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WW II and Real-Life "Rosie's" - Coggle Diagram
WW II and Real-Life "Rosie's"
World War Two drafted many American soldiers into the war, pulling men away from their jobs and onto the war front
with an extreme lack of numbers in the work force on the home front, American companies encouraged younger women to enter previously male dominated spheres such as the production lines for war utilities like B-24 bombers and battleships
propaganda was used to recruit, encourage, and motivate women on the production lines in a patriotic lens... advocating that women could participate in the war effort... i.e. Rosie the Riveter
slacks were a necessity for working on the production lines of military factories however, it was only appropriate for working women to wear skirts
when women were brought into the workforce during the Second World War, women opted into wearing slacks given the intense level of manual labor and the condition of the environments they were working in
slacks were cleaner, neater, and easier to work in, therefore allowing women to take up more demanding jobs resulting in more pay
slacks defeminized women in the workplace but at the same time eroticized women in a sexual manner with the idea that women who wore slacks were more sexually available because people interpreted women who wore slacks as less respectable and therefore less refined as a person, leading people to the ridiculous conclusion that women who wore slacks must be more sexually available
clothes were a large proponent of how people interpreted gender in the middle of the twentieth century, creating the notion that only men wore pants and only women wore skirts, thus if a women wore pants she was represented as a man or at least less respectable than "real women"
women who wore slacks were frequently and often ignored by vendors or clerks and even rejected service entirely
hairstyles in the workplace created gender ambiguities
women could either opt into company policy and choose safety or reject these often loosely enforced policies and choose beauty
choosing not to wear hair covering caps allowed women to express themselves however it also contributed to the eroticization of women in the workplace
choosing to follow company policy and wear hair covering caps restricted women from expressing themselves and excluded them from the masculine realm of the workplace since it did not matter what hair style women had, all women under company policies had to wear caps that covered their hair even if a woman had a more masculine style of hair
these sort of policies display sexism in the workforce very blatantly, as men were not required to wear these caps whereas women were even if their hair was shorter than any man's
some women felt very patriotic about their work efforts for the war effort especially if they had family, friends, etc. participating on the war front
some women started their jobs on the production line motivated by the ideas of patriotism but then quickly moved to the mindset that discrimination in the workforce overpowered the value of patriotism, leaving women with two options: terminate or continue to work... a decision that held weight for either which way... this is especially dramatized after the war
for women who were working class, it was harder to simply find another job if they chose to terminate and in many circumstances they were heavily relying on the wages they received, so remaining unemployed too long would be dangerous
women treated as if they did not belong in factories and production lines by men... constantly being reminded of information they have already heard... men perpetuating the idea that women were lost
men had significant privilege in terms of their employment opportunities compared to women...
when men on the war front returned they were given their old jobs back or found new work... either way many women who had found work during the Second World War were replaced and put into unemployment
women struggled to find jobs with the new skills they learned because too many men were already taking up these jobs... a perk that the propaganda and companies told women would be helpful after the war
women were seen as merely a temporary means to continue production of military supplies while men were away
Black women were unfairly given more laborious jobs than white women... companies tried to make it seem like the demographic of these jobs were diverse by including a minimal amount of white women
Black women were paid five cents less for the same jobs that white women preformed
Black women were the first to be laid off when the war ended, then Black men, then finally white women
unfair promises made by companies and government about the ability to find jobs after the war as well as untrue theories about the economy surging after the war