USA Unit 3(0.2) Flashcards
What military roles did women take up during WWII?
Were they expected to fight?
-Women were not expected to fight.
-Served as typists, drivers, telephonists, clerks and cooks, they released men for combat duty.
-Thousands of women also worked as nurses or female orderlies in field hospitals.
How many women joined the military force;
Women’s army corps? Navy?
200,000 women in the army corps.
200,000 women in the navy.
By 1945 how many women entered the workforce?
What occupations did they take during the war?
-6 million.
-Old barriers fell and women entered employment roles of all kinds;
-Became machinists, lumberjacks and railway track workers all previously reserved for men.
By 1944 what percentage of women were in airclaft plants? shipbuilding?
Air craft plants (40%)
Shipbuilding (14%)
What female fictional icon was used to motivate women during the war?
What social changes occurred because of practical ones?
1945 what percentage of married women worked outside the home?
-Rosie the Riveter, symbolised women in the war work. Her real counterparts performed so well in jobs that attitudes about women were altered.
-By 1945 25% of married women were employed outside the home.
-Married women outnumbered single women for the first time.
In the 1930s what per cent of Americans opposed work by married? 1942?
-Over 80% opposed work by married women in the 1930s.
-A poll in 1942 showed 60% in favour of employing married women in war industries.
What two main consequences did the return of servicemen have on the role of women?
-Women were encouraged- sometimes forced- to turn their wartime jobs over to returning veterans.
-There was a baby boom. Which resulted in married women returning to their traditional housewife roles.
Did the baby boom only inhibit the progression of womens roles? How did this affect working class women? Middle class?
-NO. As large families were costly to maintain, many married women sought employment. This was essential for poor families.
-Middle class women anxioius to keep up with their neighbours, often sought part time work.
How were women discriminated against both in employment and wages?
-Relatively few were in skilled crafts or the professions. Most went into low paid, low-prestige occupations, such as clerical or service industry work.
-They were paid substantially less than men when doing the same work.
How did the baby boom reinforce patriarchal beliefs?
What groups acted against those who were progressive for women’s role?
-It reinforced the deeply embedded notion that the women’s place is in the home.
-Having babies was seen as a major duty.
-Throughout the post-war era; teachers, politicians, churchmen and advertised exalted the cult of domesticity, criticising feminists.
What best selling book did Farnham and Ferdinand publish in 1947?
What social class was more inclined to live a traditional life? How?
-‘Modern women: The Lost Sex’, in which they seemed the authority of science to the view that women coudl achieve fulfilment only by accepting their natural functions as wives and mothers.
-Most Middle class women, living in new suburban housing estates, tried to conform to the ideal stereotype-marrying young, having at least four children, and being excellent mothers.
How did law and practice enforce gender inequality?
-18 states refused to allow female jurors.
-6 states did not allow women to enter into financial agreements without a male co-signatory.
-Many schools expelled pregnant students and fired pregnant teachers.
