(3d) The war and the economy, 1941-1945

Question 1

Collapse of Unemployment

Answer 1

• 1942: Unemployment effectively ceased.
• Unemployment: 1940 = 13.9%. 1944 = 1.2%
• 1944: 6.5 million entered workforce. 60% of women working by end of the war.
• Black Americans working for fed govt increased:
  
  • 1939 = 50,000
  • 1944 = 200,000.
• GNP rose:
  
  • 1939 = $91.3 billion.
  • 1945 = $166.6 billion.

Question 2

Women and the war effort:

More opportunities

Answer 2

• Women began working outside the home.
• Opportunity to show their independence from men.
• Juggled with fam responsibilities: lost 100,000 hours to deal with laundry per month (Detroit defence factory).
• Community Facilities Act 1941: Childcare for women in factories.
• 1944: 43% of women working.
• January 1942: 2.8 million involved in war work.
• 1945: 300,000 black women in war work.

Question 3

Women and the war effort:

Traditional Roles

Answer 3

• Marriage and birth rates increased - population rise of 6.5 million.
• 1940-1945: ‘Furlough’ babies result of men being on home leave.

Question 4

Women and the war effort:

Hardship

Answer 4

• Many moved to be nearer their husbands on military bases - dislocation from family and cramped conditions.
• Prejudice and lower pay in the workforce.

Question 5

Women and the war effort:

Fair Employment and Practices Commission (FEPC) 1941.

Answer 5

• Tried to prevent discrimination - little success in enforcing equal pay.
• Unions didn’t get involved in equal pay struggle - men would get their jobs back at end of war and women would be unemployed and return to domesticity.

Question 6

Contribution of Young People:

War Work

Answer 6

• 1940: 900,000 teenagers employed.
• Spring 1944: >3 million (1/3 of teens due to labour shortages).
• 66% of teen boys had disposable income.
• Many states changed child labour laws.
• Teens drafted into military:
  
  • Conscription (1940) - 21-25.
  • 1945: 45 million (18-45) registered for the draft.

Question 7

Contribution of Young People:

Teenage Culture.

Answer 7

• Causes: Teenagers more self sufficient (fathers at war or both parents working).
• Earning own money gave more freedom and assertiveness.
• Fashion: ‘Zoot-suiters’
• Music: ‘Bobbysoxers’
• Older generations concerned over morality of teens.

Question 8

Contribution of Young People:

Education

Answer 8

• Teens in high school:
  
  • 1940 - 6.6 million
  • 1944 - 5.6 million.
• Attributed delinquent behaviour to this.
• 1944: Back to school campaign (limited success).

Question 9

The Impact of war on the USA:

Economic Impact: Paying for the war

Answer 9

• War bonds
• Office of War Mobilization: Controlled Production, food prices, rents, and rationing.
• Wages increased by 40%, Prices increased by 28%.
• Many saved money (fuelled post war consumer boom) - 1945: $140 billion in savings nationally.
• 1941: the War Production Board, to control military production
• 1941: The Office of Price Administration and Civilian Supply, to control inflation
• 1942: The National War Labor Board, to settle industrial disputes and set wages. Limited wage increases, and then further controlled by The Emergency Stabilization Act, Oct 1942.

Question 10

The Impact of war on the USA:

Growing power of Trade Unions

Answer 10

• Union membership: 1940 = 10.5 million. 1945 = 14.75 million.
• Wages increases frozen by The Emergency Stabilization Act, Oct 1942.
• Major trade unions: The American Federation of Labor (AFL), and the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO).
• AFL and CIO agreed not to strike (NWLB settle disputes.)
• June 1943: Smith-Connally War Labour Disputes Act allowed federal government to take control of any essential war industries faced with industrial action.
• The Act first used (Aug 1944) to break a strike by public transport workers. Gone on strike when their employers were ordered by the FEPC to employ black Americans as drivers.

Question 11

The Impact of war on the USA:

Growing power of Trade Unions - Significant Industrial Unrest

Answer 11

• 1943: 400,000 coal miners striked for 12 weeks.
• Employers making huge profits but workers not seeing any of it.
• Unofficial strikes not supported by AFL or CIO.
• Dec 1941 - Aug 1945: 14,471 strikes - 6,774,000 workers.

Question 12

The Impact of war on the USA:

Migration to urban and industrial centres

Answer 12

• Period of great migration.
• 15 million called up by end of war - 1 in 8 moved to find work.
• Migration - South to North, East to West.
• Estimated 27 million migrated.

Question 13

The Impact of war on the USA:

Dislocation

Answer 13

• Housing shortages
• Higher divorce rate
• Higher youth crime rate

Question 14

The Impact of war on the USA:

Growth of New Industries/ New Technology

Answer 14

• Race to find first atomic bomb - Manhattan project $9 billion.
• Synthetic Rubber - USA became largest exporter by 1945.
• Pharmaceuticals - Increased due to high demand of penicillin. Fed govt funded 60 companies to mass produce penicillin.
• March 1944: Pfizer leading the way with penicillin.
• By 1945: Spent 50% of national income on defence.
• By 1941, 33% of the economy was devoted to war production
• By early 1945 American industry was supplying 50% of armaments to its Allies.