Women's Work During Ww2

Women only worked in their homes caring for their family’s, they never had the opportunity to work outside of their homes in places such as factories or in the government and they had no benefits within the house until the war began. The war

“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.

Women had different perspectives during World War 2. Many served in different branches of armed forces. Some labored in war productions plants. Most women stayed at home and had other responsibilities to raise children, balance check books, and some labored in war-related office jobs, while the men went to war. In addition to factory work and other front jobs about 350,000 women joined the Armed services, serving at home and abroad. “Rosie the Riveter,” later became a popular propaganda for women. While women worked in a variety of positions closed to them the industry saw the greatest increase in female’s workers. More than 310,000 women worked in the U.S. aircraft industry in 1943,

For example, in metals and manufacturing, the number of female operatives between 1940 and 1950 rose from 175,246 to 331,140 (Blackwelder 145). In 1949, there were twice as many women working in California than there were in 1940 (Striking Women). Through the evaluation of these statistics, many historians came to conclude that the war, for sure, had a “long-term rather than temporary impact on women's place in the labor force" as it shows the rising progress of women’s employment. (Blackwelder 147). The claim is established further by the increase of 5.25 million females in the labor force between 1940 and 1949 (Striking Women). This suggests that World War II, indeed, made a lasting impact on American women in the labor force than argued by historians like Claudia Goldin. It shows that although there was a postwar decline in women’s employment, the war was a “milestone for women in America" (Chafe

Women wanted to be able to do more in the war. They tried to find ways to work

In the early twentieth century, before the war began, the role of women was already changing drastically. Women were working more, gaining a better education and having fewer children. Then, during the war, women played a crucial role in aiding the war efforts. One way women assisted in the war was moving into jobs that were previously vacated by men who were drafted into the war. Women also assisted in munitions factories. These are factories that make war materials. Women could have sewed uniforms or helped make weapons. These factories were the number one employer for women during 1918. After the “introduction of conscription in 1916” women began to work in jobs that were traditional reserved for men. Employment rates for women during World War I went up from 23.6% (1914) to 46.7% (1918). Because the population of women in America benefited the war efforts greatly, in 1918, the women's suffrage amendment was passed in senate with the necessary 2/3 votes. America's involvement in the Great War led directly to the passing of the 19th amendment, granting women the right to vote.

The wartime jobs produced lasting careers and life-style changes for women. Some of the jobs they did were telephone operators, factory workers, seamstresses, and physicians. Most of the women that were hired for these jobs were young and unmarried because they had fewer obligations to attend. This meant, they could work long hours with little pay since they did not have a family to provide for. It was

Still grappling with societal changes of WWII. Work in war industries had offered higher quality jobs, once inhabited by men, to working women. This created expectations of continued equal opportunities for women in the workforce. Women did continue to work when soldiers returned, but in lower wage non union service positions as they had

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

Ever since then women proved that they can work in a man’s workplace and do just as well. Any job that was a man’s, was a women’s as well. Women were soon “the most needed workers of all” according to Brenda Ralf Lewis. Factory workers became known as “the soldiers without guns”. If women hadn’t stepped up to the line, winning the war wouldn’t have been as easy as it was for us. Not only did the women in factories and shipyards have a big part in doing their part in the war contributions, but so did the women who were out on the field fighting alongside with their men risking their very life.

Before 1920 Most women particularly white women did not work outside the home. They performed traditional domestic responsibilities of conserving food and fuel resources in the early part of the war.

Throughout World War II, the role of women in the United States was rapidly changing. While men were away fighting overseas, the women were left to fill jobs and support America's war efforts. Women were encouraged to take on these new roles through advertisements for the war efforts. They were told that it was their duty to work, and they were really enjoying the feeling of independence and importance. However, once the war was over and the men began coming home, they were left in need of jobs, and this newfound sense of freedom for women would soon be stripped away from them.

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).

Prior to World War II, employers and the government held that there were jobs appropriate for women and jobs which were inappropriate because women were not capable of fulfilling the tasks involved in such work. As we

World War II was the first time that women were greatly encouraged to join the workforce. Nearly 6 million women took industrial jobs such as steel plants, shipyards, and lumber mills at the urging of the government and media (“Women of the Century”). Because the men were away fighting in