Women were traditionally the homemakers in America with the majority only getting a career out of necessity and usually only when unmarried, divorced, or widowed. If a woman did have a career she usually worked in what were considered feminine jobs. Before World War II women were scorned and publicly ridiculed for working even if they were the sole form of support for their families. Some even went as far as to blame the Great Depression on women whom were employed. It was felt that women took away jobs from their more deserving male counter parts and that is what caused the depression. Even when women were able to find employment they were paid far less than men doing the same work. (Ware, 2009). During this time women did what they had to do to survive and if they couldn’t find employment to help provide the family with cash then they would do everything from working the farm to sewing. Women commonly grew their own food and would often use an animal drawn plow for working the land. A lucky woman would have a sewing machine but most only had the basic needles and thread.
Even though women had begun to gain employment more frequently in the 1930’s, it was still quite a while before women were accepted in jobs perceived as masculine. It took women pushing the boundaries before more women could enter male dominated fields. At first it was only upper class women that were going to college for traditionally male dominated majors. Once they had graduated, these women experienced a high level of unemployment in relation to women who were working in traditionally female jobs. (Carter, 1984). During the war, production of most tools and household items stopped and production of war items expanded. Almost anything that was in the home during the war was actually purchased before the war began; including radios, telephones, toasters, refrigerators, stoves, and wool rugs.
World War II saw a time when women were actually encouraged to go to work out of necessity for the survival of the United States. Not only did women become employed but they filled openings in all careers including production, science, and war industries. Women discovered they were not only capable of preforming masculine jobs but found that they could succeed. The government worked hard to get women out of the house and into the work force using many types of propaganda including Rosie the Riveter but also kept the term “for the duration” in the forefront. Women were expected to fill all the rolls that men had left in order to fight the war and when the war was over women were forced back into the home. The difference in women’s age and class played a large role in how they went to work in the war effort. Many of the women who took war time jobs were actually already working and only switched from their job to the more masculine, higher paying employment. Even though women were desperately needed in the work force during the war, male workers and supervisors had a hard time accepting them. Once the war was over and men returned home, women were expected and in some cases forced to quit working to give jobs back to the men. Few women were able to keep their jobs after the war and it wasn’t until the 1960’s when women really began pushing back into the work force. (Milkman, 1987).
Even with the feminist efforts being made by women in the 1960’s men still had a hard time accepting women in the work place. As late as 1964 it was still common practice for newspapers to split their help wanted sections into “Help Wanted/Female” and “Help Wanted/Male”. Although help wanted ads for men were requiring skills and schooling, the women’s ads read very differently. The majority of the ads for women were requiring attractive, pretty-looking, cheerful, or really beautiful women no matter what the job was. The extreme gender differences were further seen when in one newspaper there were twenty-nine columns for help wanted/male but only two columns for help wanted/female. Within the ads there were 281 ads for male accountants and 153 ads for male chemists but only nine of each ad for females. (Coontz, 2011). The 1960’s were a time when women were seeking economic independence and a time when new products were frequently introduced. It was a time when people really spent money to have modern conveniences. Common tools of convenience were the vacuum cleaner, Polaroid cameras, battery operated radios, washers, dryers, and even portable dishwashers.
