Blane McElreath 1

Blane McElreath Professor Jason Doom LBST-2101 March 19th, 2013 For hundreds of years womens responsibilities in civilizations have been forever changing. Women were always seen as inferior to men; they would be the gatherers, nurturers, and cooks, however, they didnt hold positions politically or have much say in society. Fast forwarding to the present, women now are CEOs, in the military, and avidly participating in society just as any man would. When looking at the present, its important to go back in history and find out what events shaped the road to where it has come. One of the most influential events in womens history is the Second World War. From 1940-1950 women made a breakthrough in the fight to gain equality with men as a result of World War Two. At the beginning of the 50s women where holding jobs never obtainable antebellum, they had gained more power politically, and completed changing their image within just 10 years. In this paper will be an explanation of how women took charge of a dire situation on the home front, and came out thriving with better jobs, more responsibilities, and a lot of respect. In 1940 the population of the United States was 132,122,446.1 By the end of the war over 12 million men were serving overseas.2 With almost ten percent of the US population of at war, the women on the home front had to fill those 12 million shoes. Women had to start

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http://www.npg.org/facts/us_historical_pops.htm http://www.nationalww2museum.org

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getting out of their homes, picking up a wrench, growing a crop, or work in a factory so that the war could press on. Propaganda littered the streets with images such as Rosie the Riveter urging women to take control. Thousands of wartime ads such as Rosie the Riveter played a huge roll in convincing women to get out and do their part to help the United States. The pictures captured their emotions with sayings like Do the job he left behind, and The more women at work, the sooner we win. These posters, ads, and pictures in magaz ines motivated these women, getting them to do everything in their will to help win the war. These sources of propaganda not only wanted women to take part in factories, gardens, or on the home front. Some of these ads pushed women to join the WAACs, WAVES, WOW, or the American Red Cross. Women were now taking jobs up in the United States Military, working at desks in America, or overseas working as nurses. More women began jumping on the bandwagon once women started rising up to the challenges strewn upon them. There are three major precedents that influenced women during the World War Two era: the feeling of nationalism throughout the country, the thousands of men departing for war, and the propaganda at home. These things all helped contribute to the six and a half million women joining the workforce and the 350,000 women enlisting in the military.3 The United States was undergoing drastic changes entering WWII. This was only the second time in the countrys history that it has been involved in a total war. America is just beginning to understand the significance of a total war; the entire nation, both men and women, must combine their all their efforts to help the country strive for victory. With this call to defense from the nation, American began getting a strong feeling of nationalism. These feelings shared
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Litoff Smith. Since You Went Away (Oxford University Press 1991), Page 145

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by Americans all across the country is what helped fuel the women and men to make huge sacrifices. What men sacrificed most were their lives. Once in the hands of the military they were shipped overseas facing life or death situations. With a massive population of men off at war, women had to fill these positions. It would be no easy job getting such a large scale of women to join the workforce, but this is exactly what propaganda assuaged. In Donna B. Knaffs book, Beyond Rosie the Riveter, she described propaganda in society brilliantly by stating this, From government-created propaganda to material produced by companies intent on inspiring their workers to greater productivity to advertisements capitalizing (literally) on wartime gender-role changes, graphic art vigorously relayed its ostensible messages while betraying ambivalence about women and their societal roles in wartime America. Throughout her book she goes into great detail about how propaganda from all aspects whether governmental ads, newspapers, cartoons, and movie clips has helped change womens persona. A majority of propaganda during the Second World War came from the Office of War Information (OWI) which was developed in the beginning of the war to help inform the citizens of the United States. Artists who were nicknamed dollar-a-year men created posters, cartoons, comics, and other ads such as this war poster shown in figure 1. 4 This poster is a paradigm for propaganda posters during World War II. It depicts a woman hard at work in a factory producing materials for
Figure 1 WWII Propaganda (history1900s.about.com)

Donna Knaff. Beyond Rosie the Riveter: Women of World War II in American Popular Graphic Art (University Press of Kansas 2012), pg. 11.

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the war effort. The caption reads Do the job HE left behind, which is telling women to pick up the jobs left behind by the men who are off at war. Although the female has her hair up she is still wearing makeup. This is the artist way of conveying to women that even though they will be working in factories, doing previously thought of male jobs, that the women still contain their femininity. With all the women picking up jobs previously held by men, anxiety rose across the nation about the distance between masculinity and femininity. Society did not know what to think of when women started gaining power and progressing towards gender equality. The propaganda that was put out was also trying to alleviate the anxiety about the changing gender roles. That is why almost all of the ads seen during this time period depict women hard at work while still keeping their feminine qualities in line.5 Women not only helped on the home front, they filled 350,000 spots in the military by joining the WAACS, WAVES, American Red Cross, and other military branches that accepted women.6 The WAVES was the U.S. Naval Womens Reserve which was a sub sect of the Navy that consisted entirely of women. With the introduction of WAVES came the WAACS, the Womans Army Auxiliary Corps which is a sub sect of the Army that is all female. Also several hundred thousand women joined the American Red cross. One of these women happened to be a young female by the name of Elizabeth Richardson. Her life story was documented in a book, Slinging Donuts for the Boys, by James Madison. In early 944, Liz, her roommate Chris Hanson, and another Downer graduate, Margaret Flood, decided to join the American Red

Donna Knaff. Beyond Rosie the Riveter: Women of World War II in American Popular Graphic Art (University Press of Kansas 2012), pg. 113. 6 Litoff Smith. Since You Went Away (Oxford University Press 1991), Page 145

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Cross. We just had to go, Chris recalled.7 This piece of script taken from the book describes Elizabeths joining of the American Red Cross which would take her on a life adventure that filled her with joy up until the time she passed when she was 27. When she first joined the American Red Cross she was fresh out of college and was soon sent over to Europe to help serve coffee and donuts to the soldiers on the front lines. Throughout her experience she met thousands of men from all different countries and fell in love with two of them. Everybody knew her as Auntie and enjoyed conversing with her. She spent a few years switching countries in Europe doing roughly the same job of helping soldiers cope with the war by being a female to talk to and a place to get warm donuts and coffee. However her life was short lived, although much enjoyed as a result of her American Red Cross experiences. She died on July 25, 1945 in a military plane crash over France. She never regretted joining the American Red cross and she explained herself by stating this, Damn glad I have a degree- it helps so much in making doughnuts. However, I wouldnt trade this for anything else and it has more satisfaction than doing anything Auntie has ever done.8 350,000 women soldiers risked their lives for America and the war effort, by being involved in these military branches. Their efforts overseas combined with the efforts by the 6.5 million women who joined the workforce couldnt have helped America win the more anymore than the soldier overseas, or the Generals in command. In Litoff Smiths book, American Woman in a World at War, Smith couldnt have stated it better, Women by themselves cannot win this war. But quite certainly it cannot be won without them.

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James Madison. Slinging Donuts for the Boys (Indiana University Press 2007), page 9.