Before the 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.
Girls were said to follow their mother’s footsteps so it wasn't as important for them to go to school.Some woman did work in professions in the 18thcentury. They were, doctors, lawyers, preachers, teachers, writers and singers. But by the early 19thcentury woman were limited to factory labor and domestic work. The only professions the women were then allowed to do were writing and teaching.
The British textile and clothing trades were regarded as 'women's work' as they employed far more women than men.World War I When men start leaving their jobs to serve their country in war overseas, women replaced their jobs 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.As a matter of survival, women had to work for paid employment for the sake of their families. The war actually created more domestic jobs because many women who worked in factories and outside their homes were not able to care well enough for their children. Women were also seen as vital resources for wartime aids, and various wartime slogans such as “You should aid nation in the war” and “Everyone has to be a helper” emphasized patriotism and created the environment for women’s active involvement in many industries.
Young women and girls worked as nurses during World War I. 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. In World War One, women played a vital role in keeping soldiers equipped with ammunition and in many senses they kept the nation moving through their help in manning the transport system.Emmeline Goulden Pankhurst leader of the suffragette suspended all militant activities and encouraged women to work and help the war effort Although women were still paid less than men in the workforce, women's equality were starting to arise as women were now getting paid two-thirds of the typical pay for men.
World War I played a significant part in developing women's political rights - so it is frequently assumed. However, World War One may well have stymied the drive by women to gain political rights or its part may have been overstated.Interwar At the end of World War One, those women who had found alternate employment from the normal for women lost their jobs. The returning soldiers had to be found jobs and many wanted society to return to normal.
When the men came back from war, the women were basically told to go back home to their ironing and cleaning house and the men got their jobs back. When women found employment in the Civil Service, in teaching and in medicine they had to leave when they got married.Women got voting equality with men when in 1918 a law was passed which stated that any person over the age of 21 could vote - male and female. The war once again gave women the opportunity to show what they could do.
World War II Wars prior to World War II, there had been a debate about and opposition to using women in the armed forces. As men went off to battle, women were needed for non-combat jobs such as switchboard operators, telegraphers, mechanics, and drivers. But this time, the Government, realizes that they needed women to fight in the war too.The horizon of opportunity and confidence and the extended skill base that many women could now give to paid and voluntary employment, women's roles in World War II were even more extensive than in the First World War. In Britain, women were essential to the war effort, in both civilian and military roles. The contribution by civilian men and women to the British war effort was acknowledged with the use of the words "Home Front" to describe the battles that were being fought on a domestic level with rationing, recycling, and war work, such as in munitions factories and farms.
In the United States, women were urged by organized propaganda campaigns to practice frugality, to carry groceries instead of using the car to preserve tire rubber for the war effort, to grow more of their family's food (in "Victory Gardens" for example), to sew and repair clothing rather than buy new clothes, to raise money for and contribute to war bonds, and generally to contribute to the morale of the war effort through sacrifice.The Army established the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) in 1942. WAACs served overseas in North Africa in 1942. The WAAC, however, never accomplished its goal of making available to "the national defense the knowledge, skill, and special training of the women of the nation".
