Women first began their entrance into the workforce during the era of World War II. On December 7th 1941, the United States entered the war after the Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbor. Japan launched a surprise attack on a U.S. naval base in Hawaii, in which they destroyed naval vessels, airplanes, and killed more than 2,400 Americans. The attack on Pearl Harbor united most Americans in agreeance to go to war finally, after remaining isolationist for so long. Though the lost lives, destruction of ships, docks, and airplanes were devastating, the attack was what the United States needed in order to be pushed into the war. A day after the attack, the declaration of war on Japan by Roosevelt had been approved by Congress, officially announcing the United States entrance into the war. This entrance into the war allowed for an abundance of jobs to open up, this including women: “Prior to Pearl Harbor, there were approximately 800 active duty naval nurses. By the end of the war, there were 10,000.” The war peak called for an abundance of new jobs, which allowed women for the first time truly to fill …show more content…
When men returned to home after the end of the war, many women were pushed aside and laid off to open places for the incoming men. Though women proved themselves in high positions, men still took priority. Once men returned back, the prejudice against women returned in heights: “It took the perspective that women should belong in the home, using their “inborn” gifts for nurture and motherhood, rather than performing wage labor.” Women were best fit to be wives, homemakers, and a respectable mother in the general perspective’s eyes. Women were once again seen as much less than men and were booted to the side to provide men with labor work. Though women were pushed to the side after the war, the chance to work in male roles allowed for new experiences and