Women During Ww2

Before World War I, women typically played the role of the homemaker. Women were judged by their beauty rather than by their ability. Their position and status were directed towards maintaining the annual duties of the family and children. These duties consisted of cleaning and caring for the house, caring for the young, cooking for the family, maintaining a yard, and sewing clothing for all. Women had worked in textile industries and other industries as far back as 1880, but had been kept out of heavy industries and other positions involving any real responsibility. Just before the war, women began to break away from the traditional roles they had played.

During World War I, women worked in almost every field of industry. Women were replacing men's job such as railroad workers, auto drivers, and other machine operators. One newspaper noted that 4,000 women were working for the Pennsylvania Railroad. Some women track workers also maintained the roadbed of the Pennsylvania Railroad between New York and Pittsburgh. Women also held many jobs besides working in factories that were traditional men's work. They assumed positions of doctors, lawyers, bankers, and civil servants. Harvesting grain, running businesses, and driving trucks were all common jobs for women to take. Furthermore the women's attitudes had changed because of the war.

As men left their jobs to serve their country in war overseas, women replaced their jobs. Women filled many jobs that were brought into existence by wartime needs. As a result, the number of women employed greatly increased in many industries. Before the war there were over eight million women in paid occupations. After the war began, not only did their numbers increase in common lines of work, but as the author Lady R Churchill stated in her book, "There has been a sudden influx of women into such unusual occupations as bank clerks, ticket sellers, elevator operator, chauffeur, street car conductor, railroad trackwalker, section hand, locomotive wiper and oiler, locomotive dispatcher, block operator, draw bridge attendant, and employment in machine shops, steel mills, powder and ammunition factories, airplane works, boot blacking and farming." Many of these women were married, and some were mothers whose husbands or older sons had gone to front. Women were also seen as vital resources for wartime aids. Slogans emphasized patriotism and created the environment for women's active involvement in many industries.

Organizations such as the Red Cross, and YWCA also made efforts in supporting wartime hardships that the nation might face. The Red Cross organized non-professional women to aid in relief work. To help the war effort, many women joined the Red Cross as nurses. While they were in the Red Cross, they rolled bandages, knitted socks, and worked in military hospitals. Most of the women were wives and mothers of soldiers of all classes. The Red Cross war council also created a women's bureau, which appointed a national advisory committee of women that made an effort to recruit every available woman in the campaign to make adequate funds and supplies. Women in the Red Cross were also helpful in recruiting men who had not joined the war. One method was by showing a man in civilian clothes with white feathers as a mark of cowardice. Another method was by making women speak at public meetings, encouraging others to have nothing to do with men who had not joined the war. Women also went over seas as members of the Voluntary Aid Detachment of the Red Cross. Volunteering brought them out of the house and into the public. Women had no trouble filling the gaps left by men who went to war. The Red Cross continued to encourage many women to join the Red Cross by saying "It's the patriotic duty of every man, woman, and child to join the Red Cross. Why wait to be asked? Be a volunteer" (Nurses and the U.S Navy, 1917-1919).

The Young Women Christian Association's northwestern field committee was also concerned with the needs of the war. The committee occasionally discussed the great increase in the duties of employment agencies of the YWCA because of the war. In those discussions they came to the conclusion that training girls to take the place of the men was necessary. Lettie Gavin stated, "The necessity of training girls to take the place of men, and also work in connection with the hostess houses at Camp Lewis, Vancouver barracks and Bremerton, has made as many demands upon the Northwest." Further advancement in the development of women's work was strengthened by the withdrawal of millions of men from the American industry.

Young women and girls worked as nurses during World War I. Help wanted ads looking for nurses increased as days passed by. When the United States entered World War I in April 1917, the Navy had 160 nurses on active duty. Over the next year and a half, this number increased as the Nurse Corps expanded to meet the war's demands. Young women volunteered to join the Voluntary Aid Detachment and First Aid Nursing Yeomanry. VAD's came from a variety of backgrounds: cooks, domestic servants, laundry workers, etc. Their medical training was basic, but the fact that they went to the war zone meant that they could help badly wounded soldiers and give them basic medical treatment.

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