Women In The Workforce

“War holds many ironies, and among them is its liberating effect on women”. War has altered women's expected roles in society for decades, as men leave to fight, women must pick up the slack and take traditionally masculine jobs or even fight themselves. Yet it appears that none of these changes have had any long-lasting dramatic increases in women's rights in society or her role in the workforce. Until the Second World War. The Second World War saw a very large workforce shift. At the time, it was believed that women could be included in the war workforce and then be easily re-excluded at the end of the war. But as the war drew on and more and more women were a part of the workforce, especially in traditionally masculine ones, the question …show more content…
From 1940 to 1944, the amount of women in the workforce increased 48%. This huge increase was achieved through shifting of who was in the workforce. At the start of the war, unemployment was still rife, so of course the defense first jobs went to the men. Then came the truly unemployed women, who really wanted and need the jobs. But “By the end of 1942, these ranks has been absorbed, and the cry went up for a new type of worker - the housewife who didn't necessarily want or need to work”. The desperate need for workers caused by “war of production” nature of WWII forced acceptability of more women in more …show more content…
But this was done with an "almost complete absence of fear that women would desert matrimony or family for war work summer"

From as early as 1943, demobilisation started for some women and with it came a change in attitude towards women workers. During the war "the majority of writers seemed to assume that women would want to leave their jobs when the war was over." Supporting this, originally "as many as 95% of women war workers plan to quit as soon as victory was certain.rupp307". And at first it seemed at if these statistics were coming true. From march of 1944 to december of 1945 the number of women in non agricultural work, decreased 30%
Despite some historians such as Summerfield think that by the end of World War II "women were not treated with greater equality at work"

But in the long run these fears were unwarranted. Despite an initial dip, that didn't even go down to pre war levels, work force participation was back up and increasing at a faster rate than ever before. 44-47, married women increased percentage of women in workforce, dropped by the least amount woeman facts table