The Opportunities Of Women In America After World War II

“The nation that beckoned the call for assistance to millions of women during the four-year crisis hardly stood ready to accommodate their post-war needs and demands”. This quote perfectly highlights the damming inequality faced by women in America after World War II, that all social and economic gains made during the war were lost in the subsequent years. Within this essay, the idea that these gains were lost will be discussed paying close attention to female’s role in employment, education, and society in the decade after World War II.

In America during World War II, thousands of American women were given the opportunity to help support their country, these opportunities enabled them to take on a different role than had previously been
The image of ‘Rosie The Riveter’ with her red bandana and her “We Can Do It!” motto inspired many women to get into the workplace and do their bit for their country. However, after the War had ended and the men returned home, the women of America lost some of the social and economic gains they had achieved in the decade following the war. When the men returned many women lost their jobs and were expected by their husband and society to give up work and return to be a housewife. Some of the women who could maintain employment were given lower standard jobs and paid lower wages compared to what the men were paid, even though they had been doing that job for years while the men were at war. “In 1955, the median earnings for year-round, full time workers were $2719 for women and $4252 for men. Women then earned 64 per cent of what men did. The gap widened even further as the years went by”.1 It made no difference to the government, society or employees that women had been educated and learned all the skills necessary to do jobs that the men had done. The women were still not going to be paid as much as what men were, and they weren’t allowed to be given jobs above their station, meaning that they could not be promoted above any man. “Manufacturing has operated according to
“Their horizons were broadened as they met women from all different parts of the country. They learned discipline, learned to get along with others and made lasting friendships.”. The second World War, although it must have been a heart breaking and terrifying time for the women of America, it also gave them an important education on skills, the work place, and team work. To then have all the knowledge and skills you have achieved throughout the war to then be prevented from putting them to good use after the war would be a frustrating experience. Added to this the stigma of out of wedlock single mothers after the World War with many having “anxieties about women’s sexual and economic behaviour unleashed during wartime.”. Many felt that because of the woman’s more adventurous and liberated freedom during the war and the cultural shift that occurred during this time that the idea of family would be threatened, thus setting back the way in which society viewed females and undoing all social gains credited during the war