Women During World War I

For centuries women have been depicted as weak beings when compared to men. In the early days, women were not allowed to go to work because men did not think they had the same abilities as they did. The role of a woman was to stay in the house, cook, clean, and take care of the children. However, through the World War II propaganda poster exclaiming “We Can Do It!” featuring Rosie the Riveter, women were able to prove that they had the same abilities as men and began a revolution in the U.S. workforce.

Even though Rosie the Riveter is an image frequently synonymous with the contemporary women’s movement, she was not designed to promote social change or improve the role of women in the workplace during World War II. In reality, she was promoted as the ideal female worker and was patriotic, confident, capable, and beautiful in a large propaganda campaign by the United States government. Since the war caused many men to answer the call to serve in the military, both at home and abroad, the United States was faced with the urgent challenge of recruiting women into the workforce. Rosie the Riveter was their solution to this problem.

The war marked a watershed in the history of women at work, and temporarily at least, caused a greater change in women's economic status than half a century of feminist rhetoric and agitation had been able to achieve. (125)

In the past, WWII and WWI, women were very dominant; they had to take care of their children, do all the chores and also had to cook the food. During WWII, women had to take place for the men (First world war.com). The war changed the life for all Canadian women. When men went to fight, women were called upon to fill their jobs, and this included many jobs that were previously thought of unsuitable for women. Women were called up for war work from March 1941(Women during World War II). The roles of the women were positively impacted by World War II, because they had the potential to re-enter the workforce, control the farms and join the military for the first time. Taking control of the military was tough, but women had shown that they could work together and handle the situation.

The film titled, “The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter”, looks at the roles of women during and after World War II within the U.S. The film interviews five women who had experienced the World War II effects in the U.S, two who were Caucasian and three who were African American. These five women, who were among the millions of women recruited into skilled male-oriented jobs during World War II, shared insight into how women were treated, viewed and mainly controlled. Along with the interviews are clips from U.S. government propaganda films, news reports from the media, March of Time films, and newspaper stories, all depicting how women are to take "the men’s" places to keep up with industrial production, while reassured that their

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,

Rosie Wasn’t Always A Riveter: How The Second World War Altered Gender Structure in the American Workplace, 1941-1945

During the year 1942, most of the world was occupied with World War II; for the US, it was a period of hardship, unity, sacrifice, and pain. Men were selected to go fight while women were encouraged with the “Rosie the Riveter” poster to work in areas they were not familiar with. About six million women were motivated from it and worked the jobs men usually took and jobs that contributed to helping the men who were fighting; however, women were still responsible for their daily house work.

Before the war, women in America had typical lives, and many were wives and mothers. America was brought into the war unexpectedly when Pearl Harbor was bombed in 1941. Hundreds of thousands of men were drafted into the war, leaving the women behind. America lost a lot of valuable, hard-working men to fight, and they needed people to fill their positions. According to history.com’s article, “American Women in World War II”, it was then when Rosie the Riveter was created to recruit women to become part of the “work force” (“American Women in World War II”). Rosie the Riveter was a fictional character who motivated women across the U.S. to take jobs in different industries, many of which were previously all-male positions.

Before the war, women’s roles in the household were to simply raise the children and maintain the home, or to take these things off of the plates of their busy husbands hands, but in this era of wartime production women who were married, unmarried, or married and had children went to work. Some 14 million women went to work building landing vehicles, ships, planes anything needed so that their boys were properly supplied on the front lines. With this shift from wife and mom to worker, women began to overcome much of the discrimination they previously battled in the work place, like being paid fewer wage than men. This movement was fueled by a massive propaganda campaign that started to change how women thought it meant to be a woman. At the peak of the industrial boom caused by World War II, 40 percent of all women worked for wages in the US and out of the entire workforce, 36 percent were women. Being a women in this period no longer required sitting at home all day cleaning the house while the children were at school and the opportunity to make on honest days wage became increasingly appealing to many housewives. Women, now accustomed to being treated this way, saw this as a step forward in society for them. Sadly, this way of life most women who joined the work force was short lived.

Women in America have faced gender suppression for centuries. From issues such as not being able to vote, to equal wage rights, feminists and suffragettes have fought for their place in society. During World War II, women began to shape the world around them by taking jobs in large numbers, as men had to leave their jobs to enlist. This was supported through one of America’s cultural icons, Rosie the Riveter, who represented a strong, working woman. However, once the men returned at war’s end, women were fired from their jobs. While women were praised for their work, they also changed the workplace itself, helping the United States transition out of an industrial economy. Harsh factories were given a feminine, personal touch, and the women began to break out of their dull housewife lives--until the war ended. Although World War II caused only a temporary rise in women’s employment, women changed company policies and took jobs normally reserved for men, challenging their own role as subservient housewives and permanently improving employment in the businesses that they worked.

Rosie the Riveter was a metaphoric figure used to represent the strength, dirty jobs, and work women provided for the war effort. Penny Colman states “Rosie the Riveter was supposedly based on Rose Bonavita, a riveter in the United States.”

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

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 %.

The second source i reference in my investigation is book written by Maureen Honey, “Creating Rosie the Riveter: Class, Gender, and Propaganda during World War 2”. This is a secondary source because it was published after the war time in 1984. This document exists to tell us about all the events leading to the creation of a very symbolic figure, Rosie the Riveter. She creates it to explain how women who entered the workforce during this time were predominantly middle class housewives. The author chose to write it as a book because she has researched the issue and studied it for many years and wanted to inform the public on what she has found. Doing this in a book form is more informing. This document is trying to show that women were powerful