SOCIAL AND CULTURAL CHANGE AFTER WW2

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World War II produced important changes in American life; some trivial, others

profound. One striking change involved fashion. To conserve wool and cotton, dresses

became shorter; vests and cuffs disappeared, as did double-breasted suits, pleats,

and ruffles.

More significant was a tremendous increase in mobility. This set families in motion,

pulling them off farms, out of small towns, and packing them into large urban areas.

Urbanization had virtually stopped during the depression, but the war saw the number

of city dwellers leap from 46 to 53 percent.

War industries sparked the urban growth. Detroit's population exploded as the

automotive industry switched to war vehicles. Washington, D.C., became another

boomtown, as tens of thousands of new workers staffed the swelling ranks of the

bureaucracy. The most dramatic growth occurred in California. Of the 15 million

civilians who moved across state lines during the war, over 2 million went to California

to work in defense industries.

Women

The war had a dramatic impact on women. Easily the most visible change involved the

sudden appearance of large numbers of women in uniform. The military organized

women into auxiliary units with special uniforms, their own officers, and, amazingly,

equal pay. By 1945 more than 250,000 women had joined the Women's Army Corps

(WAC), the Army Nurses Corps, Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Service

(WAVES), the Navy Nurses Corps, the Marines and the Coast Guard. Most women who

joined the armed services either filled traditional women's roles, such as nursing, or

replaced men in non-combat jobs.

Women also substituted for men on the home front. For the first time in history

married working women outnumbered single working women as 6.3 million women

entered the work force during the war. The war challenged the conventional image of

female behavior, as "Rosie the Riveter" became the popular symbol of women who

abandoned traditional female occupations to work in defense industries. Social critics

had a field day attacking women. Social workers blamed working mothers for the rise

in juvenile delinquency during the war.

Jobs - work in the 1950's. The 1950's: It was more a manufacturing and agricultural age,

rather than the present day information age. There were more blue clollar jobs and less white

collar occupations --more manufacturing and food processing; lot more smaller farms all over

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the country. There was more need for secretaries, receptionist and support work. Typing pools

in big offices mainly women tyuping letters, contracts, things that computers generate now.

Presently, the computer has truely reduced that kind of work.  

SOCIAL AND CULTURAL CHANGE AFTER WW2

*        Broad and general - the whole world

*        Focus on Europe 1950-90

*        Impossible not to refer to the USA in particular

*        Margaret Thatcher, 1989 - "There is no society, only individuals"

*        This era can be characterised by:

*        A wide-scale challenge to and subsequent breakdown of accepted beliefs and values ...

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