Today in class we talked about women in the work industry during WWII and what kind of impact they had. The following link talks about women during WWII at home and overseas. Being an Army ROTC cadet, I am torn between an issue. That issue is the one where soldiers fighting in the war were given their jobs right when they came back home. Thus, taking it back from the women who were working for the duration of the war. I will 100% back a soldier who comes home from war with any benefit/service because they laid everything on the line for us. On the other hand, I think it is unfair to the women who were working to just be cut off so suddenly. It's hard for me to choose a side because I would do anything for an American soldier but I would also like to have women be in work industry.
Another thing that most people do not consider, is what did women do who were actually in the war? 350,000 women enlisted into the armed services during WWII. Gen. George Marshall developed a women's service branch into the Army. Many women were in every theater of the war, they worked in all non-combatant jobs. Which is a different issue that I don't want to get into right now. However, when we watched the movie in class, we saw that many women worked in the aviation industry. What I found was cool is that WWII was the first time women in history flew military aircraft, more than 1,000 women flew in active duty during WWII. The women in the aviation industry back home put in the hard work so that women could achieve a milestone in military history.
http://www.history.com/topics/american-women-in-world-war-ii
I know that was a long rant, but I am passionate when it comes to the military and its history. I am proud to one day serve with both men and women in my military career.
I agree, it is very hard to choose the right thing to do when men came home from the war. Those women working learned valuable traits and made and enormous contribution towards the war efforts. They completely changed their lifestyles from doing specific homework to punching a time card and performing manual labor. I wonder if going into these jobs women were told they would lose the job at the end of the war. It seemed in the movie they were told towards the end of the war they would lose their jobs. I think what made it hard for women to give up their jobs is the realization of independence. These women had always worked at home and relied on their husbands to always take care of them financially. Women who began working developed a sense of independency and ability to care for household inside and outside. If women were given the right to keep their jobs this may have been the turning point in history for stay at home dads. Husbands coming home from the stress of war would be able to stay at home and take on a different kind of work.
ReplyDeleteAlso I wondered what happened to women who lost their husbands at war who were working. How would they be able to go back to the home without working and having no income? They must have been given some form of compensation.
I think both of these posts brought up really strong arguments and questions about women entering the workforce during WWII. For me I think that the biggest issue about women giving up their jobs for soldiers is that they do deserve to have positions for them available after fighting for our country but also if the woman was more qualified she deserves the position over a less qualified soldier. My brother is in the Marines and has already done one tour by the age of 23, so I too am torn on what the correct stance would be. For me it would fall back on qualifications and who is more fit to fill the position. I think that the way the government used propaganda to first push women into the workforce was great in the fact that it opened many individuals eyes in realizing that they were capable of much greater things than society had considered them for. However, at the end of the war the propaganda they used to push women back into their homes and childcare is absurd. It is really frustrating to see that in any case of gender or race that individuals are pushed or steered toward a different direction that they did not originally choose based on irrelevant characteristics. I understand that equality is a long struggle that has many complicated aspects to it and it is something that our society will have to work on for centuries to come but the issue of who is fit for the job should come down to who is best qualified and who could do the best in the position, not what gender or race the individual is. Although this veers from the return of the soldiers I think that it applies to the situation well that these women went out and became highly educated and skilled in these areas, and if they are just as established or more qualified than the soldiers they deserve the job just as much.
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