Women In The 1940's

In the early 1900’s, women who were married main jobs were to care for her family, manage their houses, and do housework. That is where the word housewife was come from. During the 1940's, women's roles and expectations in society were changing quickly and a lot. Before, women had very limited say in society. Since unemployment was so high during the Great Depression, most people were against women working because they saw it as women taking jobs from men that needed to work. Women were often stereotyped to stay home, have babies, and to be a good wife and mother. Advertisements often targeted women, showing them in the kitchen, talking with children, serving dinner, cleaning, and them with the joy of a clean house or the latest kitchen appliance.

The 1940's were really different for the women.

Life for women was expanding because the men were at war and some one had to step up and be both the man and woman in their household. Both men and women were going into World War II because the war was so big that in 1942, The Women's Army Corps (WAC) and Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Services (WAVES) were created. After two these organizations were accepted, The United States government then allowed women to serve in the U.S. Navy. Women back in the United States worked in factories, hardcore jobs and became the main focus of society when it came down to the entertainment industry. Through out the 1940's, the number of women in the working rose by 35 percent. Harvard University found that from 1930 to 1950 participation rate for married women 35 to 44 years old in the work force increased by 15.5 percent. Only 8 percent of workers were married in 1890. Plus, the number of married woman workers in 1930 rose from 26 percent to 37 percent in 1950. The average married woman that was working was more educated than the average married

woman.
Women responded to the call to work depending on their age, race, class, marital status, and how many children they had.

Fifty percent of the women who took war jobs were black and Hispanic and lower-class women who were already working. They switched from low paying female jobs to higher-paying factory jobs. Even more women were needed, so companies went out searching for women just graduating from high school. Eventually, married women were needed even though no one wanted them to work. They definitely did not want women working especially if they had young children. It was hard to get married women because even if they wanted to work, 90 percent of their husbands did not want them to. At first, women with kids under 14 were told to stay home to take care of them. The government was afraid that a rise in working mothers would lead to a rise in juvenile delinquency. After awhile, the amount of the workers needed in the job force was so high that even women with children under 6 years old took jobs.

With women going into work at the end of World War II, and some women going to school and that had little to do with finding a husband, the increase of feminist efforts to help women find equality in the workplace and education also increased. During the 1950s, women who enrolled in higher education did it so improve their domestic skills and to find husbands. Most women called it the "seeking an M.R.S. degree". According to the New York Times, many women who became academic

during the 1950’s began their college careers for the same reason other women did and that was to get married.
After men came back from World War II, they took 80 percent of the women who were working jobs. Even the ones who continued working, their money was reduced by half. With women losing their jobs and money, women's rights organizations began to protests so that women can get equal pay. Women's magazines such as the Ladies' Home Journal and The Women's Home Companion were created inspire women to be involved in politics and political action. Even though feminism in the 50s was started up by Simone De Beauvoir's 1949 analysis "The Second Sex," it was not until the 1960 that women began to get attention to the unfairness of the workplace and education. By 1960, one-fourth of married women with children were in the labor force, and today