Women's Role In America During World War II

Historically, wartime has always brought upon big changes in the lives of citizens in warring nations. Wars are often major points in a country’s history, catalyzing progression toward societal changes. In World War II, this was true for every nation involved. Specifically, America underwent many major changes in tradition after World War II ravaged the world. Although Americans did not experience firsthand the destruction of their homeland like their European counterparts, the events of World War II did drastically transform America. One of the most major changes brought to the U.S. by World War II was the change in women’s role in society. Traditionally, women in America were not seen as a group of people who were supposed to be working;
Despite the huge amounts of men being conscripted, the army still needed more people serving. Thus, nearly 400,000 women served a vital role in the armed forces during the war (2). Similar to the propaganda campaigns carried out to get women working, military leaders “launched recruitment drives, including rallies, national advertising campaigns, community outreach programs, and appeals to college students” to get women in the army (4). One major branch comprised of mostly women in the army was the U.S. Army Nurse Corps - over 59,000 women served in the Nurse Corps (4). Although women were not deployed in combat during World War II, this group of women were deployed abroad where soldiers were stationed. This is contrary to a popular belief that women had no role in the deployed military. In fact, women in this role were in great danger - the job including positions such as being “under fire in field hospitals, on hospital trains and ships, and as flight nurses on medical transport planes” (4). Separate from the Nurse Corps, the Women’s Army Auxiliary Force (WAAC) was introduced in a bill by Congresswoman Edith Rogers (4). The WAAC would be entirely independent of the rest of the armed forces, acting purely as an auxiliary unit. This meant that women officers in the WAAC had no authority over men, for example (4). Women in the WAAC played a fundamental part in aiding the armed forces,
Initially, the response to the idea of women in the army “met enormous resistance” from society (2). Even so, there was no stopping this progression. Even if men did not want women to serve in the army, they had no viable alternative - there simply did not exist enough people to serve without the supplementation of groups like WAVES. As the war escalated, this became clearer and clearer to those who opposed the enlistment of women (2). Noncombat positions such as mechanics and cryptologists - usually held by men - were able to be taken up by women, which opened up more room for men in combat positions. General Eisenhower himself said that he was “violently against” women serving in the army, but later went not to “fight for a permanent place for women” in the forces (2). Eisenhower’s opinion on women in the forces was an embodiment of society’s feelings as a whole: reluctant initially, but soon realizing that women could serve in noncombat positions just as proficiently as men. On the other hand, many were not quite as accepting of the new role of women in the workforce. Some men feared that new class of independent women would rise up (1), threatening their hold as the first class citizens of America. Traditionalists sought to keep socioeconomic gender roles - men acting as the family breadwinner and women handling mainly or