Women on the Homefront

According to Rosalie F. Richard, my grandmother, life on the home front of the U.S. during WWII was very hard. All women were required to complete all of their normal household chores and get new jobs as the work force was greatly depleted. This was due to the 10 million men serving their country in the war overseas. Women were not used to the fact that they were now needed in the work force as well as their homes. They became the "Wartime Workers".

The rest of the men who did not go to war worked their normal jobs, but this was not nearly enough men to meet war expectations. The War Manpower Commission used slogans such as, "Women in the war. We can't win without them", to get the women to join the work force and join in the patriotism of the country. By 1944 more than 19 million women were employed by the American war time economy.

Lathe operator machining parts for transport plane...

A shopkeeper cancels the coupons in a British hous...

One Afghan Woman Makes a Difference

With the extreme need for women to join the work force it should have been easy for them to get jobs, but on the contrary it was very difficult for any women to get a job. Many companies and industries highly discriminated against women. The discrimination was due to the fact that not many women were ever employed. Their qualifications for getting jobs did not meet expectations. Most men believed that women could not do the job a man had been doing. Women who were hired were treated unfairly. They did not receive equal pay for the same job a man could do. This brought on a fight for equality.

Today women have equality. The spark of freedom and equality during this time in history created the women's movement. Women have free reign in the work force of today. Many...