ipl-logo

Summary Of On Her Their Lives Spending By Angela Woollacott

1021 Words5 Pages

The book On Her Their Lives Depend by Angela Woollacott was published in 1994 and is a compilation of woman munitions workers during the first world war. Angela Woolacott is an Assistant Professor of History and Director of the Women's Studies Program at Case Western Reserve University. Along with this book she also co-edited another book titled Gendering War Talk (1993). On Her, Their Lives Depend opens with a quick story of Elsie Mary Davey who was a seventeen-year-old worker that had moved far from her family home to work. The author then discusses her thesis which is the purpose of the book is the examination of the experience that women workers during this time period endured. Woollacott does this by compiling oral reports, worker's writings, …show more content…

She then follows this with the differing health, welfare, injuries, and deaths that women suffered and the status and experiences that they had as workers compared to the commonly thought role as head of the household before the war. With the changing concepts of the role of a woman, the book discusses the wages, autonomy, and public censure that came with working and the author even covers what the workers do in their leisure time such as socializing and sex. The book also offers illustrations of ad posters that sell products and the idea of nationalism in the sense of women doing their part to work in the factory. Along with having photos of real people working in the factories operating cranes, playing sports, passing out from fumes, and drawing differing scenes such as women's clubs socializing. The illustrations even include a postcard of a munitions factory from that time period. The author believed this perspective was important to highlight for Woollacott because munitions labor provided working-class women with freedom, a steady income, and even an upgraded standard of living for the first …show more content…

In having a comprehensive study of how World War I changed the lives of women she busts some myths and corrects some misapprehensions such as expressing the impact that the work had on the development of jaundice rather than it being something that can be fixed cosmetically like advertisement back then would portray. Woollacott views the female munitions worker as a significant modern figure who opposed the gender order through nationalistic effort and class distinctions through greater disposable income, mobility, and altering social behavior. The author having expertise in history with her main focus being British and Australian history helps to illustrate that she is a credible authority to report this information. The book itself is clearly organized to discuss the women's munition work to then expand to other aspects of their life such as wages and autonomy. The title of this book is an attention grabber due to its dramatic nature. This structuring of the book makes it easier to understand even for those that are not familiar with history such as discussing what mutation workers were and then going into various specific topics of the issue. Although the book itself came over twenty years ago and can be considered aged, Angela Woollacott's research on women

Show More
Related
1570 Words | 7 Pages

Constance Bowman Reid presents several captivating observations and narratives about being a woman working in a World War II bomber factory in her memoir Slacks & Calluses. Reid and her friend and fellow teacher Clara Marie, referred to as C.M., decided to spend their summer vacation assisting the allied war effort by working the swing shift at a local aircraft factory. Because of their gender, Reid and C.M were forced to challenge many presumptions and biases that the factory supervisors had about their abilities. Despite proving to be strong workers, the duo had to deal with sexism within the workplace and in the world around them. Due to her unique social positioning, Reid offers an unparalleled perspective on several wartime issues that in total provide a comprehensive story with spectacular historical value.

Read More
1401 Words | 6 Pages

For instance, she provides perspectives from William Chafe and Karen Anderson, who believe that the war accelerated women into the labor force, and contrasts it with the perspective of Leila Rupp, who states that the war had no impact on this. In addition, she also compares perspectives of the images of women during the war, providing perspectives from Freidan, who argues that the images during World War II were committed to following a dream, while comparing it to Leila Rupp, who argues that this image had urged workers to let women into male jobs while accepting them. Continuing from this, Honey provides one more set of perspectives from Karen Anderson and Susan Hartmann, who argue that, as the war began to end, the focus and stress on family roles became highly valued in order to promote the family, as society was readjusting. This indicates that Honey is utilizing other historian’s perspectives

Read More
762 Words | 4 Pages

“Slacks and Calluses: Our Summer in a Bomber Factory” is a book that describes the summer of two teachers, Constance Bowman Reid and Clara Marie Allen, working in a bomber factory for the military of the United States. This book explains how women’s role in society began to change during the time of World War II. Throughout this book, the author, Constance Bowman Reid, describes the way they were treated due to being female, how the country felt about women going to work in factories during the summer of 1943, and why women decided to work in bomber factories for the US during World War II. Constance Reid describes how there were many things that defined women such as what clothes they wore and what they occupation they carried. During this era, women were known to be classy in ways like females usually wore skirts in public and had careers as nurses or teachers.

Read More
485 Words | 2 Pages

Women contributions to the workforce rose from 24% in 1914 to 37% in 1918. Women had to take over all of the men’s jobs, the physical and financial burden of caring for families. These jobs included farming, deliveries, weaponry work, printing, teaching and shop assistants. The years during the war 1914-1918 were extremely busy and stressful for both the women and the children. Women’s organisations became very active during the time of the war.

Read More
562 Words | 3 Pages

The Labor Service was broken up into the women’s and men’s sectors. One of the first things that Stephenson discusses is the idea of “voluntary” work. Much of the work that women did for the Women’s Labor Service (WLS) was voluntary, not necessarily meaning freely undertaking, but rather, unpaid. Stephenson argues that because the Regime failed to conscript women early on, and could not properly motivate women to help through the use of propaganda, that women’s contribution to the war

Read More
809 Words | 4 Pages

From the 1st of September 1939 to the 2nd of September 1945, life in Australia experienced drastic change. These six years and one day were the catalyst for a radical shift in Australian women’s place in society, ultimately leading to their emancipation from previous roles. The Second World War was instrumental in the liberation of Australian women as their shift away from traditional roles, improved financial equality and increased military participation led to empowerment and new freedoms. The most prominent of these factors in the liberation of Australian women was their emancipation from previous roles. World War Two catalysed the empowerment of women through their emancipation from previous roles in society.

Read More
1889 Words | 8 Pages

Likewise, Bruley strengthens the argument that ‘One of the ironies of war is that women on whole emerged in 1918 healthier and enjoyed a higher standard of living than in 1914’. Bruley’s view has limited validity because women proved that being employed helped them mentally and physically as work occupied their mind and not their husbands. This helped them build communities of support for their love ones in war. Women were unifying as unmarried mothers, who were usually shunned away in society, were allowed to return to work, although at Woolwich children of these women were cared for in a separate nursery from children of married women. This shows that within society their status now affected them rather than their gender as ‘war made them see women’s traditional roles as wives and mothers as even more

Read More
853 Words | 4 Pages

World War 1 played a crucial role in aiding the movement for female equality in Canada, however, it also hindered it by contributing to the enforcement of gender roles in the workplace. Not one single event will end the constant battle women must endure in all aspects of life, though certain opportunities, such as the job opportunities received during the war, most certainly help women in the fighting of said battle. When numerous jobs were left open by men who were called to the front lines of the war, women were finally presented with the opportunity to work outside of their homes for the first time and provide for their families. Next, generous amounts of awareness of social change were brought to light for women’s contributions throughout

Read More
1170 Words | 5 Pages

The jobs were more varied than before as women were no longer being shielded from the war and its hardships. Many organizations did not allow for women to work as soldiers, but they were telephone operators in America, also known as “Hello Girls” (“Women During World War I”). Women were taking bigger steps towards equality and challenging the social norm of women being housewives by working the jobs traditionally meant for men, while successfully creating a stable Homefront and workforce for the war. There were still restrictions as women could not to work abroad or on board ships as they were not thought to be trained enough to be near battle (“Women During World War I”). Though not all women could work, others became volunteers, which was “of central importance to middle class women” (“Campbell”).

Read More
1680 Words | 7 Pages

These women worked in deplorable working conditions, for a ludicrous number of hours each week, and earned meager compensation. Although to modern readers, the women’s working conditions alone seem horrific, at this time, these conditions were far from uncommon across factories in

Read More
1002 Words | 5 Pages

The Liberation of Australian Women in World War Two World War Two (WWII), the war between the Allies and the Axis, is known as ‘the deadliest conflict in history’ because of the holocaust, the Japanese invasions and bombings, and the millions of prisoners of war. However, amidst all this destruction, WWII also brought about a new and better era for Australian women; an era of military, home and employment freedom. The male absence in the home during the war dramatically increased the female participation in traditional male roles. As a consequence, WWII was instrumental for the liberation of Australian women in the workforce, family life and agriculture as it empowered women, giving them a newfound freedom as well as a sense of achievement.

Read More
848 Words | 4 Pages

American Women during World War 2 had many responsibilities at war, work, and home. But they did not have many equal rights compared to the rest of the society. The women’s rights and responsibilities topic is very interesting. One is understanding and knowing the history about the responsibilities women had to do and how hard working they were. This topic is very important because there was a big change in women’s rights and responsibilities during World War 2.

Read More
1063 Words | 5 Pages

In the book written by (Gavin, 1997) it was cited that “As women took over from their absent men in hundreds of new and challenging occupations, many of which had previously been considered inappropriate”. From the beginning of the World War 1, the German women were participating a great deal. They contributed to half a million-people working on the munitions manufacturing alone (Gavin, 1997). It also mentioned in the book that over in the U.S, the men in charge refused to let the women participate up until April 1917 (Gavin, 1997). The U.S government never formally authorize the enrolment of women, despite Army officials repeatedly asking for such personnel’s.

Read More
1642 Words | 7 Pages

IDENTIFICATION AND EVALUATION OF SOURCES The focus of this investigation will be “To what extent was the cause of the switch of men to women being in the work force and face of propaganda in World War II?” Men were faced to go to war and women had to stay behind and essentially, do the job that the men had left behind. In which, women did not have the right to work and were supposed to stay home and be the housewife’s, but during this time period things took a switch, in which made it possible for women to start working. They had the opportunity to join the navy, army, and marines and even become doctors, nurses and many more careers.

Read More
746 Words | 3 Pages

Hundreds of thousands of females gained access to a wide range of jobs, such as working in engineering industries, offices, working as postal workers, and bus drivers. In addition, some women are taking on jobs in the war itself. Are women the ‘weaker sex’? Women’s contribution to World War I has made a positive impact on politicians and the general public.

Read More

More about Summary Of On Her Their Lives Spending By Angela Woollacott

Related Topics

Open Document