The Effect of World War II on the Lives of People at Home Essay

World War ǁ was a global military event, the most colossal conflict in history lasting from 1939-1945, it involved most of the worlds nations including Great Britain. WWII had far-reaching implications for most of the world. The following essay will demonstrate the changes the UK family has undergone since World War ǁ, the following essay will also throw light upon the changes in family types, economic activities of women , power distribution, laws and sexuality with respect to disciplines of sociology, economics, history and politics.

At the time of World War one, the Young Women Christian Association (YWCA), Patriotic League, and the Red Cross organizations were made to help the war efforts. The Red Cross for example, allowed women to work and help the war effort as nurses. As women were not seen to work in higher praised jobs that only men could do, they proved themselves to be as skilled if not more during World War one. Women worked in industries and their development was drastically spoken about in newspapers and articles. There successes and skilled efforts was commended and was beginning to change the minds of men who thought women were incapable. Women, during World War one, replaced men in skillful jobs such as railroad workers, and other machine operators. During the beginning of World War one, women were seen as incapable of holding professional jobs that men took. However, demonstrating their efforts in factories and helping the war effort showed the capability of women to work in any job that was traditionally for women. Throughout World War one, women gained the positions of being doctors, lawyers, and bankers. These job opportunities during World War one gave women a chance to show the male-dominated society that they were proficient and were able to more than staying at home and raising their children. Throughout World War one, women had played a vital role in helping the war and its soldiers. Women also played a key role in helping the

World War II was the last total war in American history, meaning that it was the last war in which the United States mobilized all of its resources, civilian and military towards winning a war. Because of this, World War II affected civilians on the homefront more than any since. It is a worthy endeavor to analyze the primary documents from civilians of the time to get a better understanding of their perspective.

After world war two majority of women were forced to leave their jobs and return back to the home. However the war set a foundation for women’s rights while feminism was slowly approaching its way into society. The hard work woman put into the war effort was about to be seen by society. Furthermore during the 1950s women were still viewed as full time mothers but the women’s movement would take place in later years.

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.

As men had gone into war, many jobs needed workers. The largest single employer of women in 1918 was the munition factories due to the high demand for weapons. Though there was initial resistance to hiring women for what was seen as ‘men’s work’, in 1916 there was an introduction of conscription made need for women workers urgent. The government began coordinating the

World War II gave women the chance to take part in and prove what they where cable of handling men’s work. However there were limitations that women had to overcome during the war such as sexism and sexualized violence.

War is often a time of bloody battles and numerous casualties; on both sides of the playing field. World War II was one of the bloodiest wars in history; it not only involved the mass genocide of a specific group of people, but it also brought on major changes in America. As a result of the war, many opportunities would open up for women in the work force. When the men were off fighting the war, there was a need for employees to take over the jobs that the men had to do. The emergence of women in the work field served as a catalyst for major events that would take place later on, like the Civil Rights Movement. The idea of “what it means to be a woman” in American society was put to the test, and throughout the war, women would have to constantly fight for their place in society; and the work force. The question arises, “was World War II a good war?” The previously stated question can be answered in a number of ways; race and ethnicity often had a hand in what jobs women could do, and social class also had an impact on what job position women had and how much money they would earn. To best answer the question, “was World War II a good war”; the different experiences of; African American, Japanese, and White women need to be analyzed in order to better understand whether World War II was a “good war”.

While the men are away the women do not play. As men left to serve in World War Two, women were left to occupy the frontlines of the working force. They had to take over the industrial production for the war effort and the daily jobs that were not nearly as relevant to the war. In the essay I will be writing about the empty job positions left behind while men when to war across seas and the demand that was put on women to fill the positions. Once women entered the working force there was a conflict between the home and work life, while women when to work there was an abundance of jobs that distracted women from the lives they were living before. Women were seen as doing a duty to their country for fulfilling the empty jobs and taking care of the home life.

Undeniably, the outlook of women in the workforce changed following the advent of World War II. Traditionally, the role of caretaker of the house and home was assigned to the woman. Society and institutions facilitated, accepted and supported this way of thinking and way of life. Working outside the home was considered "a man's job". A woman expressing an interest in being anything other than a homemaker and wife was frowned upon. Accepted was the notion that men are better laborers and a woman could not perform at the same level as a man and therefore are undesirable candidates for work in the office or in factories. When America entered in the Second World War, the role of women as primarily stewards of the home was forever changed. As men answered the call of duty, they left behind a void not only in the hearts of their loved ones but also in the workplace. During this time not only were vacancies found in the work that once employees turned soldiers left behind but also we witnessed an increase of labor need for specific industries, such as those that supported the wartime efforts. Women entered the workforce in droves, filling the much needed void in the offices and the factories. Women become the soldiers on the home front and once the war was over, there was no erasing the progress women made in proving capable and ready to hold gainful employment outside the home. This paper addresses women in the workforce,

World War 2 is a war that was fought globally between the years 1939 to 1945. The war mainly involved all the great powers of the world. They ended up forming 2 military alliances that opposed each other. The alliances were the Axis and allies. The World War 2 included several people adding up to 100 million. The war can said to be one of the most deadly wars as it claimed several lives (Zabecki 76). Dangerous weapons were used such as nuclear weapons. Bombing of industrial areas and population centres led to the death of millions of people. The aftermath results of World War 2 were complex political era, cultural, social and economic impact in the world. The war symbolized the decline of great super powers and the rise of a rift between United States of America (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR). This essay is going to mainly concentrate on two major impacts which will be social and economic impact.

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 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 %.

During World War II, governments were tried and tested, armies were defeated, and technology leaped forward. However, the effects of World War II extended further onto the American children. Death of fathers, collection of scraps, purchasing of ration stamps, the effects of propaganda, and the technicalities of rationing are all factors that influenced the children of that war. These conditions at work consequently caused the generation of children from World War II to grow into conscious patriots and avid supporters of the war cause.

Despite the different time periods, there are several similarities in how both World War I and World War II impacted women in the workplace. At the start of each war, millions of young men left their jobs, homes, and families to serve their country in the war, leaving thousands of employment positions needing to be filled. However, employers did not immediately turn to women to fill those roles. Not only were employers hesitant to hire them until it was absolutely necessary, but male workers did not quite know how to handle women as their new coworkers. According to Carrie Brown, “men disliked having their domain invaded by women. They didn’t know how to treat women in the workplace, and they didn’t want to learn” (127). Men accused women workers of stealing jobs from men, whose rightful place was in the workforce, and many even held the belief that women were lowering the wages earned. Despite these discriminations, employers did eventually hire women, and as a result, women had the opportunity to complete jobs that were normally done by men. Once women were able to overcome the