Once the war was over and the men came home, the women had to give up their jobs and these hard-working women did not want to leave their jobs. Even though the women were not treated as well as the men, they did prove that they were just as capable as
However, some women joined the work force and would do jobs that men previously had held. Some were not forced to, but they had to work as hard as they could to support their families during this difficult time. In contrast, the writer Norman Cousins commented that there was a negative opinion on the women’s presence in the workforce despite women willing to acquire a living wage. He also stated in his book that the federal government proscribed holding government jobs by both members of a married couple, and many localities stopped hiring women whose husbands with a minimum wage (Cousins 1939). Another aspect of the Depression affecting life of women was the moral argument against working-women.
In the military, women were banned from combat duty, so women were called on to fill some jobs that men had performed, to free men for combat duty. Before World War II women were still fighting for certain rights but had a difficult time getting congress to pass and honor
Because of men and women leaving for war, many young women and once unemployed wives had to take over their roles back home and become the main supplier for everything. Women active in the war, however, began to change the way men and society viewed them. Men started respecting
Women took on many active roles in World War II by working paid jobs that had been held by men such as bank teller, shoe salesperson or aircraft mechanic. Woman started working in factories, hence the phenomenon “Rosie the Riveter”. More traditional jobs for women were roles such as nursing, secretarial or caring jobs. As seen in the ad Not only men were going off to war, in 1942 The Women's Army Corps (WAC) and Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Services (WAVES) were established. After these organizations were accepted congress authorized women to serve in the U.S. Navy, as read from the Encyclopedia of American history: The Great Depression and World War
The lives of women on the Home Front were greatly affected by World War I The lives of women were greatly affected by the war, mainly in a positive way in the long run. Before the war upper-class women did not work, in contrast working class women worked in professions such as maids or working in factories as a way to provide for their families. Statistics show that as many as 11% of women worked as domestic servants before the war. The war also helped the social status of women dramatically in a positive manner as well as giving women the chance to work in a greater variety of jobs, although after the war they were expected to return to their original traditional housewife role. When the war broke out in August 1914, thousands of women lost their jobs in dressmaking, millenary and jewellery making.
By 1950 they could vote in sixty-nine countries and by 1975 in one hundred twenty-nine countries. Today women have the right to vote almost everywhere. New horizons and new roles opened up for women, thanks to the effect of World War I. However, many women lost men in their lives, too. Husbands, brothers, and fathers had died in pretty much every family and household.
Coming from all walks of life, there were those already working who switched to higher-paying defense jobs, those who had lost their jobs due to the Depression, and then there were the women who worked at home. Rosie the Riveter was the idol for these working women also she was known as the cover girl for the recruiting campaign. By 1944, 16 percent of all working women held jobs in war industries. While an estimated 18 million women worked during the war, there was growing concern among them that when the war was over, it would never be the same again. That new venture for American women would soon come to an end.
Before the war, in 1940 about 30% of the women workers were married. By the 1945, after the war, 50% of women workers were married. The ban placed by society on married women workers were lifted. After the war was over and men began to return home, the United States government started another adverting campaign but it was focused at having women returning to their pre-war status of working in the home. The government quickly gave up; women did not want to return to working in the home for two reasons: First, women would were underprivileged had to remain in the workforce to survive.
The downside is that the economy could not sustain having jobs available for both these men and women once the men arrived back home from the war. The view on women at this time made sure to put these women back were most believed they should be, which was at home, working as a waitress, or some type of cleaning