Directions:
The
following question requires you to construct a coherent essay that integrates
your interpretationof Documents A-J and your knowledge of the period referred
to in the question. High scores will be earned onlyby essays that both cite key
pieces of evidence from the documents and draw on outside knowledge of the
period.
1.
To What extent were women affected by WWII, please confine your
answer to the period from 1933-1945
DOCUMENT
A
-Goverment
Worker
"1934
Poll sent to women revealed that a large majority preferred to stay home as
home makers than to take up employment at factoruies, and had few needs for the
additional salary provided by job opportunties.
DOCUMENT
B
-
Peggy Terry, a woman who worked in a munitions factory during the
war44
"The
war gave a lot of people jobs. It led them to expect more than they had before.
People's expectations, financially, spiritually, were raised. There was such a
beautiful dream. We were gonna reach the end of the rainbow... I remember a
woman saying on the bus that she hoped the war didn't end until she got her
refrigerator paid for. An old man hit her over the head with an umbrella. He
said, 'How dare you!' (Laughs.)"
DOCUMENT
C
-
Dellie Hahne, an educator who worked as a nurse's aid for the Red Cross during
the war43
"I
think a lot of women said, Screw that noise. 'Cause they had a taste of freedom,
they had a taste of making their own money, a taste of spending their own money,
making their own decisions. I think the beginning of the women's movement had
its seeds right there in World War Two."
Document
D
Eleanor Roosevelt Speech on V-J
Day
V-J Day, Columbia Broadcasting
Company
The day for which the people of the world have prayed is here at
last. There is great thankfulness in our hearts. Peace has not come, however, as
the result of the kind of power which we have known in the past, but as the
result of a new discovery which as yet is not fully understood, nor even
developed. There is a certain awe and fear coupled with our rejoicing today,
because we know that there are new forces in the world, partly understood but
not as yet completely developed and controlled. This new force is a tremendous
challenge to the wisdom of men, and for that reason I know that most of us feel
that it must be subject to their collective wisdom. Just as it was discovered by
the pooling of knowledge from men of many races and religions, so it must be
ruled in its development.
We should not think only of its destructive power for this new
discovery may hold within it the germs of the greatest good that man has ever
known. But that good can only be achieved through man’s wisdom in developing and
controlling it.
Today we have a mixture of emotions, joy that our men are freed
of constant danger, hope that those whom we love will soon be home among us, awe
at what man’s intelligence can compass, and a realization that that intelligence
uncontrolled by great spiritual forces, can be man’s destruction instead of his
salvation.
For the happy wives and mothers of my own country and of the
world, my heart rejoices today, but I can not forget that to many this moment
only adds a poignancy to their grief. All women, wives and mothers, sisters or
sweethearts, who have had men involved in this conflict, know what it is to live
with fear as a constant companion. Some women will still have to help their men
fight the aftermath of war in their own lives. Others have lost forever the men
they hold dear. Many, many women, however, will be able to rejoice for
themselves individually and for the others whose anxiety for their dear ones and
whose separation from them will soon be over. Many of us are hoping that the
very suffering whichwomen of all nationalities have been through, will bring
about a greater kinship among them than has ever existed before. The power
ofwomen for good should be intensified because they will surely determine to
work together in order to insure that the forces of the world are used for
constructive purposes. Women want to create a world atmosphere in which human
beings may develop in peace and loving understanding. [script: Insert]
Our prayer today is one of gratitude, Oh, Lord, that peace has
come to bless the earth, but above all we pray for wisdom and for the spirit of
love in the hearts of men, for without that spirit, wisdom will avail us
little.
Document
E
Women’s recruitment
Poster
Document
F
Graph of Female
Employment
Document
G
Women at
work
Positive effect of women on the
war
Army Nurse Corps.
Women’s Army Corps (WAC)
“Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Reserve”
(WAVES)
Women Voluntary Service
(WVS)
Women in Special Operations Executive
(SOE)
Women’s Auxiliary Air Force
(WAAF)
Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps
(WAAC)
Oveta Culp Hobby (first secretary of health, education, and
welfare; founder and commander of WAC and
WAAC)
American Women’s Voluntary Services (a volunteer women’s
auxiliary organization that trained to drive ambulances, fight fires, and
provide emergency medical aid in anticipation of aerial
bombing)
War Manpower Commission (regarding
women)
Training women in Fort des
Moines
Gail Collins America’s
Women
Anne Bosanko Green in WAC, provided surgical
assistance
The creation of the All American Girl League (an all-girl band)
by the Chicago Cubs
War films on women Since
You Went Away, Mrs. Miniver which showed faithful women doing volunteer
work to support the war effort and waiting for the return of the
men
Women’s coast guard
(SPARs)
Rosie the Riveter
Auxiliary Territorial Service
(ATS)
Women in the SOE (Special Operations
Executive)
Negative effect of women on the
war
War films on women Double
Indemnity, Gilda, implied that the war had allowed women to “get out of
hand” and that the “liberated women” might be undermining traditional marriage
and family
Breaking of families
Document
(picture)
"1934
Poll sent to women revealed that a large majority preferred to stay home as home
makers than to take up employment at factories, and had few needs for the
additional salary provided by job opportunities.
-Government Worker
"The war gave a lot of people jobs. It led them to expect more
than they had before. People's expectations, financially, spiritually, were
raised. There was such a beautiful dream. We were gonna reach the end of the
rainbow... I remember a woman saying on the bus that she hoped the war didn't
end until she got her refrigerator paid for. An old man hit her over the head
with an umbrella. He said, 'How dare you!' (Laughs.)"
- Peggy Terry, a woman who
worked in a munitions factory during the war
"I think a lot of women said, Screw that noise. 'Cause they had a
taste of freedom, they had a taste of making their own money, a taste of
spending their own money, making their own decisions. I think the beginning of
the women's movement had its seeds right there in World War
Two."
- Dellie Hahne, an educator
who worked as a nurse's aid for the Red Cross during the
war
3
Facts
-women physically
contributed in the war effort
-existence of the WAC
(Women’s Army Corps)
-sent all over the world
where they were needed
-there were women who stayed
as housewives during the war rather than going out to
work
-some women preferred
staying at home to working in the
factories
-majority of women desired
to remain housewives, reassume their conventional
roles
-war provided many people,
including women, jobs
-opportunity for financial
improvement
-women happy to be receiving
pay
-women, for perhaps the
first time in their lives, held jobs
-women relished the fact
that by holding their job they were assuming their independence and control over
themselves
-worked under loud and
unpleasant working conditions
2
Inferences
-various women’s divisions,
including the WAC
-war caused a sore need for
all the help that America can get, women’s contribution
accepted
-women were reluctant to
work but had to under the circumstances from the
war
-miniscule salary that
barely provided for the women and their
families
-increased production
nationwide
-some people were happy
about the war because of its opportunity to earn
money
-women’s movement was much
developed during WWII
-magnified women’s desire
for independence, called for more
afterwards
SAMPLE
Women were affected to a great deal by the war in three manners;
they were affected socially, economically and
politically.
Women were affected to a great extent in an economic sense as WWII needed
people to make weapons, which meant employment for women which in turn meant
salaries. Looking at Document F,
its quite easy to observe that the number of employed women significantly
increased in the United states during the war, specifically right after
president Roosevelt decided to abandon the neutrality acts in favor of
constructing war machines and sending them off to allies.
Looking at Document B, it’s simple to observe that with their new level
of affluence, many women had a made significant changes to their lives, like
the woman that bought a refrigerator.
It is however to note that the women in context states that she likes her
job and wishes to hold on to it.
Not only did WWII bring about economic change, it also brought about
social change, as women empowered with money could make far more decisions
regarding themselves. Looking at
Document C, it’s easily observable that many women enjoyed their new freedom
fully. From this it can be
inferred that women will soon want more changing their life, and it can be
inferred that the money of WWII may have indirectly gave a boost to the Women’s
rights movement. Not only did
women feel like they need new things, for the first time they themselves were
needed, looking at the recruitment poster in Document E, it can be seen that the
government really was trying to appeal to the female audience.
Due to the colossal quantities of arms needed during the war effort, it
can be assumed that posters like these were quite common, and they too served
to empower women.
Empowered women could only mean one thing, women who strive for more
power, political power to be specific.
As seen with Eleanor Roosevelt’s speech in document D, there is a loud
and audible call for women to stand their ground and fight against injustices
that they recognize. What’s more,
encouraging words like these came from Eleanor Roosevelt, the most influential
woman in America, and likely the world, and likely spurred political action from
females all around the nation.