Propaganda Posters

This poster was published in 1943 and created by Maurice Bramley to encourage women to help and support the national service office for the war. The words, ‘join us’ clearly explains how they are recruiting people to conduct a certain type of activity. When men were at war, women were encouraged to fill in the traditional jobs roles that men carried on before. Hence, posters of recruitment quickly filled the streets and roads encouraging women to help.

As young men responded to their call of duty and enlisted in the armed services, this left the American war industry with a severe labor shortage. With so few men left to satisfy the labor needs, a call went out to women to fill this void. However, the initial response to this request was not satisfactory . As a result, the government devised a propaganda enriched advertising campaign to motivate the masses of women by appealing to their sense of patriotism as well as telling women their labor efforts would help end the war and bring soldiers home more

Many people question if women went into the war because of patriotism or because they lacked other opportunities. Women responded to the call differently depending on age, race, class, marital status, and number of children. They switch from lower-paying female jobs to higher-paying factory jobs. While patriotism influenced women,

During World War one, the United States Navy Recruiting Bureau, and the United States Treasury Department each commissioned posters featuring women who encouraged citizens to participate in the war effort. The two posters, despite being intended for the same purpose, depict women in particularly contrasting light. Analysis of the contrasting war posters can help illustrate society’s perspective about women during the early 1900’s, their expected roles pertaining to the war effort, the strategies used to engage citizens and encourage them to become involved, and the use of imagery and symbolism that were used to achieve the posters’ objective.

While women could not join the actual army, this poster advocates that women join the “land army” in order to help her man. Women were giving more of a chance to work while the men were off in the army; however, there was still a lot of sexism. Instead of simply saying girl, the poster calls her “the Girl he left behind him.” There is not even a direct connect between the working woman and support for the war, it is more of a connection between a woman and her man who’s off fighting in the war. With the shadow of a man behind the working woman, it broadcasts the connect between the two and how even when the woman is working at home, she’s still doing it for her man, and how even when he is not there, there is still his presence. Although the campaign was slightly sexist, the result of women’s hard work was the 19th amendment when women got the right to

Before the World War II, many women only held jobs in the house providing for their children, husband, and the needs that came with taking care of the household, but during the war, this completely changed. Many women were given new opportunities consisting of new jobs, new skills, new challenges, and greater chances to do things that were once only of imagination to them. Women made the war especially possible with taking over the jobs that men would usually do, but could not do because of the war. One of the first things that encouraged women to take on jobs of the men who went off to war was the propaganda. Propaganda consisted of films, radio, and print. These advertisements used showed women fighting in the army and many working in

Women served an important role in WWII. They not only took the challenge and stepped up to take the places of the men off fighting in the war to work in factories, but they also fought side by side with those risking their lives and fighting for their country. They were needed everywhere during the war. There were an unbelievable amount of job opportunities for women during the war and many supported the brave acts of voluntary enlistment. “‘A woman’s place is in the home’ was an old adage, but it still held true at the start of World War II. Even though millions of women worked, home and family we considered the focus of their lives” says Brenda Ralf Lewis. Without the help of those women who were brave enough to

In my paper I will be able to analyze how the war changed the thoughts of many women. The paper will look in-depth on how women were able to help in the war effort or how they expressed their patronage in a different way: protests. I will be able to draw information from many different sources including letters, magazines, polls, and books about women during this time frame. The sources I have provided above are a few of the primary sources that I will draw my information

The type of propaganda technique that is used is the plain folks appeal. This poster makes connection with the audience by saying, “we need more people like you” . It is stating that all women can join the Women’s Land Army and support the war. It is also encouraging the women to help out with farming because women “like you” can make contributions to the war effort and help to win the war by harvesting goods that are needed

Source F is a propaganda poster which is encouraging women to enrol as a munitions worker. This meant that women were responsible of the production of guns and ammunition for the soldiers. The job given is a very important aspect of England’s hope of flourishing during the War. Seeing as if the soldiers were not given enough or correct weapons then the chance of death on the battle field was a lot more likely. This poster was produced by the government. The fact that the government were encouraging women to take on such an important task could be sign of how much they needed women’s aid to get through the time of the war, or it could mean that women were not getting significantly involved with the war so they had to be persuaded. Source F was produced in 1916 which was two years after the war began, this could be an indication of how Great Britain was suffering and needed more help. Source F may explain how women’s help was needed in the war but it doesn’t

Although women transitioned to traditionally male occupations in the short term, women received lower wages than men and were expected to return to their lower status effeminate roles after the war. Even during, many women served as nurses and medical personnel tending to the sick and wounded soldiers. In a World War I poster called We Need You, the illustrator depicts a nurse beckoning a women to assist in the war and tend to the injured soldier. The poster is an example of war propaganda that perpetuated the “nurturing stereotype” of women. They were denied the opportunity to fight in combat and forced to fit into the stereotypical effeminate mold. Women were financially disadvantaged and according to Gail Braybon, “All wages were low, but women were far lower than men’s, and those who campaigned for workers’ rights risked imprisonment or exile.” Women, especially in Russia experienced extreme

Women were encouraged to join the war effort in any way, especially as compassionate nurses, but if they were to oppose the war or prevent their son, brother, or husband from joining, they were considered overprotective and needed to adjust their attitudes (Haight). However, women’s pacifistic groups maintained that their opposition was not unpatriotic but rather expressing moral duty to oppose an unjust war (Haight). The idyllic image of women maintaining the home while men fight to protect them did not quite ring true to many women who were forced to drastically change the way they lived (Haight). Today, the idea that women can possess both femininity and emotional fortitude is obvious, but such ideas were not common during the era, and women were often forced to choose how they wished to adapt and present themselves (Haight). The war propaganda also was used systematically to tell women the definition of “womanhood (Haight).” To quote directly from Haight, “However, those developing these propagandistic ideas had to overcome the hurdle of consolidating the conflicting nature of the nurturing woman and war, for the very definition of a “true” woman was at odds with the violence and aggression of war. They transformed a woman’s desire to be desired into a desire to be worthy of sacrifice and by extension worthy of the men in their lives

War has always been a man’s world. But war that shakes the entire world cannot help but involve women. Twice in the early 20th century did England have to involve its fairer sex in the brutalities of warfare, but the second time-World War II- women became involved very early. A Mass-Observation Report early in 1940 said of women that “Now it is not only their men who ‘go’ or who are liable to ‘go’. Too often their children have already gone or other people’s children have been admitted under difficult circumstances into their homes” (Schofield 73). So many men were lost in the First World War that made the involvement of women necessary; no one ever thought for a second that women would not be needed if war broke out again (Crang 356).

This poster tells us that women were needed to fill in for men in the workforce while they were away at war. The government at the time believed that women were capable of helping the country achieve victory during the war if they pitched in. The government displays a bias towards women working in the workforce as this is common beliefs that women were to stay at home, however due to the war employers were desperate and needed any available help. The present-day perspective effects after viewing and reading this poster are that women did not typically work outside of the home. Consequently, because men were leaving for the war, this caused a surplus of available jobs that were unfilled and man to fill them. Accordingly, the government decided

Before World War II, women were seen as housewives. Instead of being employed as a secretary or maid, a woman’s only job was to take care of kids, clean the house, and cook for her family. This lack of success and the ability to work outside the home started changing in the late 1930’s. During World War II, the US government started funding money in order to produce propaganda posters. These posters often depicted characters who motivated citizens to join the war or be part of the workforce. One of these characters, Rosie the Riveter, did just that. Designed by J. Howard Miller in 1943, Rosie encouraged women to become independent and join the workforce while men fought in the war through the slogan "We Can Do It." Rosie was the face to a feminist movement that empowered women to show their support and patriotism by working. Because men were fighting in the war, the government needed to recruit women so that weaponry and other materials could be produced. The women indeed stepped up and took over the backbreaking factory labor the men had left behind. The powerful image of Rosie the Riveter won the support of many women during the Second World War to join the work force. This World War II poster, along with the slogan “We can do it,” used ethos and pathos in order to influence women to take over jobs that men would have been doing and ultimately empowered the feminist movement in the 20th