The Working Woman
The role of women during World War II adapted to meet the
demands that America placed on them. The role of women previous to World War II
was still largely focused on domestic ideals for women in the home along with light
manufacturing and service work. After
the First World War, the majority of women left factory jobs to return home
after the war. Any women that remained
in the workforce after the war were forced to go back to the home once the
Great Depression set it. Recovery
programs were focused on men and the result was that domestic work in the home
expanded. Any woman who managed to keep
her job in the work force was looked down upon as selfish and greedy for taking
jobs away from men who were out of work.
This brief look into the history of the role of women in the
work force before World War II shows that America had no problem using women in
the midst of a crisis, only to send them back home after the war. This same practice was repeated when America
entered World War II. The main difference is that after the Second World War
ended women did not return to the “domestic ideal” as easily as before.
Women were yet again called on to meet Americas needs at the
beginning of World War II. Women were called
to many different tasks including wearing a uniform. For the first time in history women received full
military rank. Over 350,000 women served in different areas of the military
including the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard. Women also served as nurses within the Army
and Navy. Women’s role on the front
lines of the war was not one of combat.
The advancement of military technology and the developing modern war
tactics reduced the proportion of military personnel directly engaged in
battle. The role of women in the military
caused some issues that questioned manhood.
Men were concerned for their own masculinity and, they are worried about
who was going to raise their children.
These are some the posters used to encourage women to enlist
in military forces:
Women also held roles in areas other than the military. In The Home Front and Beyond, it is said
that “female labor force grew by more than 50 percent between 1940-1945”
(Hartmann). Hartmann also gives the
statistics for female unemployment in 1940 at 2.19 million compared to 420,000
in 1945. Women representation in all
areas of work increased except domestic work.
When we think of women in the workforce during war time, we
automatically think of working in factories.
The demand increased not only for factory workers but also for musicians,
scientists, athletes, and college professors (Hartmann). The role of the
working woman was very diverse and spread across many different areas in the
work force.
Despite the drastic change of women being encouraged to stay
in the home only to be herded back out into the work force during the war,
women were still encouraged to portray the image of feminism. America still had close ties to the security
of having women in the home. A conflict
was raised between the priority of getting women to work and the security felt
in having them stay at home. The
solution was to combine the two. The
reasons why a woman stayed at home were because she wanted to take care of her
husband, raise her children, and maintain the family structure. People familiarized these reasons with women
working in the home, but during World War II these reasons were also given for
women moving to the work force. Instead
of contributing women’s efforts to patriotism, they were contributed to protecting
their children, getting their men back home sooner, and keeping the off American soil. There were three conditions
that America set on social change to keep order with the family having the
mother and wife at its core. Hartmann
says the first of these three is that “women were replacing men in the world
outside the home only for duration of the war”. The jobs women held were not
meant to be permanent. Women would be expected to return home after the war. The second condition was that “women would
retain their femininity even as they performed their masculine duties”
(Hartmann). This condition served to comfort men from the fact that women were
taking over their job. The third and
final condition Hartmann states is that “media emphasized the eternal feminine
motivations behind women’s willingness to step out of customary roles”.
These are just some the posters portrayed the reasons why it was important that women work:
Although there was some tension caused by having women take
control of the work force, women ultimately became a strong figure that were
capable of anything. This was seen in propaganda,
movies, and even comics. Even after the war was over, women still had improved their
percentages in the work force and they were significantly higher than when
before the war began. Many women did
retreat back to the home after the war but, a lasting impression had been made
about the capability of women and the strength and determination they
carried. The roles they played during
World War II are crucial to the development of future roles that women will play.
Citations:
Hartmann, Susan. The Home Front and Beyond American Women
in the 1940s. Boston: Twayne
Publishers,
1982. Print.
Images taken from: Google Images (https://www.google.com/search?q=ww2+posters&hl=en&client=firefoxa&hs=u2T&rls=org.mozilla:enUS:official&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=nZpPT8TlEaauiAKtuZy1Bg&ved=0CEkQsAQ&biw=1112&bih=654)
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