Women's Role In World War Two

World War Two was quite an important time in female history, it opened a lot of doors that had previously been closed to women and allowed them to take on a bigger position in society. On January 20th, 2018 Naomi Parker Fraley, the face of the famous “Rosie the Riveter” died at 96, and she got me thinking about women and wartime. Feminist dissertations often talk about what an important time WW2 was for women, real life “Rosies” were women who filled traditionally male roles in American factories when men went off to war, they formed the backbone of the United State’s military efforts building the tanks, airplanes, and arms that would be used to overwhelm the Axis powers. The exposure women got during this time led to a societal change,
Generally people say the resources America brought into the war widened the material gap significantly, putting the Allied powers in strong position they had been lacking previously that allowed the Allies to overpower the Axis powers. Richard Overy’s Why the Allies Won goes into depth about the war and the circumstances that lead to the Allies victory, and acknowledges that while material superiority was a great advantage, there were also multiple efforts from the Axis powers to deny the Allies resources, and that if it had not been for the speed in which the United States was able to grow and replenish its arsenal after attacks, the Axis powers could have evened the playing field. Overy notes that with this arsenal it also took skilled and passionate soldiers, and great leadership to utilize their growing arsenal in the way that won them the