Essay about The Impact of the Second World War on the Position of Women

The American women that were involved in World War II held positions in which had never been held before. The global conflict caused the United States to urgently call upon the upbringing of women’s roles in the industries. The American women’s roles in the Second Great War were much more extensive than in the First; women now began to work in factories, ammunition plants, and on farms. Another rather important job that women held in the war was that they enlisted into the military as nurses that would serve on the front lines of war.

World War II is when the women first started working for the pilots service. The woman wasn’t allowed to work for any service like that before. But when a special lady such as Eleanor Roosevelt convinced them to work for the service that all changed. They later figured out that there was a big help. 350,000 women was working for the service in the beginning of december. They also had their own branch. These women were very hardworking and important with the work they did. There service for the pilots was a success.

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.

"They turn casually to look at you, distracted, and get a mild distracted surprise, you're gone. Their blank look tells you that the girl they were fucking is not there anymore. You seem to have disappeared.(pg.263)" In Minot's story Lust you are play by play given the sequential events of a fifteen year old girls sex life. As portrayed by her thoughts after sex in this passage the girl is overly casual about the act of sex and years ahead of her time in her awareness of her actions. Minot's unique way of revealing to the reader the wild excursions done by this young promiscuous adolescent proves that she devalues the sacred act of sex. Furthermore, the manner in which the author illustrates to the reader these acts symbolizes the

American women during World War 2 played an extremely large and important role when it came to the United States and their victory over our enemies in the war. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the U.S. finally entered the war. Before this event, only a handful of women had actually been in the American workforce. But World War 2 left an excess of these workforce positions open when their brothers, fathers, sons, and husbands left to fight. Because of this shortage, the U.S. government used propaganda, most notably Rosie the Riveter, and spread their different adds throughout different types of media. All the different propaganda was meant to encourage the women left at home to join the war effort. Their way of doing this involved them filling

“During the war about half of American women worked outside of their homes,”( Hughes 2). The number of working women rose from fourteen point six million in nineteen forty one to nineteen point four million in nineteen forty four. “Women were not just motivated by wages or patriotism; but buy the feeling of independence that they gained from the work,” (Hughes 2). Without women laborers the US economy would have never been able to produce military hardware to be successful in the war. Even though women played a huge role in the work force during the World War II, they also played an even bigger role in the war itself. Women played several different roles in the actual war. “A few of women’s roles in the actual war of World War II would be army nurses, spies, pilots and entertainers,” (Scott3). Women served as army nurses during World War 11, there were than seven thousand active nurses on duty when the United States entered the war. “Women also served as pilots, on September tenth nineteen forty two, Nancy Harkness Love, with the support of th U.S. Air Transport Command, organized twenty five women pilots into the Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (W.A.F.S),” (Scott3). Women pilots were used to serve non- combat flights, to free the men for combat flights. “Women spies of the World WarII , they were often successful and unsuspected since people suspected women that women’s properly roles were solely domestic,” (Scott3). Lastly

When WWII started, all of the men went off to fight, and left the women with the children, like they normally did. This time though, something had changed. So many men went off to fight, women had to go to work. They worked at factories, producing war materials, like bombs and uniforms. Some women took a step even further, and they went on to change the world.

Women in World War II started replacing men in traditional roles, which proved to society that women were capable of work reserved for men. Due to labour shortages and the need for men to fight overseas, the government was forced to allow women to take a more active role. Women had a broad range of duties and responsibilities, most women were trained in many of the home-front tasks, subsequently, that more service men could be freed to join the overseas forces, this created new employment opportunities for women (Carrodus et al, 2012, p. 113). Tens of thousands of women joined the Women 's Air Force, Naval and Army Services during World War II. (Big Black Dog Communications Pty Ltd, et al, 2009). As seen Appendix 2, women in the services were significant as they were beginning to perform all types of work, from intelligence officers to drivers, typists and cooks, to wireless telegraphists and aircraft ground staff. To go from being dependent on

The time period following World War 1 is referred to as the “Roaring Twenties”. This was a time of substantial political and social change in 1919-1929. Positivity was brewing as everything seemed to be looking up in the western world after the tragedies of the Great War. Many things were changing, including lifestyle for woman,

During World War II, the roles of women have forever been changed. Young men and women decided to marry just before their sweethearts went overseas to fight for their country. As the men fought abroad, we began to see women on the Home Front encouraged to be more independent and finding jobs of their own. These females in the United States stepped up to the plate and began working jobs that many men had before. Women stepped up and began working in factories, participating in organizations in regards to the war, all while still running things smoothly at home. While the men were away for battle, women became proficient cooks and housekeepers, managed the finances, learned to fix the car, worked in a defense plant, and wrote letters to their soldier husbands.

Before 1939, women were looked at as weak, incompetent and incapable of doing a man’s job. However, when World War II broke out, women were called to maintain the jobs that the men once occupied and t became evident that America’s best chance for success in World War II would have to include the efforts of American females. Women played a key role during World War II in the U.S. More than six million women took wartime jobs in factories, three million volunteered with the Red Cross, and over 200,000 served in the military. Through these jobs women were able to show society that they were capable of doing bigger and better things. Women also realized that they enjoyed this taste of freedom and wanted to continue this lifestyle even after

Claim: World War II produced important changes in American life some trivial and others profound.

During the time of World War II, minorities were needed to step up during this time of conflict. One minority that had a direct impact within America during the war was the women. Before the war, women were seen within American society as housewives, who’s purpose was to tend to both the house and the family. While women took care of the house and family, the men who could find work, worked in industries which helped America function. Come World War II, the men were sent to fight overseas, resulting in an empty workforce. To prevent both the economy and the war effort from collapsing, women had to step up and take the jobs previously done by men. The actions of the women helped supply the war effort, and helped boost the economy. Post World

The role of woman in World War Two was an essential behind the scenes effort. Just as a cameraman is essential to the making of a movie the roles women played in the war was essential to our allied victory. In the war women provided food, clothing, funds, medical work, safety, knowledge and a safe and secure country to return to at the end of the war effort. All the help provided by women gave helped prove gender equality can work in society and helped lead to women's rights in our county.

In the 1920s women became more independent and started to slowly gain rights (“Women of the Century”). Women’s suffrage was finally granted in 1920, which was a huge step towards equality for men and women. For the first time, women were able to vote on issues that mattered to them, which was extremely important in order to gain more rights. In 1923, the Equal Rights Amendment was first introduced, although it would not be passed in Congress until almost fifty years later. Despite these steps of progress, the Great Depression caused some setbacks. Due to the large numbers of unemployment, women were discouraged from “taking jobs” away from men (“Women of the Century). Some states even went so far as to pass laws prohibiting the hiring of women. World War II began quickly after this which greatly increased the number of women in the work force.