How Did Ww2 Affect North American Economy

Many argue that women’s status in American society was improved during the Second World War through their contributions to the North American economy. During the Second World War women were “allowed” to do the jobs that were originally meant for men. However after the war ended they went back to their roles as housewives, gender roles were expected to return to the way they were once the war ended. The changes did not really begin to take place in gender equality until the 50’s and 60’s but this was due to the younger generation, the ones who were daughters of the women who took men’s jobs during the war. The women who worked in ww2 did not liberate women or being a feminist movement. These women made sure to keep their femininity, held onto
what they knew and gave into the pressure of conforming to societies ideals. The Second World War was a total war, meaning that it affected and involved citizens on the home front not just the ones who were in the battlefield. Countries needed the help of all their citizens like never before. Thousands among thousands of men were sent to fight the war, leaving jobs unoccupied with no men able to fill it. There was a shortage of men to work thus the government had no choice but to allow women to come in and take over their positions and so 5 million women entered the workforce. This created new opportunities for women, chances to showcase their ability and prove that they can do more than just fill the role of a caretaker, but it also meant that women had to work double time as a housewife and a factory worker. The positions that women were doing while the men were at war were nursing, factory work, building bombs and aircraft parts, engineers and many more. Though the majority of the positions that were offered and available to women were limited and non-combat ones. In North American 1945 70% of the CWAC (Canadian Women’s Army Corps) workers were made up of either clerks (62%) or cooks (8%) and the largest number of women working were participating in unpaid volunteer work.

Gender inequalities were not just seen in the positions available to women but also in the workforce when it came to pay and benefits for women. Women were paid significantly less than men would have been in these positions. Women were paid two thirds of what a man’s salary would have been. Women in the service were also unable to receive dependents’ allowances which is a bursary given during ones training if you have people who are wholly dependent on you financially. In July 1943 the Department of National Defense ended up increasing women’s pay to 80% of a mans salary and allowed dependent’s allowance to the service women, but they did not give these bursaries out to support the women’s husbands. These improvements made for women in the service was due to the National Council of Women publically voicing their complaints about the gender inequality and even though the Department of National Defense enhanced these inequalities women were still outraged that they were not being paid the same salary as the men who they were relieving for their combat duty.

Even though women were standing up and filling roles that were previously occupied by men they were constantly reminded by propaganda posters of how to keep their femininity while doing a job that is meant for a man. People feared that women were becoming too masculine and that the differences between men and women were dwindling. Even at the height of America’s recruitment of women during the Second World War, 45% of ads were made up of women playing the housewife and mother role. Figure 2 shows that the only reason why women were in the workforce during the Second World War was to help the men and because men want them to and were allowing the women to man the positions. Another headline by McCalls’ wrote, ‘She does a man's work in the ground crew servicing airplanes, but she hasn't lost any of her glamour, sweetness, and charm’. Women made sure to keep their femininity while they were worked in the glorified positions that the government allowed them to temporarily fill. In Women in Necessary Service’s they cover concerns that women had, “What's the first objection to a housewife's taking a war job? A very real one…How can I get my housework done, and still have eight hours left in which to work at a war job?'. In response to this, women were told that they were only temporarily filling these positions and doing double duty would only be temporary once the war is over and then women can return to their rightful place, which is, at home.

After the Second World War (1939-1945) people clung to traditional gender roles. They felt it was right for the men to take their jobs back. Women wanted their lives and families to be under control after the war, with one woman saying, “I want to go home as fast as I can and make a home for my husband and have a family”. A big reason for the women’s willingness to oblige to return back to the previous status quo was due to their own nostalgia. These women had just gone through a depression, a world war and now there was talk and fear of a nuclear war. The uncertainty of their lives had them clinging onto what was normal, secure, safe, a life that did not hold any uncertainty. The stereotypical gender roles that society had in place before the war was the thing that the women clung to, "Americans turned to the family as a bastion of safety in an insecure world... cold war ideology and the domestic revival [were] two sides of the same coin." The women knew these roles and knew what was expected of them. This was not a time where women were pushing for gender equality, they did not want change they wanted what was safe.

Women felt pressure from society and worried about what society would think if they did not return home after the war. Women felt pressure to conform to traditional gender roles, to be a dutiful wife and return to their domestic life after the war. After the war there was a large shift in ads designed for women. Recruitment ads for women quickly changed to ads focused on domesticity with females. Men and women were marrying left right and center and at a much younger age. Ads began to prominently feature infants everywhere, even on ads that had nothing to do with babies. An example of this is in a Sunkist ad from October 1945 where a ad for oranges features a baby with the caption, “little ones are might sweet now!”. Birth rates usually shoot up in societies after a war has happened due to joy but after the Second World War the birth rate immensely grew like never before, this was the Baby Boom. For women, the Baby Boom created layoffs in the workforce. In the 1950’s many employers still used the marriage bar, and then had to get lower paying jobs. Some women continued to work while they were married but then many would be sacked once they became pregnant. Women were needed at home to take care of their family and household. Media pushed that a woman’s greatest achievement was to be the dutiful wife, “The suburban housewife…was the dream image of the young American housewife and the envy… of woman all over the world”. Ads after the war began to glorify the housewife as well as the post war baby boom. Marriage was idealized in the media and females were labeled as “Occupation: Housewife”. Housework was supposed to be the highest that a women could achieve yet it was not fulfilling enough so she kept wanting more things to fill that void. This caused guilt in women for wanting more than just completing household tasks. The media pushed family saying that, “the end of the road is togetherness” and that“[women exist] only for and through her husband and children”. Domesticity was pushed and idealized in the media and was pushed in the media towards women, it was shown as the most important thing that a female could accomplish.

When the war was over the men came back and reclaimed their original occupations while the women went back to their traditional household roles as a housewife and mother.
Women were reminded that they were not to fill these jobs permanently but only for the time being until the men came back home. Men did not want women “to cheapen the industry or to take the jobs of the men for the whole of the future”. In 1944 a Labour Department survey illustrated that only 28% of women wanted to leave their jobs and return to the household after the war. Few Women worked after WW2 but many didn’t, those that stayed in the work force were paid significantly less then men even when they were doing the same job. Many of the women who went back to the household chose that because they did not want the jobs that were available to them. After the Second World War in 1946 all three women’s services in the armed forces were disbanded and domestic service occupations for women rose up after the war. Secretary, bookkeeper and other domestic type occupations were the sort of jobs that had became available for women. Women also did not want to work the typical 9-5 workday and they did not want to separate their work life and home life from each other as each job wanted to strictly separate. Women wanted a better life than what they had known for themselves and for their family but that would mean that they would need more than just their husband’s salary to afford the luxuries they craved.
Tupperware then gave women the opportunity to work half time selling products. Tupperware gave women the occupation of being able to work half time at home by hosting “parties”, in the woman’s own household, that allowed them to showcase the Tupperware product and have their friends buy it. This gave women the ability to work half time from home allowing her to mix her home life and professional life together so that she would be able to also effectively fulfill the jobs that being a housewife entails as well as at the same time being able to make the money to help their husbands and household afford the lifestyle they aspired.

The daughters of the women who worked during the Second World War were the ones to begin larger movement in woman’s rights and roles and how they were viewed in society.
The Second World War ended in September of 1945 while women’s rights did not begin to significantly improve until the late 60’s. Unfortunately women were not liberated right after the Second World War. The saying, “two steps forward and one step back”, is a great way to summarize what was achieved after the Second World War for women’s rights. The work that women did in the Second World War did not greatly impact or start a movement in women’s rights, thought it did allow women to show that they are able to do a man’s job but after the war traditional post-war gender roles strengthened as women and men returned to the nuclear family. After the Second World War there was slow movement in woman’s suffrage during the 40’s but the movement subsided and was put on the back burner once the American Civil War began on April 12th 1861. During this time women were busy aiding in the conflicts between the states. Four years later on April 9th 1865 the Civil war ended and Women’s rights had another set back. The 15th amendment came into play this gave black men the right to vote but failed to extend that right to any women no matter the colour. Women’s rights finally began to pick up some momentum when the National Women’s Suffrage Association (NWSA) was formed in 1869. That same year the American Woman Suffrage
Association (AWSA) was also formed; these associations really pushed the feminist movement in American as well as the world.

The work that women did during the Second World War did not automatically change societies attitudes towards them. During the Second World War females displayed, with the work they accomplished, that they could do much more than just household chores and care for a family. Though when the war was done those acts were not appreciated, women were put back into a traditional role that was closed off and provided no room for change. The years after the Second World War actually saw a resurgence of women taking on traditional roles, mothers and wives. During Ww2 women were told ways for them to stay feminine while in their temporary glorified jobs. After the war, men reclaimed the jobs they had before the war, while women returned to their place as housewives, thus the gender roles in society just returned to the previous status quo after the war. The baby boom caused women stay home to take care of the household and family. It was the daughters of these women, next generation, that were the ones to start the sexual liberation movements seen in the United States beginning in the late 60’s. Women today are still fighting for equal rights in society, much has been accomplished though there is still much more work to be done.