Question
To what extent did World War II change the status and role of women?
Documents
Document A:
(2011, 05). Women's Rights Movement essay
“The women’s rights movement had all but disappeared after the adoption of the 19th Amendment in 1920. However, in the post-World War II period, women increasingly realized that they continued to face obstacles in achieving equality in American society...Women quickly realized that change was needed and they had to do something about it. After World War II, women were extremely disappointed because many were separated with the work place and were also dissatisfied with their lives because they felt bored and restricted.”
Document B:
Robert and Helen Lynd, Study of Muncie, Indiana, published in 1937
“The men, cut adrift from their usual routine, lost much of their sense of time and dawdled helplessly and dully about the streets; while in the homes the women’s world remained largely intact and the round of cooking, housecleaning, and mending became if anything more absorbing.”
Document C:
Dellie Hahne, an educator who worked as a nurse's aid for the Red Cross during the war
"I think a lot of women said, Screw that noise. 'Cause they had a taste of freedom, they had a taste of making their own money, a taste of spending their own money, making their own decisions. I think the beginning of the women's movement had its seeds right there in World War Two."
Document D:
(2011, 05). Women's Rights Movement essay
“The women’s rights movement had all but disappeared after the adoption of the 19th Amendment in 1920. However, in the post-World War II period, women increasingly realized that they continued to face obstacles in achieving equality in American society...Women quickly realized that change was needed and they had to do something about it. After World War II, women were extremely disappointed because many were separated with the work place and were also dissatisfied with their lives because they felt bored and restricted.”
Document B:
Robert and Helen Lynd, Study of Muncie, Indiana, published in 1937
“The men, cut adrift from their usual routine, lost much of their sense of time and dawdled helplessly and dully about the streets; while in the homes the women’s world remained largely intact and the round of cooking, housecleaning, and mending became if anything more absorbing.”
Document C:
Dellie Hahne, an educator who worked as a nurse's aid for the Red Cross during the war
"I think a lot of women said, Screw that noise. 'Cause they had a taste of freedom, they had a taste of making their own money, a taste of spending their own money, making their own decisions. I think the beginning of the women's movement had its seeds right there in World War Two."
Document D:
Document E:
Herb Collins Recalls his Mother
"My father operated a store, and after the war began, business started to slow down. So my mother took a job up at Dahlgren at the old proving grounds [military test site.] She worked for about three years there. They had a bus that went from Carolina County to Dahlgren every day, and we got up at three o’clock in the morning, and I studied at that time by lamplight from three o’clock until time to catch the school bus and go to school. That would have been about eight o’clock. Then she would come home on the bus at night, and I would prepare meals and have them ready when she got home. I learned to cook that way."
Document F:
This excerpt is a personal account by Sybil Lewis, which was taken from Mark Jonathan's The Homefront: America During World War II.
“The war years had a tremendous impact on women. I know for myself it was the first time I had a chance to get out of the kitchen and work in industry and make a few bucks. This was something I had never dreamed would happen. In Sapulpa all that women had to look forward to was keeping a house and raising families. The war years offered new possibilities. You came out to California, put on your pants and took your lunch pail to a man's job. In Oklahoma a woman's place was in the home, and men went to work and provided. […]. We were all told that when the war was over we would not be needed anymore.”
Document G:
Political Cartoon