The Impact Of WWII On Educational Attainment

In 1947, the Truman Commission expressed their concern with America’s status as being the leading nation. Plaguing issues that occurred during the post-World War II era put an emphasis on the need for a skilled workforce and accessible post-secondary education for American citizens (Kim and Rury, 2007). While four-year institutions were available, a gap was placed in higher education achievement for those who were interested in workforce development and general education.

World War II brought several changes to the world and specifically America. It not only changed the world map but also set impact on the behaviours. WWII played a major role in building turning points during different periods. Before WWII, African Americans were not offered equal rights in the community. It was considered an impossible thing that African could ever do a white collar or even a blue collar job. However, soon after the WWII, there came a turning point in the lives of African American with the Civil Rights Act in 1964.

Prior to World War II, many women were unemployed, due to the Great Depression which had started a decade before. With men always getting preference for jobs, there were very few jobs left for women. Consequently, not only were many occupations were reserved for men, but men were also paid wages up to five times higher for the same task as women. Some states also barred married women from holding jobs. However during World War II, America produced at an efficiency which was higher than ever. This meant that the women had an increasing number of jobs. Jobs in the public sector opened up. Since 1939, women progressively changed the idea of patriarchy and the cliché thinking of an average woman in the United States to be a wife and mother.

After World War II, the American psyche became permanently stained with new ideas. During this time period, the American government actively sought to change the way the American people thought. The support of the American public was crucial to the success of the war effort. Many ideas introduced during this point of time consisted of new roles of certain people groups in American society. Women and minority groups would prove themselves in the workplace, millions of citizens would be discriminated against, and social barriers would be broken and assembled. Even though World War II took place in Europe and the Pacific, it made lasting social changes that can still be seen in America.

With half a million men away at war, leaving their day to day jobs, who replaced the the workers? The women did. Women replaced the men's jobs such as munitions factory workers, sewing bandages, and selling war bonds, shipyards and spies. This is good because before the war women were unimportant and were only aloud in the kitchen The only negative about the women working in the men’s jobs was they didn’t get paid as much as the men. The number of women in the workforce rose from 24% to 37%. This is close to 500,000 women to close to one million women. This says that in the workforce, women rose in a total of 500,000.

September 1st, 1939 is a day that changed the course of history. Lives were lost, families ripped apart, towns destroyed, and jobs were created. World War II had just begun with the majority of the main countries in our world participating in the war that would ultimately kill millions of soldiers and civilians. Two years later, on December 8th, 1941 after the Japanese surprisingly attacked Pearl Harbor, the United States entered the war fully. During this time, the U.S. enlisted the help of the entire nation; soldiers, factory workers, nurses, and doctors were required both overseas and on the home front. While many men were sent to fight over-seas or prepare at combat training on bases in the U.S., factories and other business were left with a shortage of workers. World War II encouraged, or more accurately, forced, women and wives to leave their homes to begin working. A familiar image that many Americans are familiar with is of the women flexing announcing “We Can Do It!”, which is greatly recognized as a symbol of the female presence in the workforce. Young adults dropped out of school to help out in numerous ways. The amount of children working also increased greatly. Desperate measures to save money and help in the wartime effort lead to many drastic changes in roles and lifestyles of American families on the home front.

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”.

Women, particularly married women joined the workforce in numbers never before seen “Between 1940 and 1945, the female percentage of the U.S. workforce increased from 27 percent to nearly 37 percent, and by 1945 nearly one out of every four married women worked outside the home” (Staff). These people who stayed at home and helped the war production most certainly did their best. By the end of the war they had more than doubled the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) which is a modern measurement of the health of an economy ("U.S. GDP by Year"). Their hard work had truly made us “the arsenal of democracy” ("Franklin D. Roosevelt: Fireside Chat.").

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.

Society at this time did not view women as equals and the pay they received reflected this attitude. ?In 1939 male teachers made an average salary of $1,953 while female teachers were paid a mere 1,394; male social workers averaged $1,718 while their female counterparts received a salary of $1,442. There was an expectation that women worked until they married then their husband would support the family.? (Chafe, pg. 63) This attitude was seen in the salaries women throughout America received prior to and during the early part of the war in small communities and the United States Government.

World War II was a very important event in American history, but as bad as war is or seems to be there always seems to have better outcomes in the end. By the Japanese bombing Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 and bringing America into the war it opened the eyes of all Americans to the problems not only domestically but internationally and the biggest problem that was discovered after the completion of World War II was the level of social equality around the world. It had been a problem that had plagued the world for many years but the atrocities that brought about by the war coupled with the ever growing eye of the media caused for greater concern in the light of social equality in the world.

During WW2 the presence of men at home was to a bare minimum. The impact this had on women was felt throughout the nation. How women would be looked at would be changed forever. They had to uphold various positions that were usually held by men and reevaluate their roles as homemakers. Their lives at home had changed; they were no longer the primary care giver. They also joined different parts of the military. Due to men being away at war during WW2 women were forced to participate in the workforce, which would change their view of their position in society.

World War II (WWII) had an immense effect on the United States; culturally, economically, and industrially. Although no battles were fought on American soil, the war affected all phases of American life. Among the infinite of changes experienced by Americans during this time, there was a big shift in the industrial complex, a re-imagining of the role of women in society, and economic boost. Social shifts began to shape a new national identity which would change the country forever.

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).

Education has an importance in the world that cannot be matched. By learning new things and applying them to everyday tasks, the world has rapidly advanced over the past century. However, in the beginning of the 20th century, there were not many educational opportunities for the public, but with the help of World War I (WWI), changes were made. Even though there were not immediate impacts after World War I, the war set the stage for the development of education in the United States because women were granted more educational rights, and the government instituted programs to improve overall education.