Gender during WWII

1
Gender during WWII the 1950s

• Readings Discussion

Korean War recruitment, 1951
Christine Jorgensen
fireproof housekeeping?
2

• Richard Jefferson, from Negro Employment in St.
  Louis War Production
• 1. What restrictions on labor did African
  American women face?
• 2. How did African American workers resist?
• 3. To what degree does the discrimination and
  resistance resonate with the documentary?

3

• From Women Workers in Ten War Production Areas
  Their Postwar Employment Plans
• 1. What reasonS did women give for wanting to
  keep their jobs?
• 2. Why did government and businesses let women go
  despite survey results? Cf. Streetcar conductors
  WWI

4

• Beth Bailey David Farber, Prostitutes on
  Strike
• 1. What were the goals of local elites, local
  police, military officials, sex workers?
• 2. How did prostitution maintain racial
  boundaries?
• 3. Why did the military change its policy from
  WWI suppression of prostitution?
• 4. How much control did prostitutes have?

5

• Loretta Ret Collier interview from 1990
• 1. Why did Collier want to remain in the Air
  Force?
• 2. Do we have any indication that she was a
  successful service personnel?
• 3. What actions did the military take to
  terminate her?
• 4. What were the repercussions of a dishonorable
  discharge?

6

• Marynia Farnham Ferdinand Lundberg, Modern
  Women The Lost Sex 1947
• 1. To counter the trend of mothers with small
  children working, what did the authors portray as
  conflicts between the head and the heart? cf.
  Edward Clarke head womb
• 2. How are feminine and masculine used?
• 3. What are the supposed negative effects for
  husbands?

7

• Time on Christine Jorgensen 1952-53
• 1. How did the Time reporter employ gender
  stereotypes in describing George and describing
  Christine?
• 2. How did he portray her reason and others
  response to her?
• 3. Based on what did Time conclude Christine was
  not a real girl?
• 4. What becomes the issue when she was painted as
  an altered male?
• 5. Why did the Danish doctor lay blame where he
  did?

8

• David Serlin, Christine Jorgensen and the Cold
  War Closet
• 1. How did media employ nationalism, romance, and
  scientific advancement to support Jorgensen?
• 2. How did Jorgensen help produce her own gender
  identity?
• 3. Why did Air Staff Sergeant Bill Calhoun defed
  Jorgensens honor?
• 4. Why did media and scientists first welcome
  Jorgensen and then lash out against her?
• 5. What seemed at stake in labeling anatomy
  authentic or inauthentic?

9

• Laura McEnaney, Atomic Age Motherhood
• 1. How did the government attempt to redirect
  womens career/service to America into
  gender-appropriate Maternalism?
• What family forms and endeavors did the
  government sanction?
• 2. How could womens groups benefit from being
  part of civil defense?
• 3. What was the significance of combining
  Maternalism with miltarism?

10

• Discussion on Daniel Horowitz
• 1. Why did Friedan downplay her involvement with
  leftist groups in The Feminine Mystique?
• 2. Why does Horowitz discuss Friedans college
  courses 1950s labor work or writings for
  womens magazines?
• 3. What does the Horowitz article contribute to
  our understanding of what kind of women were
  involved in activism?

11

• Women for Peace (ca.45-75), RobinsonBoycott
  (54-6), Moody, Payne
• 1. What motivated women to expand their work from
  their homes to activism?
• 2. How did women network for activism? Who were
  they, and who did they work with?
• 3. How did women activists comport themselves and
  use femininity to their advantage?
• 4. Compare Robinsons account to lecture. What do
  you make of omissions like not mentioning the
  15-year old who was pregnant, not mentioning
  Rustin, etc.?
• 5. Consider Moodys memoir excerpt. What role did
  women play at what risk, and how did the presence
  of male and white activists affect the situation?
  
• 6. What factors does Payne see as most important
  and why?

12

• Pauli Murray
• 1. How did Murrays consciousness of
  discrimination expand from race to include
  gender?
• 2. What does her publication on Jane Crow tell
  us about her conception of discrimination?
• Friedan
• 1. What was Friedan arguing?
• 2. What kind of evidence did she put forth, and
  how good was it?
• Title VII Title IX Read these over for the
  legal changes they plan to make.