Women’s Roles in WWII

During World War II, women from America made significant contributions, both on the home front and in uniform. They did not just offer the services of their sons, husbands, fathers, and brothers to support the war effort, but they also devoted their own time, energy, and in some cases, made the ultimate sacrifice.

The United States going into war was very unexpected. When the Japanese dropped bombs on Pearl Harbor Americans were furious. With that feeling came an extreme sense of motivation, so millions of men, and thousands of women packed their bags and headed off to war. Yes, not only now could men serve but women as well. This is a huge advancement that will change history forever. Although it took some time for it to be a permanent status it eventually took on.

Women would often repair and fly airplanes, drive trucks, perform clerical work, nurses, etc. With men and women leaving their homes and jobs created a bit of an issue back home, there was a big drop in employment, and they now did not have enough people to fill the spots. That is when First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt tried to address the situation, she called upon the women of the country to fill in the roles as workers and mothers.

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And to also encourage women to work was Rosie the Riveter, a women made into a propaganda poster to empower women to help the country out in a time of desperate need, her quote “We can do it!” To our surprise it worked better than anyone could have expected, the female percentage of the U.S. workforce employment increased from 27% to nearly 37%, and by 1945 almost one out of every four married women worked out of the home.

The main job of women was to build or make war supplies, which was the prime focus on everything they worked on. People went around often taking donations of rubber or steel items that could be used as supplies for the soldiers. This caused another problem, there was less focus on agriculture, so in those few years certain items like cheese, meat, and butter had rations, this made sure we had enough to feed everyone.

There is still a lot of disadvantages having women work in factories, for example, spending time in factories left mothers in complicated issues, they had nowhere for their kids to go. This is why Eleanor Roosevelt also pushed for a new act called the Community Facilities Act of 1942, this set up several buildings in the country to run childcare facilities. Another problem was that women had to face a lot of discrimination and culture stereotypes.

Although women were getting paid to work if was definitely obvious that their pay was significantly less than a man’s salary. And after the war women were quickly laid off in large numbers, even though 75% still wanted to continue to work. Nevertheless, women were an extremely important part in WWII and we would have lost if it wasn’t for their hard work, motivation and determination no matter what got in their way. And in the end a whole 350,000 women served in the U.S. Armed Forces, both at home and out in the world.

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