WWII and Working Women

Paper Summary:

The paper looks at government propaganda for recruiting women during WWII. The paper describes the working women's situation during the war and discusses the economic and social changes brought about by women in the labor market. The paper explains that this shift paved the way for the 1950s when a new set of ideas entered American society and seriously challenged the role of women in society.

From the Paper:

"America's involvement in World War II generated an immense pressure on the national economy as well as labor shortages that were caused by the demands on wartime industry. This was the moment when the need for labor was at its peak. America needed the female part of the population to enlist for employment, and support the war industry. Women started working in factories building planes, tanks and ships as World War II was a war deeply based on production. The U.S. government realized the contribution that American women could bring to America's war effort; thus the War Manpower Commission started working closely with the media and women's organizations in a collective effort to convince women to join the labor force."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Hartmann, Susan M. The Home Front and Beyond: American Women in the 1940s. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1982.
• Kessler-Harris, Alice. Out to Work: A History of Wage-Earning Women in the United States. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1983: 273-300.
• Rupp, Leila J. Mobilizing Women for War: German and American Propaganda, 1939-1945. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press, 1978.
• "After the War" Rosie the Riveter: Women Working during World War II <http://www.nps.gov/pwro/collection/website/after.htm>
• "The Image and Reality of Women who worked During World War II" Rosie the Riveter: Women Working during World War II <http://www.nps.gov/pwro/collection/website/rosie.htm>

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• Term Paper # 134499 : "Women and Work in Canada, Post WWII"

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