Women During WWII Essay

During WWII many new job opportunities opened up to women. These opportunities were never opened to women due to the fact that these jobs were strictly for the men. Prior to WWII women were only allowed to do household duties such as cleaning, cooking and looking after the children. Back then they thought that women in the middle or upper class should not lower themselves to work for anybody. But with the number of war material increasing most women took that opportunity to work in the industries of the home front and join the armed forces.
At the time of WWII many of the men enlisted into the army having to leave their jobs vacant. With this happening the demand for planes, guns and other military goods were increasing. In the year of 1942

H Arnold approved the Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron and the Women's Flying Training Detachment. These groups were led by Jackie Cochran and Nancy Harness Love, these women were very skilled and talented. The purpose of the groups was to allow women to fly during WWII. These women tested aircraft, ferried aircraft and trained other pilots. In order for them to operate these planes they would have to go through a very long process. The first step was to get a civilian pilots license. With the license being so expensive some of the women had to get help from their families and others had no choice but to scrape up what they had. They flew every aircraft that was made for the military as long as they had a pilot's license. Even though these women flew military craft they were never granted military benefits nor proper military burials. These great women never got the recognition they deserved till decades later when they received the Congressional Gold

With this happening a lot of these women had to give up their wartime jobs so that the male employees could enter back into these industries again. They never wanted to give up their jobs, most of these women working in the wartime industry planned on keeping them. Majority of these women had to reposition themselves in the home-making jobs such as secretaries, waitresses, teaching, clerical positions and of course taking care of their children and husbands. After the war women gained a lot of respect from the men because they proved they could do anything that the men could do. As time went on women were introduced to new jobs that never existed before WWII they obtained many new skills. The job that was a big boom after the war was selling tupperware from home. Once this became a big thing it was a very good way for women to not only make money and provide for their families but also take care of their children and husband at the same time. This made them very excited because they knew that they would never have their families to make