Women of the 1940s

Women

While many men were away at war, many women worked outside the home, which was uncommon in earlier decades (Athan, et al., p. 1). There were many possibilities for women who wanted to work and support the war effort. For example, in Britain, Land Girls volunteered their time to planting and harvesting crops for food (The Wartime Kitchen and Garden). The Land Girls fulfilled an important role in the war effort, as they had during World War I.

Women in various countries, including the United States, Britain, and Canada, took on new jobs, including many jobs that would previously have been considered men's work. This video from Scholastic discusses the types of work that American women did during the war and how it changed women's attitudes about working. It was a necessity for women to fill these roles during the war, although they still struggled to gain acceptance in their fields and were not always given the same credit and pay that a man would have had in their position. Some men thought of women workers as something to be tolerated, a potential problem, a nuisance to train, or people who required special handling as shown in this 1944 film from the United States Office of Education about how to treat female workers.

As working women, their fashion sense adapted to be more practical. Hairstyles that were previously popular got in the way of their vision and were dropped in favor of styles that pulled the hair away from the face so that they could work more safely (America in Color: The 1940s). Exactly what women wore depended on the jobs they were doing.

• British Land Girls - This video shows how a British Land Girl would dress and explains their role in the war effort. Trousers were a necessity. Most of the women wouldn't have worn trousers otherwise.
• Factory workers - Women worked to build munitions for the war effort. The iconic image of Rosie the Riveter was used in government posters to encourage women to become Factory workers. This video describes what women factory workers would do and wear. (I noticed the shoes that Norman Rockwell's Rosie the Riveter wore. I used to have a pair of loafers like that, and they're not work shoes. The video explains why.) The name Rosie the Riveter came from a song about a female factory worker.
• Nursing - This short PBS film explains the role of army nurses, interviewing a former WWII nurse.
• Aviators - This short film explains the role of female aviators in the war, based on an exhibit at The Intrepid Museum in New York. This video shows an interview with one of the former Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP).

Black women could participate in many of these professions, although they were often in limited in the ways they could serve or had to serve in segregated units.

Some women worked behind the scenes in the war effort, taking on roles as information analysts and clerks, like those employed at the code breaking center Bletchley Park (Women in Bletchley Park). Some women were even spies (see the documentary Women Spies In World War II).

Women who worked and participated in the war effort experienced a sense of accomplishment and expanded their horizons. After World War I, women were encouraged to give up the jobs they had taken temporarily during the war so that the returning service men could have them, and it was assumed that they would do the same after World War II. However, after World War II, there were conflicting views about whether women should return to their roles as homemakers and let the men take the jobs or whether they should use their new skills and views of their own capabilities to pursue new types of employment as shown in the film from 1946, Women after the War, where a man and a woman debate with each other about the future of women in work.

Resources

General Documentaries

Women Spies In World War II

A Timeline documentary about female spies in World War II and their methods.