Effect on women of WW1／WW2
Focus of the topic
Background Info
- Women before WW1 and WW2: role was to be at home
- 1/4 of women did work outside the home
- expected to leave their jobs once they got children
Body
WW1
- large number of women took up jobs vacated by men who had to fight at the war
- Jobs such as: railway guards, ticket collectors, police, etc
- employment rate rose up to 47%, including married women
- Benefits
- Protest movement for wage rise spread
- Spread to other areas
- Gained vote in 1919, after Woman Suffrage movement
- societies like NUWSS put policital activity largely during the war
- presence increased in society
- Gained skills
- helped women to gain equal rights
- Protest movement for wage rise spread
- Disadvantages
- Paid less money compared with men for same job
- 50%-60%
- after the war, some women continued working but with lower wages than men
- Dangerous jobs to hand,e TNT, caused their skin to turn yellow “canaries”
- Emotional cost
- France 600000 war widows
- Loss and worry felt by womens
- Paid less money compared with men for same job
- Summary: Short-term: more disadvantages, But allowed woman to stand on the starting line to equality in long-term.
- large number of women took up jobs vacated by men who had to fight at the war
WW2
- Similarly, women had to work
- 19 million women working in 1944
- Unlike WW1, women got higher-responsibility jobs
- ex: military as armed force/pilots
- Benefits
- Attitude toward women started to change
- before: many men did not still accept women in workplace
- changed as they worked really hard for their jobs
- Equal pay compulsory in some states
- More women in the workforce, but women were pressured to leave their jobs
- Gained skills in new jobs
- historian Winkler: reasons for joining war effors are
- many women tired of monotomy of domestic works, repeating same tasks
- wanted to earn money and enjoy independence
- had sense of nationalism and patriotic motivation
- Attitude toward women started to change
- Disadvantages
- Many went back to their traditional roles and were excluded from well-paid jobs
- Still lower wages & higher risk of getting fired, in many places
- Similarly, women had to work
Summary: Still disadvantages from inequalities existed, but helped the movement in long-term
Conclusion:
Possible Essay Questions
Resources
Notes
- May Examでwomen in 2 regionsが出たので、万が一womenが出たとしても流石に全く同じ文言では出ないだろうと予想
- なのでwomen in asiaは飛ばして良さそうかな