DBQ Essay
Women in World War II
World War II greatly changed the status and role of women by changing their traditional social roles, providing them with more employment opportunities, and maintaining these changes after the war ended.
The story of women’s entrance to society was much different before the large strides they would take during the war. During the great depression, the women’s rights movement largely shrunk (Doc A). With jobs taking cuts and work scarce, it was much more troublesome being a man than it was being a woman. Access to the men’s world at the time was nothing to envy as “the women’s world remained largely intact and the round of cooking, housecleaning, and mending became if anything more absorbing”, while “the men, cut adrift from their usual routine, lost much of their sense of time and dawdled helplessly and dully about the streets” (Doc B). Unlike men, women enjoyed the stability of their positions and the importance in their role of holding together the family, and with this stability and newfound importance, there was much more self-respect among women than there was among men. The rest of the nation seemed in conjunction, as the first lady, Eleanor Roosevelt seemed to share power and influence with her disabled husband, and famous women writers like Pearl S. Buck and Margaret Mead emerged, further giving women a reason to be dignified. Thus, much like the Cult of Domesticity of the 19th century, women-hood was something to be proud of. It was the result of the poor conditions that low positions like a housewife seemed favorable compared to most of the poverty stricken or jobless men, yet the economic prosperity that came with the war would remind the women of the opportunities they have yet acquired.
With the outbreak of war, the status of women in American society drastically changed as they gained many economic and labor opportunities. Due to the lack of men, industry required women to take the place of men. More than 6 million women took up jobs outside the home. Women were actually encouraged to take part in jobs that helped the war effort. The government even set up some 3,000 day care centers to care for “Rosie the Riveter’s” children while she worked. This sudden change gave women new economic and labor opportunities they had only dreamed of: jobs, money, and freedom. Because of the war, the status and role of women improved greatly compared to their prewar statuses and roles. Women began to realize that they were sick of being confined to the Cult of Domesticity after “they had a taste of freedom, a taste of making their own money, [and] a taste of spending their own money”, and they wanted to make their own decisions (Doc C). Because new employment opportunities incited these feelings in women, many more women began working and were able to be independent. It was the first time they had a chance to get out of the home to work and “make a few bucks,” as Sybil Lewis said, and these opportunities were something that women “never dreamed would happen.” (Doc F). In this manner, the war years offered many new possibilities for women.
The war did not only change the status and roles of women temporarily; the changes still stayed after the war. After World War II, postwar prosperity reaped great benefits for women. More than ever, urban offices and shops provided a surplus of employment for female workers. The great majority of new jobs created in the postwar era went to women, as the service sector of the economy dramatically outgrew the old industrial and manufacturing sectors. Women accounted for a quarter of the American work force at the end of World War II and for nearly have the labor pool five decades later. This was a great improvement in the status of women. A chart that shows the growth of Women’s jobs from 1940 to 1956 indicates that employment of women nearly doubled in every area of labor from the start of the war to 10 years after the war (Doc D). The war increased employment opportunities for women, but even after the war ended, these opportunities remained, showing that the war did greatly improve the status of women. In addition, women’s changed roles maintained after the war as well. During the war, since many women left the home to work, women no longer maintained their traditional feminine roles of homemaker and mother. Because many women continued their march into the workplace even after the war, a feminist revolt was beginning to arise in which women were going against their expected traditional roles. This growing revolt would eventually be sparked into a full-fledged movement in the 1960s.
World War II greatly changed the status and role of women by changing their traditional social roles, providing them with more employment opportunities, and maintaining these changes after the war ended.
The story of women’s entrance to society was much different before the large strides they would take during the war. During the great depression, the women’s rights movement largely shrunk (Doc A). With jobs taking cuts and work scarce, it was much more troublesome being a man than it was being a woman. Access to the men’s world at the time was nothing to envy as “the women’s world remained largely intact and the round of cooking, housecleaning, and mending became if anything more absorbing”, while “the men, cut adrift from their usual routine, lost much of their sense of time and dawdled helplessly and dully about the streets” (Doc B). Unlike men, women enjoyed the stability of their positions and the importance in their role of holding together the family, and with this stability and newfound importance, there was much more self-respect among women than there was among men. The rest of the nation seemed in conjunction, as the first lady, Eleanor Roosevelt seemed to share power and influence with her disabled husband, and famous women writers like Pearl S. Buck and Margaret Mead emerged, further giving women a reason to be dignified. Thus, much like the Cult of Domesticity of the 19th century, women-hood was something to be proud of. It was the result of the poor conditions that low positions like a housewife seemed favorable compared to most of the poverty stricken or jobless men, yet the economic prosperity that came with the war would remind the women of the opportunities they have yet acquired.
With the outbreak of war, the status of women in American society drastically changed as they gained many economic and labor opportunities. Due to the lack of men, industry required women to take the place of men. More than 6 million women took up jobs outside the home. Women were actually encouraged to take part in jobs that helped the war effort. The government even set up some 3,000 day care centers to care for “Rosie the Riveter’s” children while she worked. This sudden change gave women new economic and labor opportunities they had only dreamed of: jobs, money, and freedom. Because of the war, the status and role of women improved greatly compared to their prewar statuses and roles. Women began to realize that they were sick of being confined to the Cult of Domesticity after “they had a taste of freedom, a taste of making their own money, [and] a taste of spending their own money”, and they wanted to make their own decisions (Doc C). Because new employment opportunities incited these feelings in women, many more women began working and were able to be independent. It was the first time they had a chance to get out of the home to work and “make a few bucks,” as Sybil Lewis said, and these opportunities were something that women “never dreamed would happen.” (Doc F). In this manner, the war years offered many new possibilities for women.
The war did not only change the status and roles of women temporarily; the changes still stayed after the war. After World War II, postwar prosperity reaped great benefits for women. More than ever, urban offices and shops provided a surplus of employment for female workers. The great majority of new jobs created in the postwar era went to women, as the service sector of the economy dramatically outgrew the old industrial and manufacturing sectors. Women accounted for a quarter of the American work force at the end of World War II and for nearly have the labor pool five decades later. This was a great improvement in the status of women. A chart that shows the growth of Women’s jobs from 1940 to 1956 indicates that employment of women nearly doubled in every area of labor from the start of the war to 10 years after the war (Doc D). The war increased employment opportunities for women, but even after the war ended, these opportunities remained, showing that the war did greatly improve the status of women. In addition, women’s changed roles maintained after the war as well. During the war, since many women left the home to work, women no longer maintained their traditional feminine roles of homemaker and mother. Because many women continued their march into the workplace even after the war, a feminist revolt was beginning to arise in which women were going against their expected traditional roles. This growing revolt would eventually be sparked into a full-fledged movement in the 1960s.