1940s Women's Roles

Research Paper Draft: How have women's roles changed from 1940s to 2000s?
Katrina Bauers

When Hitler invaded Poland from the west, France and Britain declared war on Germany and began World War Two. America entered the war when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. The United States instituted the Selective Training and Service act of 1940 which required all men between the ages of 21 and 45 to register for the draft. This meant men had to go into service and leave their home life. This opened up many opportunities for women and sparked the change in women's roles. Women's roles have changed throughout the century including, work, society views, education opportunities, equality, and politics.

During the 1940s, World War Two took

More females than ever before are entering the workforce and this increased women's opinions regarding equality in the workforce. The basic goals of American women were equal pay for equal work, an end to domestic violence and sexual harassment, and sharing responsibilities for housework and child rearing. This sparked the feminism movement. Women wanted equal pay, but their pay was 60% of the male rate.(Kenneth T. Walsh, March 12 2010) The equal pay act was finally acknowledged and gave equal pay for men and women who worked the same jobs. This was a major achieve for women in work. Another goal of women was domestic violence and sexual harassment. Media showed that the only way a woman is happy was if they had beauty. It spread the idea that women's only importance is their body. Women protested the Miss America beauty pageant in order to get their opinions out. This gained them national attention towards their problems. A major setback women experienced was men realizing that women were trying to take over their workplaces. Many employers would tell women that a position was not available and then a man would come and get hired, even if the women was more qualified.(Vintee Sawhney, unicorn.edu) The case Bowe vs. Colgate-Palmolive rules that “ women meeting the physical requirements could work in many jobs that had been for men only”( National Women’s History Project). The 1960s was a decade of change on the women image.

First off, due to the feminism movement that started in the 1960s, women's roles changed dramatically. The feminist movement gained a large audience and you start to see change in equality in this decade. Women begin to stand together in what they believe in. They want to change the traditional image of women and the image of gender roles. There was no one character role of what women should act like in the 70s. They just wanted to gain their own independence and stand up for what they believed in. Because of the feminist movement sweeping the country, the Equal Rights amendment gained a lot of support.(Henry Piatek, September 2011)) Almost 100,000 demonstrators marched in Washington D.C in support of the Equal Rights Amendment. (archive.mprnews.org) “The Equal Rights Amendment was passed in 1972 by both houses of Congress and President Richard Nixon and was sent off to be ratified into law by states.”. ( Ryan Bergeron, August 17, 2015)The Equal Rights Amendment only needed five more states to ratify it by March 1979 in order to get three-fourths approval. (Ryan Bergeron, August 17, 2015) The Equal Rights Amendment stated that “ equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by and States on account of sex.”(Ryan Bergeron, August 17, 2015) A lot of other important events took place in the 70s regarding women's gender roles. In 1972, Gloria Steinem published the first