Women In World War II

Shortly before World War II began, women were trying to enact changes in their lives. For a long time many women had a struggle finding gainful employment outside the home. A lot of women would work in family businesses in an unpaid position and doing things like preparing food, making goods to be used at home, cleaning and taking care of children. Women stil do all these things today while maintaining an outside job. At that period in time most upper class white women in the United States were stay at home mothers and home makers. This was considered proper for them, whilst most women who were poorer and belonging to minority groups worked outside the home. Many men felt that women workers were taking jobs away from the men, and that men could …show more content…
It had also become seen as acceptable for single women to take jobs at this point in time. The men were being shipped over seas to Europe and and the Pacific Theater, and women were needed to pick up the slack and support the war effort. There was an implication that while the women were working and filling a need during the war effort, that they would exit the workforce and marry after the men came back from fighting. Women who had husbands fighting in the war and children in the home were considered especially patriotic when they took jobs. It should be noted that women were not welcomed into the workforce because of an enlightment sweeping the nation with regards to women’s rights and positions, but purely due to necessity as men were leaving by the millions to …show more content…
(BAXANDALL) In addition to nursing duties in the military, most of the women enlisted were doing what was considered women’s work-paperwork, cleaning, and the like. However, there was created the Women’s Air Force and in turn the Woman’s Airforce Service Pilots or WASPs, and these women were allowed to train in flying. They only flew in non-combat missions. They were also trained in typical finishing school courses such as how to properly apply make up and how to maintain decent posture.
During the war marriage rates went up, more and more couples were getting married and trying to do so before the man was called to war or on a rare day of leave. The divorce rate also went up, in the 1920s the divorce rate was about one percent, and rose to around two and a half percent in the mid-forties. (FRIEZE) It is also important to note that while more and more women were working and taking jobs outside of the home, rationing was still taking place with many supplies being diverted into the war