A. Plan Of Investigation:
The question investigated was, to what extent did women play a role in America’s industry during World War II. During World War II men began getting drafted and leaving home to go defend their country, by doing so they not only left their families behind but their jobs as well. In order to keep production and the economy moving, women began to replace the men and become part of the work field. The scope of this investigation was to research why and how woman began working in factories and taking over the production aspect of America. The method used was analyzing industry in America before and after World War II, taking note of the changes that came about during World War II, and mainly focusing on the women.
B. Analysis:
The first major event that occurred during World War II that changed the women’s role in industry began on September 1, 1939 when Germany invaded Poland. Soon after Britain and France decided to take action against the invasion and declared war on Germany. By September 3, 1939 World War II had begun and the Nazi’s goals to take over Europe had just begun (Beevor 11). Throughout the 1940’s Germany began invading counties in Western Europe and taking rein over them. In the months of March and June of 1940 Germany captured France, Denmark, Norway, Luxembourg, Netherlands, and Belgium. Having lost one of their major allies, (France) Great Britain was not as strong as it had been previously and was in need of help (Beevor 70). On December 7, 1941 hundreds of Japanese airplanes bombed Pearl Harbor, an American naval base, wounding and killing thousands of American soldiers. On December 8, 1941, after the incident President Franklin Roosevelt declared war on Japan and the United States officially became involved in World War II (Beevor 251).
In 1941 to 1942 production in America began to halt. The men that usually worked in factories went off to fight the war. This caused a decrease in the amount of man power needed in order to meet the quota for the weapons and war time equipment needed by America and their allies (Atwood 213). In order to fill these jobs and to continue production at the rate needed the government stepped in to take control of the situation. Throughout the early forte’s images of the “working women” began to emerge to encourage women to work in factories. On May 1943 on the “Saturday Evening post” a new “cover girl” emerged named Rosie the Riveter (Colman44). Rosie the Riveter was a form of wartime propaganda in order to get women who did not work to consider filling the jobs at the factories that man left behind. The government began recruiting women to work in industrial production, in order to make sure that America could produce items such as guns and airplanes to help fight the war. (Gluck 163).
C. Evaluation Of Sources:
The first source that was very vital to the investigation was A Century of Women by Sheila Rowbotham, published in 1997. The sources purpose was to show the reader...