Effects of WW2 on Economy Flashcards
What more than doubled 1941-45?
National wealth, income and industrial production
GNP in 1940 vs 1945?
1940: $100 billion
1945: 211 billion
How was US a global economic power?
Produced majority of worlds steel, electricity and oil
What was created in 1944 by the federal gov?
- International Monetary Fund: aimed to stabilise national currencies by handing out loans
- International Bank for Reconstruction and Development: lend money for post-war construction
How much did the war cost the US?
$304 billion
How did the US fund the war?
- Raised $137 billion in tax revenue
- $185 billion in war bonds
How many bought war bonds and how much did this raise?
- Several War Bond Drives were successful in encouraging Americans to buy war bonds
- 85 million buy war bonds raising $185 billion by 1946
Unemployment stats 1933, 1940 and 1945
1933: 12.8 million unemployed (25% of workforce)
1940: 8 million
1945: 1 million (2% of workforce)
How many new jobs created by WW2? How much did average wages rise?
- 17 million
- 30%
Women in armed forces
- 100,000 in Women’s Army Corps alone
- 350,000 in armed forces altogether
Number of women in work during WW2
- 6 million enter workforce for the first time
- 18 million working in war effort by 1945
- 600,000 black women joined the war effort in factories, navy yards etc- Black Rosies
Jobs women held during WW2
Some as secretaries, telephonists but increasingly in male-dominated industries: building aircraft, repairing tanks, manufacturing explosives, ammunition
Limited Impacts of WW2 on women
- Over 200,000 permanently disabled, 37,000 dead (many from working in explosives factories)
- Still expected to perform domestic tasks, look after family when they returned home (dual burden)
- Men saw women in work as temporary- expected them to give up jobs and return to traditional female gender roles as soon as WW2 ended
What proportion of women wanted to continue working even after WW2?
90%
Role of Young People in American Red Cross
- 20 million members became junior members of American Red Cross, produced toys, clothing, furniture, put on entertainment shows at military camps, hospitals