Womens Changing Roles from World War II

Nevertheless, some of the magazines and other forms of media promoted domesticity, femininity, and submission to male counterparts (Davidson & Lytle, 2004). During the 1960s, the women’s movement emerged to advocate for equality for women. This paper seeks to illustrate the influence of media on women and their roles. It will show how women changed from the housewife perspective into the workforce. It will also describe the successes achieved by the women’s movement, the gains it had to the women, and the elements which are still being fought for by women. Before then, the women were only allowed to work in areas that required unskilled labor. However, in the 1950s, the women were allowed to work in skilled fields such as in the manufacturing sector.

This was not only positive for their health but also for the socioeconomic status because they were able to earn higher wages and salaries. As a result of the women’s movement, the female workers encountered real achievements in the course of World War II. The rapidly growing war economy absorbed the majority of the reserve labor force on the side of the male workers. In this case, it is worth to note that the men were widely enlisted in the Armed Forces. Hence, it meant that there were a lot of vacancies in the active workforce. From 1940 to 1945, proportion of women in the United States labor force rose from 27% to 37% (Jaquette, 2018). Besides, in 1945, approximately one out of each four married female counterparts were employed away from their homes.

This was a positive implication in that before this period, most of the married women worked at home. More than 350,000 women engaged in the military during World War II. This way, the women worked in job positions which required skilled expertise. For example, the women worked as clerks, truck drivers, airplane engineers, and nurses (Turner, 2015). In this context, there was the Women’s Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) which was an agency whereby the women members were offered the chance to fly planes from the factories to the military sections. Further, a lot of women worked as civil servants. In spite of the negativities held in the 1950s which viewed women as housewives and unfit to hold office and perform skilled work, at the beginning of 1950, 32% of women worked outside their homes.

In addition to this, to illustrate that the stereotype of “housewives” did not have significant effects on the community, half of the working women were married. This illustrates that the impacts of the World War II strengthened the opinion that the female individuals were in the labor force to stay and offer skilled labor. Women’s Liberation Movement According to Kerber (2012), after 1942, women were given the right to vote for people in legislative positions in the State of Oklahoma. In addition, they were also allowed to take part in making crucial decisions and could participate in the state legislature. Despite having obtained education which matched their male counterparts, the women were not offered equal employment opportunities. By writing the magazine The Feminine Mystique, Friedan attempted to show how and where the women’s movement started (Davidson & Lytle, 2004).

It was also an approach to demonstrate the other phase of women’s liberation in the United States. This way, it is illustrated how many female workers suffered while performing unskilled labor and being subjected to low wages. Achievements made by Women’s Rights Movement Since the World War II era, the 1950s, and 1960s, women have made great strides in advocating for equality. 3), “Accounts of the reproductive rights struggle in the US have typically focused on efforts to attain and defend the legal right to abortion. ” Women also fight because of the continued gender wage gap. In a review, Waldfogel (2014 p. 64) states, “Many explanations have been offered for gender differences in pay, including disparities in qualifications between men and women…”.

This is because women are not paid equitably as men even though they might have similar qualifications and performing the same tasks. In The women's movement in Latin America (pp. Routledge. Kerber, L. K. Why Diamonds Really are a Girl's Best Friend: Another American Narrative. Helios, 32(2), 143-171. Turner, E. Women Airforce Service Pilots: An army air corps experiment: Part I. IEEE Aerospace and Electronic Systems Magazine, 30(1), 6-15. Waldfogel, J. Jaquette, J. S. Introduction: from transition to participation—women’s movements and democratic politics. In The women's movement in Latin America (pp. Routledge. It also focuses on how the place of women in the United States’ history prevents the efforts of both gender to eliminate gender oppressive regimes. Ross, L. , GutiŽrrez, E.