to include the efforts of American females. Women played a key role during World War II in the U.S. More than six million women took wartime jobs in factories, three million volunteered with the Red Cross, and over 200,000 served in the military. Through these jobs, women were able to show society that they were capable of doing bigger and better things.
between the genders. Women and men have differences, but that does not mean women are any less qualified to do the things men do. Sexism in the 1940’s lead to unequal treatment between genders which caused problems in society. This is true for not only the time period of the 1940’s but also with women in today’s society. Women are not treated as an equal to men because of the lack of recognition in the workforce, stereotypical household jobs, and women often being a second choice for places in society.
For hundreds of years, women have been discriminated against, but in the past decade, women have made an extensive amount of progress. Ever since the first feminist revolution, women have strived to achieve true equality. Gender equality sounds like a simple task, yet the world still has not reached this point. Although the progress has been slow, women have made major advancements, proving that they can achieve true equality.
The "feminine mystique" that American culture promotes is entirely dependent upon its ideas, beliefs, and needs of the time. American culture has always tended to influence women into doing what the day and age required. After men went to war there was a gap in the work force that needed to be filled. During World War II women were the most available to join the work force. Due to the discouragement to raise families during the Great Depression and the fact that most men of age had entered the war, many women were left without families to look after and men to take to take care of them. "Most women toiled at unskilled jobs; most were young, single, and without children" (307). This lack of family and funds left women with no other place to go besides the factories. Women's need for work was nursed along by the media as well as the public.
During the Great War and the huge amount of men that were deployed created the need to employ women in hospitals, factories, and offices. When the war ended the women would return home or do more traditional jobs such as teaching or shop work. “Also in the 1920s the number of women working raised by fifty percent.” They usually didn’t work if they were married because they were still sticking to the role of being stay at home moms while the husband worked and took care of the family financially. But among the single women there was a huge increase in employment. “Women were still not getting payed near as equally as men and were expected to quit their jobs if they married or pregnant.” Although women were still not getting payed as equally it was still a huge change for the women's
Woman in the 1930’s were treated very differently to how they are treated today. Unlike modern day, they were thought to be the perfect housewife, mother and carer and it was not easy for them to get a decent job. If they did manage to get a job they were frowned upon because they were ‘taking jobs from men.’ Which shows even though they were legally ‘equal’ due to them being allowed to vote. They were still seen as ‘inferior’ to men. Their expectations were to do the housework, bring up the children, cater to their husband’s every need and have all the responsibilities of home life rested on their shoulders, without the man’s
And the book, “We Served Too: The Story of the Airforce Service Pilots of World War II” elaborates on just that. It takes readers from female empowerment to the gender discrimination and gender stereotyping they endured all the while being powerful all set around the second World War. World War II was the first real and authentic experience and opportunity for American women to be able to branch out from what once was their typical traditional occupations. Rather than the prospects of being a homemaker, nurse, or teacher because it was the social norm of the day, women now were very much able to explore other interests and occupations. Women could now work in factories, but cooler than that women could now explore the aviation industry and women could now join the war effort itself exclusively in noncombatant roles in the military overseas as well as within the border of the U.S (1,
World War II era was a very progressive time in which women overcame many obstacles in the workforce. With the men away at war, the women of America were encouraged to get out of their housewife mentality and perform their American duty. One field that targeted almost exclusively women was nursing. And with the country in the break of war, the demand for nurses soared. In 1943, women were officially commissioned into the army. The Women’s Army Auxiliary Corp was commissioned and converted into the Women’s Army Corps, which included the Army Nurse Corp (Highlights in the History of Military Women). Because of this extensive change, the way that women were recruited to participate in the war effort changed too. Appendices A, B, C, D are from
It has been said that “after a brief period of freedom and opportunity during World War II, American women went ‘back to the kitchen.’” The War was a time of great turmoil and change. One of the most noticeable changes was the increase of women in the workforce, because many women had to obtain a job or career outside of the home for the first time. The expectation was that when the men returned from fighting, the women would give up their jobs and return home (Milkman, WA, 553). When the war was over, the public began to seek a feeling of safety and security. One of the ways this was found was by embracing the more conventional gender roles, with men and women in separate spheres. With a renewed emphasis on marriage, couples began to marry
World War II brought upon us a time of scarcities: In food, in money, in soldiers, and in the working class. From 1940-1945 the midst of the war brought a shift upon the workers in North America. Suddenly, with most of the men overseas or in tied up in military affairs, it became acceptable for middle class women to workforce. 1940-1945 showed an amazing 50% increase in the female labour force with an incredible 462% increase in employment in the defense department (Quast, 2011). It seems hard to imagine how little we could have known on how this necessary alteration in our working practices would forever alter the foundation of not only our workplaces, but
Women were drawn into the work place in the 1960's when the economy expanded and rising consumer aspirations fueled the desire of many families for a second income. By 1960, 30.5 percent of all wives worked and the number of women graduating from college grew. (Echols, 400) Women soon found they were being treated differently and paid less then their male co-workers.