Assignment 8. I: Women In World War I

During World War 1 over six million men enlisted to go fight overseas, so there were many jobs that were unoccupied. Women took over traditional work that men previously were responsible for. They were responsible of both managing the home and became the

After the Pearl Harbor bombing, and the start of WWII, most men in the U.S. recruited to war, leaving behind many important factory and hard labor jobs. That lead to a desperate need to fill the vacant positions that men left. The only people left to fill them were woman. Many woman took on the challenge and went to work in the factories.

Before World War I, women were not seen as equals to men. Until only recently, women were treated like children because men believed they were not capable of doing the things men did, such as fighting in the war, for example. Their only significance in society’s view was to have children, clean the house, and cook for the family. Women were rarely found living without a husband or parent figure because they were thought to be unable to support themselves financially. These oppressing ideas were what pushed women to change society's view of them once World War I began. No longer would the role of women be to care for the family. Women struggled to overcome these hardships by taking over the jobs left by the men fighting in the Great War, supporting

Before America enter the war, President Woodrow Wilson declared the country stay neutral oppose to have Americans involved in another war. In 1916, when the Germans sank a passenger ship called the Lusitania, including over thirty Americans, which brought tension and another country involved. “As the United States became neutral during the war, economically European economies turned for supplies making the U.S. the world’s largest industrial power.” (Mintz). The war triggered the U.S. economy, and increased employment rates and wages. After America joined the war, the marketing industry expanded quickly. During the war, many women right to vote progressed (“True Significance of WWI”). Not only did women stepped in, their work helped to join

The 1950s is an era remembered for the Cold War, communism, and June Cleaver. Most historians, if asked about this period, will mention the ‘Red Scare’ and the fight to stop the pervasive reach of communism in post-war America. Most feminists will recall the iconic image of June Cleaver and the detrimental effect this perfect housewife had on the women’s movement after the massive employment of women during the Second World War. Often forgotten and missing from the pages of history are the millions of women who were ostracized and subjected to discrimination based upon their sexuality. These women lost federal jobs, their military careers came to a halt, and, in some cases, were blacklisted from applying for civilian jobs. Not only were these women forced to overcome gender inequality in order to support themselves in the workforce, they were also ostracized by society and endured unending discrimination from the government and police on the basis of their sexuality. In the face of this tremendous cultural pressure these women carved their own communities and lives out on the edges of the social order. The pervasive fear of homosexuals in the 1950s bred an era of anti-gay legislation that greatly contributed to the horrific discrimination against lesbians and the development of a lesbian subculture. This fear, known as the Lavender Scare, led to a severe climate of oppression for the emerging lesbian subculture following the Second World War. As a result of medical

As World War I started in 1914, countries prepared for battle. Women and men had different jobs of serving their own country during and after this war. Women replaced men in their civilian jobs of mechanics, clerks, and other occupations. This allowed women to be in fields that they were usually not working in. Ebbert & Hall (2002) state women also had been recruited into serving the Navy and Marine Corps. There were men that apposed to give the women equal pay as their male counterparts (p.59). Even documentation of the women who served was thought to be unnecessary (p.122). After the war where women and men have served and worked hard for their country, men would go back to expect employment and women were thought to go back

when World War I broke out, women’s roles changed from being moms to munitions workers and many women also took part in the army serving soldiers and officers as nurses, helpers and occasionally as spies.

Women went about many ways to get their voices heard, the majority of the time spoken desires had little impact on changing social acceptance. Women’s movements and taking political action gained the most advantage for progressing women hoping to change gender roles. Women did not only create new movements through the progressing war, they strengthened existing movements on recurring issues. Many of the problems they supported pre-war only worsened during combat, “In addition to continuing their pre-war reform work, women reformers in the club movement, the settlement house movement, and the suffrage movement sold war bonds and conserved food ("Women in World").” During World War One women got a glimpse of how the war could help them achieve more rights in society, through the passing of the nineteenth amendment in the nineteen twenties women were granted the right to vote. Also during this time, the Department of Labor created the Women in Industry Service ("Women in World" ). About twenty eight years later another movement, Women's Armed Services Integration Act of 1948, was initiated and passed to aid women in achieving similar opportunities socially as men. Sandra Carson and analyzes how the act impacted women’s efforts, "Peacetime brought it's own challenges to the military. And military women were part of the challenge. The Women's Armed Services Integration Act was passed in 1948. This act offered regular military status, but also imposed several restrictions on their service. Some of these restrictions remained in place for more than twenty years. For example, the act set limits for the percentages of enlisted women and female officers who could serve in the United States

In this book, Brown pointed about women did during the World War I back in America’s homeland. She explains what they did on the homeland while military women and men were at war. The Chapters explains the factory workers struggles and working in the war industries. Brown describes women beginning to expand their skills. This source is helpful to know that there were women took part of war even if they weren’t near the battlefields.

When the First World War began in 1914, there was much discussion regarding the proper gender roles for British men and women. For men, the course of action seemed clear that they should enlist and fight. Yet, many men struggled under the pressure of warfare. For women, it was unclear how they should be involved in the war effort. Many men wanted the women to keep their traditional gender roles of taking care of the household. However, the lack of male workers on the home front required women to take on different work roles. The women received a great deal of praise and positive attention for their work as nurses, munitions workers, and military auxiliaries. However, men were critical

World War I began in 1914, after the death of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, and the war lasted until 1918. Germany, Austria- Hungary, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire fought against Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Romania, Japan, and the US. The new military technologies and the horrors of trench warfare the WWI never knew the levels of carnage and destruction. When the war ended over 16 million people; soldiers; and civilians died.

Evan though women were not allowed to join the fighting and the battle, they were very much a part of the war. Some even went overseas to help as nurses for the wounded soldiers; other stayed at home and took the jobs million men left behind when they went to fight. Women were very busy during that time. They took jobs that were only given to men because they had to. Mothers encouraged their sons to join the fight and come home as heroes, and other women sent of brothers and fathers. They never knew if or when they will return. In America the war was fought by both sexes, the men fought the battle and the women kept them alive by helping at home. Providing food, clothes, and doing other jobs however they could.

Historian John Keegan once wrote “warfare… is the one human activity from which women, with the most insignificant exceptions, have always and everywhere stood apart.” This is gross understatement of the contributions of women to the war effort. While women only recently have been inactive military duty on the battle field, they 've acted as factory workers, nurses, recruitment as well as many aspect as they filled in the gap that men left at war. They that kept the war going. Without the support of the women, the men on the front would not have been about to continue fighting.

Before the World War 1 began, men were known as the “breadwinners”. Meaning they bring all the weekly wages home and the jobs they do are required a large amount of strength and they may often get tired. Although men before the war worked extremely hard so did the women, but their jobs were done in their own homes. Only about 30% of the women were part of the workforce the rest were unmarried, and working women were servants. World War 1 was an essential time for women. This is because it gave them an opportunity to prove to themselves and the society where men dominated that women can do more than just clean the house and to care for children. Some of the more important roles for women during the WW1 includes: nurses, munitions, factory workers,

The role of women in war has varied significantly throughout British History. During world War 1 womens role was constricted as many worked in the industry of textiles , knitting and munitions. This said they played a pivotal role in the war effort as 23.8 million in britain were all working. Voluntary and paid positions were taken up as unfamiliar roles to women, Nevertherless this was recquired in order to sustain the living of many families. World War 1 illustrated the capability of women in wokring across a variety of fields. However the effort from women was arguably taken out of context. Despite the rise in pay , women still earned less then men. They held the responisibility of working as a generation of men went to fight. This covered munitions, police patrols and even nursing.Women worked in horendous conditions and accidents were far too frequent in factories. A TNT plant killed 73 people and also leading to the destruction of nearby homes. Furthermore the collective effort was extraordinary , the workers of one factory in Gloucestershire within the four years filled over 17 million shells(BBC world war 1).Opportunities in civil service increased by 1,751 %.