American Women During World War Ii Essay — страница 2

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Many women reconciled this tension by arguing that work outside the home satisfied family needs by providing financial security. Work outside the home was also appealing because it provided emotional bonding between women whose loved ones were fighting abroad. Yet although the war raised living standards, women’s long-term position in the workplace was not guaranteed. When women came to plants they faced hostility from male co-workers, and cases of sexual harassment at work were commonplace. Women who worked in factories for example , presented a challenge to gender roles, and male dominance in the workplace seemed to be under threat. To counter this, personnel managers typically taught women ” to be neat and trim and well put together. It helps their morale…(and) our

prestige too.” Fearing that women would find intrinsic value in work on a more permanent basis , employers, with the backing of the Labor Department and the WMC , put forth propaganda campaigns that emphasised how women’s work in the war economy was only temporary. To further this view, industrialists were unsympathetic to child care issues, for although they were forced to employ women out of a shortage of labour, they still held patriarchal views. One industrialist stated: ” Experience has shown that the surest and quickest way to disrupt a family…is to take the mother out of the home.” This is an interesting point, especially since women represented 72.2 percent of the female workforce. The patriarchal views of some employers overrode the need to employ women for the

sake of the war effort, and although most industrialists employed women, they expressed their disapproval towards female entry in war plants on other ways. For example, job segregation by sex was explicitly acknowledged for jobs were formally labelled “male” and “female.” The two largest electrical firms, GE and Westinghouse, continued this practice until the end of the war. The Women’s Bureau responded to stating that it made sense to cater for a huge pool of the workforce by implementing child care facilities, and throughout the war, childcare facilities were woefully inadequate. Government policy conveniently endorsed a Children’s Bureau report which linked child care to juvenile delinquency. The report implied that paid working women were to blame for the ”

slower mental development, social ineptness, (and) weakened initiative (of children).” It can be argued that government agencies were genuinely concerned about the detrimental effects of women’s work outside the home on children. In 1943 Congress passed the Lanham Act which desginated funds for childcare facilities. This argument holds little credibility when examining the extent of government propaganda. 1944 was an important shift in media’s tone towards childcare, no longer was “Rosie the Riveter” praised for her patriotic qualities … Preparing women for their post-war return to domesticity, 1944 advertisements increasingly dramatised the unhappy plight of the children of war workers. By the end of the war, only one in ten women enjoyed the benefits of childcare.

The government’s commitment to women in work was very weak. When the Allied victory in Europe seemed imminent, the tone of government sponsored advertisements changed in tone and content. Business also seized the opportunity to portray women as a threat to the American familt – the deeper motive for this was to secure men’s jobs who would imminently return from Europe. The Armco Manufacturing Company released an ad in 1944 stating: ” Some jubiliant day mother will stay home again, doing the job she likes best- making a home for you and daddy.” Government and industry continued their inslaught on the worknig mother for the same motive: to ensure that the transition from female-male work patterns would be smooth once the war was over. Yet women responded to such sexism at

work by advocating women’s rights at work through unionisation. Women soon became alienated by many trade unions that tolerated job discrimination and wage inequalities. Women often confronted difficulties with attending union meetings, for their home duties absorbed much fo their spare time. This gave powerful union members, such as the President of the United Autoworkers Association , to voice comments like ” We have never advocated women taking a very active part (in unions)” unchallenged. Manufacturers customarily placed women in the lowest-paying jobs and paid them less for the performance of work traditionally done by men. In Michigan for example, state law guaranteed women equal pay for “similar” work, but the statue was so vague that it was virtually