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American Women In Ww2

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World War II was a period of time where many social aspects in the United States undertook a drastic change. Minority groups such as women and African Americans were given the opportunity to progress in their societal stature during the war, as all support and help was required to defeat the Axis powers. As the United States was fighting Nazi racism, its own prejudices regarding the race of foreigners was exposed. People did not understand why minorities would fight “a white man’s war” in a country that did not allow them to become citizens, or have the same rights as a person born on American soil. But, these minorities fought anyway and they received opportunities that would have never arose if the war had not occurred, and many Americans …show more content…

Women who remained in the United States generally went to work at factories, or portions of the industrial sector. Because skirts and dresses could not be worn, as they could lead to injuries in factories, pants were adopted for hardworking activities. Change in dress style was a symbolic development of the advancement that women went through during the war, as it depicted women turning into actual workers. Other women were also beginning to be enlisted into the army. Before World War II, women were only allowed to participate in the Nurse Corps for the Army as well as the Navy. However, during the war many women were actively recruited to volunteer in the military, even though many of their tasks were stereotypical feminine jobs such as manufacturing clothes. To facilitate recruitment and ensure that all types of jobs in the military were filled, many movements were created to try and convince people to incorporate women into other positions, but many men …show more content…

The military began to allow blacks to join, which allowed them to escape economic depression as well as farming in regions such as the South and the Midwest. But, despite this grand opportunity, throughout the 1940’s there was still segregation present throughout the United States. There were individual black regiments that had white commanders, and each sector was trained separately from other white soldiers. To begin with, just like the women many military services, such as the Navy, gave blacks the worst jobs to perform on their ships and the Marines did not even accept them due to their skin color. Even on the mainland, many companies refused to let blacks work in factories as many were run by racist labor unions. Many white workers even went on strike to prevent the hiring of black workers, as people claimed to feel “unsafe” and said that the black man did not deserve to work the same jobs as the white man. But as time progressed, skin color did not begin to matter as the whole country was being targeted by enemy forces and all armed forces were needed to repel attacking armies. Discrimination between the two races began breaking down when the 1940 Selective Service Act was put into place, allowing blacks to join branches such as the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and the Coast Guard. Eventually they were allowed into leadership positions, and claimed many victories being the most

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