Women, Children and World War II

1
Women, Children and World War II

• 1941-1945

2
Labor Statistics

• 1936- 82 Americans believed that a married woman
  should not work if her husband worked
• 1940- 15 of all married women were working
• Most employed in Female work
• Most worked in teaching, nursing, as sales
  clerks, household servants
• Factory jobs- clothing

3
Rosie the Riveter

• Symbolized the new importance of the female
  industrial worker who now did mens work
• She helped the war effort by working in the
  factory while her boyfriend or husband fought the
  Axis Powers
• Brought changes to the American work force
  helped erode some of the prejudice against
  mothers working and women joining unions
• Most women employed in service-sector jobs many
  worked in government jobs whose bureaucratic
  needs increased with the war

4
The Effect of W.W. II

• Women began to fill higher paying factory jobs in
  manufacturing because of men going to W.W.II
• 1941- 14.6 million
• 1944- 19.4 million
• Women composed 35 of the labor force
• Married women outnumbered single women
• 1945- 50 of all women workers over 35

5
Womens Professional Baseball

• 1943-Philip Wrigley, the chewing gum king and
  owner of the Chicago Cubs, was concerned that the
  government might disband Major League Baseball
  for the duration of WW II
• Creation of the All-American Girls Baseball
  League to fill the possible spectator sport void
• Wrigley supported the league with 250,000 and
  Brooklyn Dodger owner Branch Rickey gave moral
  support

6
A League of their Own

• 4 teams- Rockford, Illinois South Bend, Indiana
  Kenosha and Racine Wisconsin
• Conservative Midwest dictated that femininity was
  important
• 1948- peak season-nearly a million spectators
• 1954- league folded
• Both men and women were not ready to accept
  womens professional sports on a large scale

7
Women and the Military

• Some women enlisted in the military
• WAACs- army- Womens Army Auxiliary
  Corps-1945-100,000 women
• WAVEs- navy- Women Accepted for Volunteer
  Emergency Service1945-86,000 women
• Air Wacs-air force-1945-45,000 women
• WASPs-Womens Air force Service Pilots
• Most female work was clerical

8
Children and WW II

• Scarcity of child-care facilities
• Women had no choice but to leave young children
  at home alone
• Known as latchkey children and eight-hour
  orphans
• Juvenile crime increased during WW II because of
  family separation
• 1944-1945- more than a third of teenagers between
  14-18 were employed full time causing some
  reduction in high school enrollment
• 18 year olds volunteered for the service before
  graduation
• Many families could not survive wartime
  separation and ended in divorce