Women and War, were they made for each other?
"Indeed, the great puzzle of the 1940s has been the paradoxical spawning of a reactionary postwar feminine mystique by a crisis that necessitated radical revision of traditional views."
Maureen Honey
This quote talks about how the war really changed they way we view our American women. Before the war women usually steered clear of the working class, but when times got rough the U.S. needed more help. Who did they look for, to gain this extra support, housewives. At this time it seemed outrageous, but the U.S. needed help and they considered using any help they can get. After the war it seemed that all was well, except the fact that all these working women now needed jobs to support themselves. With the men back at home, they were the ones getting the jobs, and for those women who had lost there men to war, who was going to support them and their families. This was a problem that the women were facing, while at war women can work, but now with the men home there was no place for women in the workplace.
posted by hkronemb at 12:15 PM
1 Comments:
Yes, the U.S. needed labor to win the war. Working class women were already working outside of the home before the war. Most of the women who became war workers were already working before the war. The question is where, and in what kinds of jobs?
Also, this is a course about media & propaganda. So, what kind of campaign was directed at these women? How were they motivated to work on the homefront? What does this have to do with "traditional ideas" about women and gender?
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