Blog #12

Textbook: Chapter 8
1. Women’s gender stereotypes had been challenged throughout the war. Women had taken on a new identity from the beginning of the war all the way to the end. These women, with their new identity, had shown the United States what they could do in order to help with the war effort. In order to challenge their stereotype, women had been in the workforce with jobs such as welders or mechanics. Others were even recruited into military organizations such as the Women’s Army Corps or the Women’s Airforce Service Pilots. Even though they were not allowed to fight in actual combat, these women had shown that they were capable of taking on a man’s job. Even though these women were in the workforce, their gender stereotypes were also reinforced in some way. Women’s workforce jobs included nurses, clerks, and telephone operators. Women were not allowed to be paid doctors until April of 1943. The nation had tried to show that these women had not been masculine by printing a newspaper articles that told its readers that women were doing jobs that they would normally do in a civilian life. Women were seen as being temporary workers until the men would return to their jobs.

2. There were lasting results that took place because of World War II that shaped the way that many women and families would live their lives. During the war, as many men were fighting in the war, more women were needed in order to fill the men’s jobs. These women had a new idea of independence because they had been expressing their personal freedoms. There was also a large rise in the amount of marriages and the amount of families created after the war. Many women and their families had moved to larger cities where they would try to find higher paying jobs in a new type of area.

Source Interpretation
Textbook document
1. The women’s work opportunities were not limited during the World War II era. Women were needed in the workforce and the United States even put out propaganda posters in order to get women to attend to these jobs. Since the men were fighting in the war , the women had greater opportunities in the workforce. These women even got paid the same amount that a man would but would have to work just as the men did. According to these women in the article, they had to go through difficult labor in their work while they lived in conditions that were not all that comforting for them. These women were also not happy with their work hours and shifts because some had to work the night shift and get their sleep during the day.

2. The audience for this article are the men during World War II who were unsure of what would happen when they would return to home after the war. These women in the article prove that the job is too hard for them and that they would rather go back in the home and do their domestic duties as they had done before because that was the cleanest job of all. The article also tries to show the readers of the United States that a women’s femininity has not been taken away because of their work they have been doing and that their job is just temporary.

3. The women do not enjoy their work as much as some thought they did. They lived in very hard conditions with one another and also had to work hours that were not enjoyable for them. They were given the type of work that men would do in order to get the same pay as men did but many believed that it was not enough since they were working so much. The article points out their job experience as the work they are doing causes their hands to be sore. They do not get to sleep much and when they do, it is usually in the late afternoon hours of the day.

4. These women work while doing and man’s job while receiving the same wages that a man would, but the women are still able to retain their femininity. They wear their nail polish as they are doing the hard labor, they cook in their apartments and wash their dishes right after they finish eating, and they keep conversations past the night. In the article, Ginny states that she wants to return to the home because doing the dishes in the home is the only way that she could get her hands clean. These women did not find the conditions in the workforce too enjoyable because of their work conditions.

5. When the war is over, some women workers will keep their jobs and move to other jobs such as those in aircraft production. Many of these women will get married to the soldiers who are returning home from that war. These soldiers, who return from the war, will most likely take the jobs back from these women and work themselves. The younger girls who were working did not enjoy the workforce much and were hoping that when the soldiers did return from they war, the girls would be able to return to their home and work on their domestic duties such as cleaning the dishes and taking care of the home, since that was the cleanest job of all.