Musselman

Shelby Musselman
Seth Epstein and Kris Whorton
HIST1120 and ENGL1150
10 November, 2016
Feminism in the First Half of the 20th Century
Both WWI and WWII by necessity empowered women by putting them in the workforce,
and it also involved them in the government. The progress achieved for women during the first
World War can still be seen in todays time. On the other hand, the results of WWII were
counteracted immediately after, and the lasting impact is less significant. While the womens
rights movement during WWI had a lasting effect, WWIIs impact on womens rights, while
positive, did not have the same lasting effects due to the change in propaganda, societal
expectations, and general pressures on women to discourage women in the workforce during the
post-war era.
World War I enabled womens rights by encouraging support for womens suffrage and
better treatment of women in the workplace. According to the National Womens History
Museum, WWI led to several important advances for women. Womens war work increased
support for woman suffrage and contributed to the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920
(Women in World War I). This explicitly claims that women gained rights such as the right to
vote as a direct cause of World War I because of the significant changes in their work during the
war.
Not only was work changed, but the perception of women in work changed. In Women,
War and Work: The Impact of World War I on Women Workers in the United States, the author,
Maurine Greenwald, claims, The wartime mobilization imparted a new dignity to womens

Musselman

work activities which under ordinary circumstances had been taken for granted. From
government and industry, women received exceptional recognition for their contribution to the
nations economic welfare (Greenwald 4). WWI was one of the first times in the United States
history where women were adequately appreciated in the economy. Women were essentially
receiving recognition for their works which had not been appreciated in the past. Greenwald later
on discusses how women in the workforce who gained jobs during World War I began to take a
stand against crude treatment of women on the job. This can be seen when Greenwald claims,
Although they treated their own labor as a resource to be sold to the highest bidder, they refused
to allow employers to treat them as mere instruments of production (Greenwald 4). Women
would resist their employers by refusing to work or forming a group of female resisters.
Essentially, World War I had a clear and positive impact on womens equality which can be
observed in the increasing number of women in the workforce and the advancement of womens
suffrage during the time period. Women who were in the workforce had a better sense of equality
to men in the workforce and became more indignant and outspoken about lack of fair treatment
in the workforce.
Before jumping into World War II, it is important to discuss what the mainstream girl
looked like during the 1920s, commonly known as a flapper. While women after the second
World War returned to basic gender roles, most women after the first World War did not. The
flapper acted a symbol of the celebration of Independence for America. They provided an
image of power for women in the United States. In her essay, Flapper Fashion In the Context of
Cultural Changes of America in the 1920s, Park establishes the Majority of the perspectives on
flapper fashion, which were gleaned from the social background of the period, considered the
flappers a group of people who were independent and truthful to their personal desires as women

Musselman

in the context of the womens liberation movement (Park 5). It is explicitly stated here that the
flapper was an independent woman, but it will be seen later on that a less positive impact on
women occurred after the second World War.
The positive impact on the progression of womens equality is clearly seen from World
War I. The second World War could have had a similar impact on the expansion of womens
equality because women were a necessity to the workforce during WWII, but the post-war era
slowed the progression of womens equality. The increase of the amount of women in the
workforce during WWII can be seen when Claudia Golden says, from her article, The Role of
World War II in the Rise of Womens Employment, she demonstrates the increase in the amount
of women in the workforce by asserting, On the demand side, the war led to increased labor
requirements across the economy and to higher wages in general and specifically for women and
other low-wage workers. The war may have demonstrated to employers that women could
function well in jobs that had previously been male domains (Goldin 742-743). Once World
War II began, women began to increase in population in the workforce. This expanded their
rights because before the war women would not have worked in some of the jobs that were
primarily male dominated, but when men were drafted, women had to take over those jobs.
Not only were women working new jobs which they had not worked in the past, but they
were working for longer. According to Goldin, More than 80 percent of the women employed in
January 1940, December 1944, and December 1949 had worked 9-10 years during the 1940s
decade (Goldin 745). This clearly show how women had stable jobs during the war years.
Goldin also mentions the propaganda from the government used to entice women into joining the
workforce during the second World War, The timing of the initial advance in married womens
employment and the extensive propaganda used to attract women into the labor force during the

Musselman

war have led many to credit World War II with spurring the modern increase in married womens
paid employment (Goldin 741). The government used propaganda the entice women to join the
workforce, and this led to an increase in the pay which women received for working. Through
these sources from Goldin, it can be inferred that women gained stable jobs during WWII, and
women gained higher wages for their work during World War II. Wages are another factor
besides propaganda which drew women to the workforce.
Unfortunately, the results of World War II on womens equality were not lasting in
comparison to the long-term results such as the passing of the 19th Amendment which occurred
during the first World War. This was because right after World War II, the status of women began
to slow due to increasing propaganda and societal pressures and expectations from the
government and society that encouraged women to leave the workforce. The hindering on
womens progress can be seen when Meyerowitz says, At the close of the war, employers
reestablished the prewar sexual division of labor. To justify the discriminatory practices against
women, popular culture began to create the concept of the proper role for women (Holt 2).
Comparing war propaganda, advocating women in the workforce with the return to gender roles
shows how womens progression was hindered during the post-war era. Later on the author
states, Studies of postwar culture found that government propaganda, popular magazines, and
films reinforced traditional concepts of femininity and instructed women to subordinate their
interests to those of the returning male veterans (Meyerowitz 3). Seemingly, women had
achieved perhaps too much economic independence during World War II, which makes the
oppressive qualities of the domestic ideal of the 1950s all the more harmful to the progression of
womens equality in America.

Musselman

In addition to the post-war time period, the Cold War led to domestic containment for
women due to the fact that they were promoted by propaganda and pressures to become
homemakers, causing the advances of the second World War to seem fruitless. According to May,
women would be encouraged to leave jobs, and there was a post-war moment where women
were let go from their jobs. In Homeward Bound, May states, But their claims of satisfaction
carried a note of resignation. Combining a profession with a family seemed an unrealistic
goal (May 32). Due to expectations, women were discouraged from having a job and
providing appropriate care for her family. There was an increased importance on women
becoming more domesticated. This can be seen in The Kitchen Debate and Cold War Consumer
Politics: A Brief History with Documents when the authors discuss how women were encouraged
by the American government to become Home-makers (Hamilton and Phillips 22). Political
pressure was on women to leave the workforce and return to their typical wife roles through
propaganda provided by the government. Another way WWII had insignificant lasting impact on
womens equality was due to the extremes which the government would go to in order to ensure
that women would not join the workforce. May argues, These public health professionals
argued that inside as well as outside the home, women who challenged traditional roles placed
the security of the nation at risk (May 98). The government overstated the effects of women
outside of their traditional roles, claiming they were a matter of national security. This is an
overstatement because of course, women staying in their jobs was not going to put the security of
the nation at risk.
Women were expected to go back home in order to keep the familys psychological
health from deteriorating. The way women were also restricted after the second World War can
be seen when May declares, As long as they were subordinate to their husbands, sexually and

Musselman

otherwise, they would be contented and fulfilled wives devoting themselves to expert
childrearing and professionalized homemaking (May 98). Women were contained in a marriage
and in the home during the post-war and Cold War years because they had to succumb to the
traditional roles of raising healthy children, and in doing this, their husbands would not stray.
This directly shows how women were restricted after WWII, and as a result, the progress women
made during the war as seen earlier was abated. Meyerowitz mentions, the family seemed to
offer a psychological fortress, a buffer against both internal and foreign threats. In this
ideological climate, independent women threatened the social order. Under cultural pressure and
with limited options for work outside the home, women, contained and constrained, donned their
domestic harness (Meyerowitz 3). Institutional pressures restricted women from being able to
expand beyond the household for work. Women were essentially forced to refrain from entering
the workforce. In short, propaganda and societal expectations during the end of the second World
War and into the beginning of the Cold War years reverted women back to traditional gender
stereotypes because of conditions occurring such as the Kitchen Debate and the general
atmosphere of the Cold War.
To conclude, women after WWII went back to basic gender roles although their progress
during that war can be seen clearly. On the other hand, World War I had a lasting impact on
womens equality. That was seen through the passing of the 19th Amendment. Also, women after
the first World War became independent beings, or flappers, and women after WWII lost
opportunities for independence because of post-war and Cold War societal expectations and
government propaganda.

Musselman

Works Cited
Goldin, Claudia D. The Role of World War II in the Rise of Womens Employment,
American Economic Association, 1991.
Greenwald, Maurine W. Women, War and Work: The Impact of World War I on Women
Workers in the United States. Cornell University Press, 1990, pp. 4.
Women in World War I. NWHM, https://www.nwhm.org/online-exhibits/progressiveera/world
warI.html. Accessed 8 November, 2016.
Meyerowitz, J. Not June Cleaver, Women and Gender in Postwar America. Philadelphia: Temple
University Press, 1994.
Hamilton, Shane and Sarah Phillips. The Kitchen Debate and Cold War Consumer Politics: A
Brief History with Documents. Bedord/ St. Martins 2014.
May, Elaine Tyler. Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era. Danby Music,
1954, renewed 1962, pp. 98-99.
Park, Soo H. Flapper Fashion In the Context of Cultural Changes of America in the 1920s.
(2014). CUNY Academic Works.
Holt, Jennifer. The Ideal Woman csustan.edu. Accessed 21 November, 2016.

Musselman