The war of 1812 played a crucial role in changing the role of women in the American society and other parts of the world. One of the roles of women that changed due to the war was in the economic sector. Initially, the society bestowed females with the role of taking care of their homes while the husbands engaged in economic activities so as to provide income to the households (Shi & Tindall, 2016). However, during the 1812 war, women switched roles and began engaging in economic activities such agricultural practices and trade so as to meet the needs of their families in the absence of their husbands. Apart from the economic activities, the 1812 war provided women with the opportunities to engage in war activities so as to assist their societies
“Temporarily at least, the war caused a greater change in women's economic status and outlook than a prior half century of reform and rhetoric had been able to achieve.” ”The Federal government encouraged housewives to join the workforce as a patriotic duty.” Once they needed the women to work for America,it was promoted through various forms of propaganda that taking on the male's role was the best thing to do. “Immediately after the war, the percentage of women who worked fell as factories converted to peacetime production and refused to rehire women.” It was expected that the women were going to keep their jobs, even when their men had come home, but instead the women were fired in order for men to be hired.
The Civil War brought significant economic stress to working-class women. With husbands and sons at war, many women, particularly those in the working poor, entered the workforce, disrupting traditional gender norms (McCurry 8). While they were now earning wages, they found
One of the social aspects during the time 1861-1865 revolved around the new roles given to women. While the hundreds of thousands of men went to war, women were left to manage their new roles as head of the household. What this means is that they now had to undertake the jobs the men would usually do. Some of these new roles included running farms and stores, and working in government, factories, and offices, as well. The war also permitted women to enter the former male-orientated professions such as teaching, civil service, and nursing, due to the shortage of men (Keene, 392).
To conclude, the primary contribution of women during the Civil War was the roles they played at the home-front. As previously stated women at the home-front were tasked with taking care of their children and making decisions for their households as well as obtaining jobs that contributed to the war effort. Their involvement in the war effort including working in factories, collecting food and clothes and gathering money, helped the armies, especially the Union. At the home-front women of all walks of life were excepted to contribute to the war effort, which helped out the armies immensely. Women in working in factories contributed by making resources for the military. Other women took on jobs in farm labor and clothes making, to provide the
The changing roles of women throughout history has been drastic, and none more so than the period during and after World War II. The irrevocable changes that occurred once the war started and women went to work were unprecedented.
The economic “market revolution” and the religious “Second Great Awakening” shaped American society after 1815. Both of these developments affected women significantly, and contributed to their changing status both inside and outside the home. Throughout time, women’s roles and opportunities in the family, workplace, and society have greatly evolved.
Many people have never considered what women were doing in WWII when their husbands left to fight. Their lives weren’t easy or normal during the war. Women had to work just as hard as men, sometimes even more so. In this essay, I will discuss the position of American women before World War II, during the war, and at the end of the war.
A few roles of women prior to the World War I consisted of cooking, cleaning, and caring for the children. These were the basic fundamental jobs that women were expected of women to do,” (Campbell 1) .During this time men were the sole base of the household income, and the head
Before the start of the Great War, women played the role of a housewife, cleaning, and completing housework. They were not given much respect and expected to
However, not only did women work in the fields they also produce goods, and services; such as clothing, personal hygiene items, and food to be sold in order to build -up their coffer’s through that of their overabundance of supplies. This impact took place during the 1700’s and beyond, when women from all aspects of life filled these domestic jobs while working for very little pay; getting absolutely nothing at all for their work. During the 1800’s, however, this all changed for women and soon these women we’re categorized as being unskilled workers this causing tremendous consequences for these women; especially when the men return for war and once again took on the gender roles to which women were now a custom too.
World War II was the catalyst that changed the opportunities available to women and eventually the way they were regarded as a viable workforce. Suddenly women throughout the United States were pushing themselves to their limits to support the war effort. Women were fulfilling jobs and responsibilities that many previously believed to be impossible for their gender. Opportunities were opened in steel plants, ammunition factories, and even the United States military. As the war progressed the number of male workers declined dramatically. Society had no choice but to turn to the mothers, sisters, and daughters of our nation for help. The results for each woman varied
The group I believe gained the least from the American victory in the Revolutionary war were the women. Women were seen as a weaker sex, so they were not treated equally as men. Women wanted to be heard and prove that they were not the weaker sex they might be physically weak but that was it.
Despite the low position women held in society, they participated in any way they could during the war. When their husbands were away fighting, they took over their husbands’ positions as weavers, carpenters, blacksmiths or shipbuilders. Others transformed their homes into hospitals for the wounded, as explained in Document 2. Document 2 also describes how hundreds of
As more men entered the armed forces, women needed to replace them. By the war's end, hundreds of thousands of women had entered the workforce, many of them in traditionally masculine occupations such as engineering, munitions, transport, business, and eventually even the military. The war produced a leap in women's employment from twenty-six percent in the workforce in 1914 to thirty-six percent by 1918. One million women worked in munition industries, forty-thousand served as nurses, and twenty-thousand joined the Women's Land Army as agricultural workers (Marwick, 1977). For the young and the middle-class, work outside their homes was indeed a new experience. On the other hand, working-class women were used to paid work, but the type of work was new. Many left low-skill, low-wage jobs, especially in domestic service, for better paying skilled labor in factories and workshops (Kent, 1993).
The market, as well as money changing services, were traditionally handled by women. Women had to do more work than men. Before going to war mens had to trade many of their things before going to war. They needed to get supplies to go to war. They also wanted to win war.