In what ways did the Second World War impact upon the position of women?
Women’s role in society during the 1920’s was a polarised one, were women would stay at home and look after the children and the men earn the money. However, after World War I, society had changed for the better and this lead to a better life for women. Young women started to rebel against what the previous generation thought they should act like and did as they pleased. They wore the latest fashions, short skirts, short hair and make up, and would smoke in public. They came to be known as ‘flappers’. In the 1920’s, women won the vote which shows how much more of an impact on society they know made. At the start of World War II, millions of men joined the armed forces and women were needed to fill in their roles. In this essay, I will discuss whether this period of time had an impact upon the position of women or if it was a temporary one. To help me do this, I will talk about these in the headings of: women before the war, women during the war and women post war.
The position of women under the New Deal wasn’t a good one for them. FDR had set up many alphabet agencies to tackle the problems of unemployment and to pump prime society and hopefully kick start the economy. However, many of these alphabet agencies were unfair. The CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps), which employed over 2.75 million, only employed 8000 women. Women were paid less than men for doing exactly the same jobs in the CCC. People believed, that by giving money to a man they could send it to their family and this would stop poverty. Some companies fired all their female employees. Also, some states didn’t allow married women to have jobs. An average female teacher would earn 20% less than a male teacher, which shows how strongly they believed in this idea of women having jobs was unnecessary. Even though employment for women was on the rise (25%), this was on extremely poor wages. People may have done this on purpose to stop women working and jobs to men. The NIRA code in 1933, required women to be paid less than men. Furthermore, the Social Security Act gave no protection to women. This further indicates to us, that women were indirectly discouraged to work, as it was so unfair. However, there were also positive aspects during the New Deal time. Eleanor Roosevelt was an icon for women and helped women during the time a great deal. Frances Perkins became the Secretary of Labour, which did show that women were important. Mary McLeod Bethune, a black woman headed the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People), blacks during this time fared worse than anyone else. Overall, we can see that women position before the Second World War wasn’t a great one. They were being actively unfairly treated and discouraged to work.
