Tanner Edwards
Psychology
Gender roles during ww2
Before WWII the picture that was painted for women especially those with a family, was one that included a spotless house, a set dinner table, and other “stay at home” duties. It was an unspoken rule that a woman’s role was to raise a family, cook, and clean the house for her husband and family. Some women did work outside of the house but their work was never glorified or respected as much as when the work was done by men. The workforce of women at this time was made up of lower class females and minorities and still was much smaller than that of the male workforce. To the surprise of many, these roles all started to shift once the U.S. became involved in WWII and then led on to change our country into what is it like today.
When WWII started, the men left for war and the factory’s had no workers. The women had to step in and make the change from stay at home mom to doing it all by working, cooking, cleaning etc. child care decreased when the men left as well children were “slaves” to the work force as well as the women. The factories were named “war production” because there were so many supplies needed during the war. Women came from all over the country to work in these factory assembly lines. Work conditions were very bad for these women. Women were often injured and some times killed in industrial accidents. Since there was such a high demand for war supplies women had to work six days a week did not get holidays off and were encouraged to work lots of over time to keep up with the assembly lines.
For the women who did not go into the factories and go to work ,they went to military. They worked as nurses, drove trucks and repaired airplanes. The women would fly the air crafts to get the supplies for the war and would often be shoot down.
Soon after the end of World War II men returned home and eventually assumed their pre-war jobs that some women were occupying. T...
