What did the women do at World War 2?

Answer 1

In general, a woman's role before WWII was to be a wife and mother, to stay at home and take care of the house and children, and to provide emotional support to her husband. Of course, there were exceptions, e.g. actresses, nurses, teachers, librarians and secretaries, etc., married or single, but they were considered to be exceptional.

According to interviews of women who were in the work force before World War II, a woman often lost her job upon marriage, as she was expected to then care for her house and family. It was difficult to have a career if you were a married woman unless you were a nurse, actress, teacher, or librarian. Secretaries, waitresses, telephone operators, laundresses and seamstresses usually became housewives automatically upon the exchange of marital vows. They went on their honeymoons and were replaced by single women.

Answer 2

Australian Women before World War 2 were mainly housewives. They cared for their children, cooked, and did most of the housework. If they were wealthy enough to hire a servant they were given more leisure time. In World war 2 some women became Nurses, helping the fighting men when wounded.

Answer 3

I wrote a book about this, and it might be helpful-- "Invisible Stars: A Social History of Women in American Broadcasting." My book was not just about radio-- it was about how attitudes towards women changed from the early 1900s up to the present day. Prior to World War 2, there were some women who had careers, but they were in stereotypically "female" jobs like teaching or nursing or office work. Women in media tended to be singers or sidekicks, that is, in comedy they were the wife of the male performer (George Burns and Gracie Allen, for example), and in drama, they were often the secretary of the male character. Plot lines in comedies often tended to revolve around how dumb women were and how men had to rescue them, and in dramas, it was about the female character searching for the man of her dreams. Yet many women in entertainment, including movie stars, made good salaries and became quite respected. The culture expected that women would first and foremost be homemakers, yet some women did manage to juggle a career and a family life. And while not many women devoted themselves to climbing the corporate ladder (very difficult back then), a few women did carve out important jobs in business. Ditto for a few women in broadcasting-- Bertha Brainard was an executive with NBC from the 1920s till she retired in the mid 1940s; Kathryn Cravens and Dorothy Thompson were newswomen who also did their own commentary on radio (Cravens came from theater, Thompson from print journalism). I don't want to just discuss entertainment or media-- there was at least one woman I can recall who was a federal judge, there was a woman in President Roosevelt's cabinet, there were women preachers, professors, even scientists. If you could narrow the question a bit, I'd have an easier time responding. Given that the culture was still fairly traditional, most women married and raised families. But some women did in fact have careers too, and while the war opened up more occupations to them, society had slowly been expanding women's rights and giving her a greater role in politics, medicine, and media. Women usually did not make equal pay, and they were criticised if they chose to focus solely on their career and not have kids. But I think you would find that women did a variety of things in their lives, from having kids, volunteering, doing charity work, and participating in community service all the way to the more non-traditional areas like becoming a scientist (one of the top astronomers, Annie Jump Cannon of Harvard comes to mind) or entering politics or even finding cures for diseases.

Answer 4

Millions took jobs in industrial plants manufacturing war materials. In the US, about 400,000 joined the Armed Forces. There were 60,000 Army Nurses and 14,000 Navy Nurses. The US had WACs, WAVEs, WASPs, SPARs and MCWRs. The same was true in England. Their FANYs deserve special note. Most worked at cryptography and Communications for the SOE. Fifty were inserted into France by plane, parachute, small boat and submarine to assist the Resistance. Thirteen were killed and of the 15 captured only three survived the war. These were a wide range of women in civilian life and included a Princess, a fashion designer and a professional dancer. Fifteen were awarded the Croix de Guerre, four were awarded the George Cross and nine received the MBE. Seventeen other medals for gallantry were awarded including the CBE and the US Medal of Freedom and the Distinguished Service Cross. The USSR had women fighter pilots, snipers, assault troops and Tank commanders. Women did all kinds of things in WW2.

Answer 5

some began working in factories, bars and other places if their husbands went off to war. later on when men had to fight in the war married women whose husbands were still at home would not have to work because they relied on their husbands to bring money into the household so they did not have to go to the war.

Answer 6

The role of women before WW2 was to be the homely, caring, typical housewife. Most of the jobs were taken by men, but when the men went to War during WW1 as most of Britains younger generation was at War the women had to take on the roles of the men. This is when women started to get more equal rights.

Answer 7

Many women worked in factories and farms during the war.

Answer 8

THEY WERE TREATED BAD. THEY HAD NO RIGHTS WHAT SO EVER.