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Changing Social Roles of Women, 1940-1970
Labor's Empowerment of Women during World War II
Carmen M. Ganser
Focus/Summary
The purpose of this lesson is to discuss with students the
changing roles of women's labor during World War II in the
United States. Women were called on to fill a number of
positions that opened up because of the burgeoning economy
that lifted the country out of depression at the beginning
of the 1940s. While many young men were called on or drafted
to fight in the European and Pacific theatres, women worked
in all types of occupations to supplement the war effort.
They worked in military positions, WACs, WAVES, and WASPs,
for example, as well as in converted defense plants building
tanks, ships, and planes. The War Department developed propaganda
to persuade women to take these types of jobs, and women
found themselves experiencing new feelings of independence
working in these opened fields traditionally occupied by
men.
Vital Theme and Narrative
Patterns
of Social and Political Interaction
Habits of Mind
· perceive past events and issues as they were experienced
by people at the time, to develop historical empathy as
opposed to present-mindedness.
· comprehend the interplay of change and continuity,
and avoid assuming that either is somehow more natural,
or more to be expected, than the other.
Objectives
Students will be able to identify the roles women played
in the work force during World War II.
Procedures
Opening the Lesson - Women's War Letters
Students will read the letters from Polly Crow and Emmaline.
What information about war work do these letters contain?
What responsibilities do these women have in their daily
lives?
How might their new responsibilities have differed from
ones they had a few years earlier?
What contributions to the war effort might these women have
made?
Developing the Lesson - Comparing Images
Students will complete analysis guides for Norman Rockwell's
painting "Rosie the Riveter" and J. Howard Miller's
"We Can Do It" poster.
Why might Norman Rockwell have painted this picture?
What type of women might Rockwell been trying to recruit
for war work?
How does Miller's poster appeal to women?
Concluding the Lesson - Real Women
on the Job
Students will discuss the picture of the riveter in Fort
Worth, Texas
Do you think this woman was lured to work by Rockwell's
and Miller's propaganda posters?
How does she retain her femininity? reimagine her femininity?
How might women in war plants and military positions have
felt in their new occupational positions?
Assessing Student Learning
Students will have gained an understanding, as evident in
their learned knowledge and active communication, of the
changing occupational roles of women in World War II and
how their newfound independence (physical and emotional)
contributed to the war effort both in the United States
and abroad.
Go to Lesson Plan:
"Image versus Reality: Women in the 1950s"
Return to Patterns of social and political
interaction home page
