The Role Of Women During World War II

WWII provided the opportunity for women in the United States to caste aside their traditional roles. It allowed them to enter the workforce. Especially factories that were producing the war supplies that helped the United States win the war against the Axis powers of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. The women were a key factor for the United States winning World War II. Without their contributions and help than victory would not have been possible, and it advanced women’s rights and reputation as reliable workers. “Fortune Magazine declared the margin of victory to be woman power” It opened the way for the female workers of the future. The gender dynamics that WW2 produced had long lasting effects. This paper will go into what the role of
“Most Americans agree that prior to federal interference in the 1930s, the self-reliant family was the standard social unit of our society.” Though this idea is largely a myth. “Americans have been dependent on collective institutions beyond the family including government from the very beginning.” There has always been outside help and assistance for families. The idea of independent self-reliant families is not based in reality. Two examples of collective institutions are fraternal organizations and political parties. Fraternal organizations were widely popular at the turn of the century, people joined them so that if they ever needed help, they knew the organization was behind them. Many of these organizations like the Eagles Lodge had insurance policies for their members. Fraternal organizations also usually had auxiliary groups that were meant for women to
There was a marked difference in how each country utilized the women in their respective countries. The US government “lowered age limit for the employment of women from eighteen to sixteen years.” In the recruiting and calls for women to work in the US during WWII there was patriotic appeals to “women accompanied tales of their special stake in winning the war in order to stop Hitler from reducing women to sex slaves or driving them to their kitchens. This was a feminist appeal to women. Trying make it sound like they were helping to fight for the rights and freedom of German women. But it was ironic because once the war was over, women were encouraged to go back home to their kitchen and be solely mothers and not workers. If someone is interested in the gender politics of the Third Reich then they should read Mothers in the Fatherland by Claudia Koonz. The Nazis removed woman from well-paid jobs, lead campaigns to increase fertility, and mobilized women for unpaid community work at the community level. The Nazi’s devotion to making mothers out of the women of their country was tempered by the rearmament of Germany. The renewed industry needed new workers and they needed women. Just like in the United States “only a war economy gave women the chance, in one worker’s words, ‘to actually apply for the office jobs of which we had scarcely dared to dream