How did the lives of women change after ww2 - Essay Example

Roles of women in the workforce before and after WW II A working woman 40 years of age or younger in 2007 could not comprehend living in a society that limited her employment opportunities to those specified by the prevalent gender stereotype. This has not always been the case, however. This past generation of women is the only one in U.S. history to have the freedom to choose their own career path to the extent familiar today. When the country was young, women were considered possessions whose sole purpose was to serve their husbands – ‘and let the girls be handy’ were words that were not generally deemed offensive in this era as they would be today. Women were not able to vote until the Twentieth Century and were not viewed as potential equals in the workplace until the outbreak of World War II. Another 20 years passed before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 gave women a legal remedy to discrimination in the workplace. Since that time, the role of women in society has changed. The redefining of gender roles that began in the 1960’s and has evolved to a relatively equitable circumstance today owes much to ‘Rosie the Riveter’ who changed the role of women in society’s collective conscience which led to enacting legislation to reflect this advancement of society. This discussion will briefly document the role of women in the workplace prior to WWII, events during the war that served to initiate the liberation of women and the subsequent federal decree designed to end a long era of woman’s subjugation in the U.S. Although women came to America expecting some of the same liberties and freedoms their men fought for, it was a long time before they were able to enjoy the rights and freedoms they enjoy today. Colonial America saw laws and customs relating to women’s roles that were, in some cases, more stringent than those that existed in England at the time. Women were prevented from owning property, negotiate their own contracts or even keep any of their own wages. These restrictions on what a woman could do or own were partly due to the fact that most women were not considered intelligent enough to consider all the consequences involved in managing business or political situations. Most could not prove otherwise as they did not have the access to formal schooling that would have provided them with the skills necessary as proof. “In colonial times, formal learning had a low priority. Girls’ education typically took place at home, where they learned to perform household tasks and, occasionally, to read” (Woloch, 2007). Typically, apprenticeship for girls taught them only how to be better housewives, with the occasional specification that the girls be taught to read the English tongue. “Only a minority of girls attended New England’s primary schools or the dame schools that also taught children to read” (Woloch, 2007). By the beginning of the 1800s, more and more people were moving into the industrialized cities, creating a strong middle-class population in which the ideal life consisted of a father going off to work and a mother who stayed at home and reared the children. It wasn’t until the mid-1800s that women began organizing to bring about the social changes that were necessary to provide them with the rights they needed to fulfill those responsibilities they were charged with. “The onset of industrialization at the beginning of the nineteenth century highlighted differences among women just as it exacerbated those between men and women workers” (Kessler-Harris, 2007). Widows, single women and others flocked to the mill towns of New England, New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey attracted by the relatively high wages that could be earned in the factories, but this trend began to change as the factory owners began working to reduce costs, lowering wages and demanding more work which drove many women back into the home. During WWI, women were asked to help in the war effort by replacing the men who went off to war and staff armament factories. The vast majority, though, returned to their traditional role as homemaker following the armistice in 1918. “WWI was the first time that women were asked to go to the factories and work the jobs that the men had, before they went to fight in the war. At the end of WWI they were willing to give up there jobs to the returning men” (Harrison, 1997). Unemployment rose dramatically in the 1930’s during the Great Depression. Women felt compelled to abandon the jobs in favor of the masses of out-of-work men. The social pressure working women endured during this period illustrated their role in the social order in the minds of both genders prior to WWII. WWII was a pivotal time in history for women in the U.S. They played a major role in the war effort by supplying the military with both personnel and the armaments it needed for victory. Women’s involvement in the war forever altered the conventional view that women’s proper place was in the home. During the war, women who had become comfortable with their role as homemaker did their patriotic duty and went to work in munitions plant, shipyards and various types of factories when the male workers, who represented the majority of the workforce, went off to fight in the war (Sorensen, 2004). “Many of these women grew up in middle-class homes and never expected to work in any of these occupations, but when called upon by their country they came to work” (“World War II”, 2006). By the end of the war one-third of the American workforce, 18 million, was represented by women, three million of who were employed in military plants (Sorensen, 2004). In addition, nearly 400,000 women joined the armed services which were more than the total number of men enlisted in the military in 1940 (“World War II”, 2006). Much as in WWI, women volunteered in droves to occupy the factory jobs left unattended when the men went to fight in WWII but, unlike WWI, were not as willing to return to their traditional homemaker positions when the war came to a conclusion. The effort on the home-front bolstered women’s self esteem which heightened their desire to become financially and intellectually independent of men. The war was a combined effort and it was widely acknowledged that without the efforts of either the men on the battlefield or the women in the factories and munitions plants, the war would have been lost. Feelings of patriotism and purpose were strong in both G.I. Joe and Rosie the Riveter. This universal understanding gave women the credibility they had been seeking since before the founding of the country. Women contributed their part by performing the traditional male jobs to an equal degree of excellence as had the men and following the war were no longer satisfied to be relegated solely into ‘women’s jobs.’ WWII gave women access to both military and civilian employment opportunities once regarded as male only occupations. This opened a door that was never to be shut again. Following the war, most working women found that the high wages they were earning were only a temporary phenomenon because they again returned to the home when the men returned from the war. However, not all women gave up their new-found independence and the ones who returned to the home didn’t stay there for long. The jobs may have been temporary but their new sense of identity and self-respect were not. Additionally, it became more socially acceptable for married women to enter the workforce following the war. Attitudes toward women in the workplace were changing in all sectors of society including the business community which needed increasing numbers of employees in the economic boom that followed the war. Businesses began disregarding their preference for hiring unmarried women only and welcomed married women and mothers, a trend that continued. In 1960, more than double the percentage of married women worked than did in 1940 (Harrison, 1997). In 1964, a major piece of legislation, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, greatly enhanced women’s rights in the workplace. This Act precludes employers engaging in discriminatory practices, “to fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any individual, or otherwise to discriminate against any individual with respect to his compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment, because of such individual’s race, color, religion, sex, or national origin” (U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, 1964). Since the passage of this Act, women and minorities have legal recourse against discrimination in the workplace with regards to promotions, hiring practices, dismissals, wages, training, working conditions and benefit compensation. In other words, the Act equaled the playing field for women by allowing them the same legal right to work as the men. Women not only contributed to the winning of WWII, they excelled at their responsibilities. No longer were they considered the ‘weaker sex’ or thought to be intellectually inferior to men or less capable. This altering of the social mindset following WWII was the beginning of the eradication of long-held stereotypes. Today, more than half of married women are employed, a statistic that would have seemed unthinkable prior to WWII. Rosie not only initiated the opening of employment opportunities for women, she began a social revolution that led to true equality of the genders. Works Cited Harrison, Cynthia. “From the Home to the House: The Changing Role of Women in American Society.” USIA Electronic Journal. Vol. 2, N. 2, (June 1997). Kessler-Harris, Alice. “Women and the Work Force.” The Reader’s Companion to American History. Houghton Mifflin Company, (2007). Sorensen, Aja. “Rosie the Riveter: Women Working During World War II.” (2004). National Park Service. March 27, 2010 U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. “Title VII.” Civil Rights Act. (1964). March 27, 2010 Woloch, Nancy. “Feminist Movement: From its Origins to 1960.” Reader’s Companion to American History. (2007). “World War II: Women and the War.” The Women’s Memorial Foundation Office of History & Collections. (2006). March 27, 2010 Read More