What kinds of jobs were available to woman before WWII? *
By Tae H. Kim
Before the World War I, women typically played the office of the homemaker. Women were judged by their dazzler rather than past their ability. Their position and condition were directed towards maintaining the annual duties of the family and children. These duties consisted of cleaning and caring for the house, caring for the young, cooking for the family unit, maintaining a yard, and sewing clothing for all. Women had worked in textile industries and other industries as far back as 1880, but had been kept out of heavy industries and other positions involving whatever real responsibility. Merely before the war, women began to break away from the traditional roles they had played.
As men left their jobs to serve their country in war overseas, women replaced their jobs. Women filled many jobs that were brought into existence by wartime needs. As a event, the number of women employed greatly increased in many industries. In the U.S. in that location were, before the war, over viii million women in paid occupations. After the war began, not just did their numbers increased in mutual lines of work, but every bit one newspaper stated, "At that place has been a sudden influx of women into such unusual occupations as bank clerks, ticket sellers, elevator operator, chauffeur, street car conductor, railroad trackwalker, section hand, locomotive wiper and oiler, locomotive dispatcher, block operator, describe span attendant, and employment in machine shops, steel mills, powder and ammunition factories, airplane works, boot blacking and farming."[1] Many of these women were married, and some were mothers whose husbands or older sons had gone to front end. Women were also seen equally vital resources for wartime aids, and various wartime slogans such as "You should aid nation in the war"[2] and "Everyone has to be a helper"[3] emphasized patriotism and created the environs for women's active interest in many industries. By looking through various newspapers including the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and the Seattle Times, dated from 1917 to 1918 as my main primary sources for the research, I began to understand the part that women played during World War I.
A. General feminine jobs
Even though many women were in loftier need for industries where previously men were dominant, long-established feminine jobs were even so common during the state of war. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer and Seattle Times had a total listing of open positions for general housework and other general domestic jobs. The war really created more domestic jobs considering many women who worked in factories and exterior their homes were non able to care well enough for their children. Assistance wanted ads and situation wanted ads looking for general housework were very like shooting fish in a barrel to find in newspaper "assistance wanted" sections. Ads such equally: "Widow: 40; very adept appearance, whose only back up has gone to state of war would like some light work to aid out"[4] and "Wanted – Reliable neat school daughter to assistance full general housework. Nice domicile"[5] were bear witness for the fact that there were many women, regardless of age and status, who were willing to piece of work, either to help nation to win the war or to sustain the life of their family in absence of their husband and father.
B. Increment in war emergency jobs
As more than and more men were drafted and had to leave their jobs, the U.S. government and various industries were seriously looking for female workers who could supervene upon their men'due south jobs. Peculiarly during 1917 and 1918, in that location were a vast number of demands for female person stenographers, telegraphers, and phone operators. The Women's Defense League was too placing a lot of effort to fill the gap. Potential telegraphers had to larn the code through memorization or by familiarizing themselves to carry out their work efficiently. Ane newspaper wrote, "Women are more apt than men in this line of work."[vi] The various railroad companies of the country employed hundred of capable women operators, because they were known to exist not only proficient, simply also dependable. In many newspapers, ads looking for stenographers and other clerical works were increasing over time. In "situation wanted" sections of the newspapers, 2 thirds of the total ads were looking for female stenographers, an example existence, "Thoroughly competent bookkeeper, cashier, and stenographer, six years with terminal firm in charge of books and collections, desire position of responsibleness."[7] Evident in this ad, women were willing to have more responsible jobs and were becoming not just a substitute labor strength, simply skillful workers. The government was likewise in need of thousands of wartime positions open to women to piece of work equally government clerks, stenographers, and telegraphers.
C. Red Cross, Patriotic League, and YWCA
Organizations such as the Red Cantankerous, Patriotic League, and YWCA also made efforts in supporting wartime hardships that the nation might face up. The Scarlet Cross organized non-professional person women to assist in relief piece of work. To help the state of war attempt, many women joined the Red Cross as nurses. While they were in the Red Cross, they rolled bandages, knitted socks, and worked in military hospitals. Almost of the women were wives and mothers of soldiers of all classes. The Cherry Cross war council likewise created a women's bureau, which appointed a national advisory committee of women that made an try to recruit every bachelor woman in the campaign to make adequate funds and supplies. Women in the Reddish Cantankerous were also helpful in recruiting men who had non joined the war. 1 method was past showing a man in civilian dress with white feathers as a mark of cowardice. Another method was past making women speak at public meetings, encouraging others to take aught to practice with men who had not joined the war. Women also went over seas as members of the Voluntary Assist Disengagement of the Red Cantankerous. Volunteering brought them out of the house and into the public. Women had no trouble filling the gaps left by men who went to war. The Red Cross continued to encourage many women to join the Cherry Cantankerous past proverb "Information technology's the patriotic duty of every man, adult female, and kid to join the Red Cantankerous. Why expect to exist asked? Be a volunteer."[8]
The Patriotic League also organized girls for wartime activities. A co-operative of the Patriotic League, the National Organization for Girls, which was active in social service work and state of war services. It was organized in Seattle in 1918 to organize the metropolis's patriotic girls for real state of war activities. An editorial slice in the Seattle Argus newspaper covered the story of young girls who had donated bed shirts to the Red Cross with the coin that they had made at work. One article pointed out that, "Hundreds – Probably thousands are doing their utmost to help win the war. They are the individual soldiers."[9] Girls and women were soldiers armed with patriotism and hard work.
The Immature Women Christian Association'due south northwestern field commission was also concerned with the needs of the war. The committee occasionally discussed the great increment in the duties of employment agencies of the YWCA because of the war. In those discussions they came to the conclusion that preparation girls to take the place of the men was necessary. One newspaper wrote, "The necessity of training girls to accept the place of men, and as well work in connection with the hostess houses at Camp Lewis, Vancouver barracks and Bremerton, has made equally many demands upon the Northwest."[10] Further advancement in the evolution of women's work was strengthened by the withdrawal of millions of men from the American industry.
D. Not-traditional jobs
Earlier the wartime, it was unusual in this country for women to enroll in higher courses of mathematics because the women's function wasn't to work in male dominated industries. Therefore, getting college education and obtaining specific skills wasn't a common road that most women followed. During Earth War I, however, women worked in near every field of industry. Newspapers started to cover more women'south work related articles, aid ads, and spoke out about women's great successes in education, sports, and various other areas in lodge. There was the example of an Argentinean woman who had go a ceremonious engineer, and was praised in U.South. newspapers, showing the development of women'due south statuses visible through the period of state of war. Women were replacing men'south job such every bit railroad workers, auto drivers, and other machine operators. One newspaper noted that 4,000 women were working for the Pennsylvania Railroad. "In five months, the number increased from 1,494 to 3,700."[11] Ane newspaper I read had several articles about women railroad workers' accounts. Some of them discussed the need for women workers on the railroads, whereas some of the articles were talking about the disagreement betwixt employers and women employees due to the unequal pay and poor working conditions, even though they performed the aforementioned type of jobs that men had done before they went to the war. Women were, "wielding picks and shovels on the American Railroad because of shortage of men for work."[12] Some women rails workers also maintained the roadbed of the Pennsylvania Railroad between New York and Pittsburgh. The President of the company, "…testified before the Interstate Commerce Commission, gave this example of the difficulties the railroads faced in holding their men (due to the draft)."[thirteen] Women also held many jobs besides working in factories that were traditional men'south' work. They assumed positions of doctors, lawyers, bankers, and civil servants. Harvesting grain, running businesses, and driving trucks were all common jobs for women to accept. Because of the war demands, the role of women changed and they had new attitudes.
Working conditions of female person workers
By the late 1918, so many men went to war that women had to have over their jobs. Labor unions fought hard against hiring women in factories. Women were paid one-half the wages of men and worked in conditions that were sometimes dangerous and unhealthy. In munitions plants, acrid fumes from high explosives damaged workers' lungs. In addition, it also turned their pare bright yellow. Thousands of women worked long hours filling shells with explosives. Adventitious explosions were always a hazard. Fiddling effort was made to ease the change from working in the habitation to the work identify. Few employers provided childcare for working mothers or even set aside toilets for female workers. Female person workers were besides less unionized than male workers, "This was considering they tended to practise part-time work and to work in smaller firms, which tended to be less unionized."[14] Also, existing unions were often hostile to female workers.
Feminist pressure level on established unions and the formation of separate women'southward unions threatened to weaken men-just unions. Still, women's unions began to grow, "The National Women'south Merchandise Union League representing 150,000 organized working women accept met together for counsel and for action."[xv] All the same, the war did not raise women'southward wages. Employers got around wartime equal pay policies past employing several women to supervene upon one man, or by dividing skilled tasks into several less skilled stages.
Military auxiliary jobs
A. Nursing
Immature women and girls worked as nurses during World War I. Help wanted ads looking for nurses increased equally days passed by, "Girl: 16 years, wants a position equally a nurse."[sixteen] When the United States entered World War I in Apr 1917, the Navy had 160 nurses on active duty. Over the next twelvemonth and a half, this number increased more than eight-fold as the Nurse Corps expanded to meet the state of war'due south demands, "Growth was gradual, with 345 Navy Nurses serving by mid-1917, 155 of them members of the U.S. Naval Reserve Force."[17] Young women volunteered to join the Voluntary Assist Detachment (VAD) and First Help Nursing Yeomanry (FANY). VAD's came from a variety of backgrounds: cooks, domestic servants, laundry workers etc. Their medical training was basic, but the fact that they went to the war zone meant that they could help badly wounded soldiers and requite them bones medical treatment. VAD's did not get paid, as it was a voluntary date. Those who joined the FANY's had a less thrilling time than VAD'due south. They had to drive an ambulance and run soup kitchens for the soldiers and helped to organize baths for those soldiers given some time off from the front line.
B. The Women's Country Army
With so many men away fighting, someone had to bring in the harvests and keep the farms going. The regime decided that more women would have to become more involved in producing food and goods to support their war effort. The Women's Country Army played a crucial role in doing this when the men who would usually work on the farms never returned or returned disabled from the war. One of the comments made by women in the WLA was that, "Their anxiety were never dry even in dry weather - simply considering they had to work early in the morning time and the dew on the grass would enter the boots through the lace holes."[18]
C. Factory Workers
Some of the most important piece of work washed by women was in the ammunition factories. With the young men away fighting, this very important piece of work was done by women. It was very dangerous to work with explosive chemicals because information technology meant that 1 explosion in a manufactory could trigger many other ones. Not only women worked in ammunition factories but they besides worked as power automobile operators and in naval station machine shops as well. One example beingness, "Authority to employ women for work in the various shops at the navy yard has been received from Washington D.C. and according to commandant of the naval station, the bulk of i,000 employees for store work, for whom calls are now out, will be women."[19] They were used to some extent in all of the shops, but most of the time the women employees worked in the mechanism, supply, and public works departments. Other manufacturing industries were also in need of female person power machine operators due to the lack of male workers. In attempt to supply more than skilled female person workers into factories, schools had been set up to railroad train women in upholstering, trimming, and other work calling for skilled operatives. One factory manager was quoted equally saying, "Women were seen as quick learners and that in some departments they are more efficient than men, although those departments have been employing men exclusively for years."[20]
Determination
World War I was to give women a chance to bear witness a male-dominated gild that they could do more than than simply bring up children and stay at domicile. In Globe State of war I, women played a vital role in keeping soldiers equipped with ammunition and in many senses they kept the nation moving through their assist in diverse industries. With so many young men volunteering to join the army, and with and then many casualties in the state of war, a infinite was created in employment and women were called on to fill these gaps. World War I was to prove a turning point for women. Before the war, women had no socio-economic power at all. By the end of the state of war, women had proved that they were simply every bit important to the war effort as men had been. Women found employment in transportation including the railroads and driving cars, ambulances, and trucks, nursing, factories making ammunition, on farms in the Women's Land Ground forces, in shipyards etc. Earlier the war, these jobs had been for men only with the exception of nursing.
As time passed past, I could see the progress how women began to earn a dandy deal of respect through their agile participation in labor and order during the wartime crisis. The views seen and the voices heard through these old newspapers that I researched showed a articulate trend of a more broad and accepting women'south role in America. Women finally had the opportunity to show the world that they had simply as much to contribute and had the right to accept on as much responsibility as the men.
Bibliography
General Readership Newspaper
Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Microfilm editions from 1917 to 1918: Suzzallo library UW.
Seattle Times. Microfilm editions from 1917 to 1918: Suzzallo library UW.
Seattle Argus. Microfilm edition for a year of 1918: Suzzallo library UW.
Washington Standard. Microfilm edition from 1915 to 1918: Suzzallo library UW.
Labor and Radical Paper Co-operative News. Microfilm edition from 1914 to 1918: Suzzallo library UW.
Northwest Labor Periodical. Microfilm edition from 1914 to 1918: Suzzallo library UW.
Seattle Marriage Record. Microfilm edition for a year of 1918: Suzzallo library UW.
Secondary Sources
http://world wide web.bbc.co.u.k./history/war/wwone/women_employment_02.shtml. Accessed May 10, 2003
http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/prs-tpic/nurses/nrs-e.htm. Accessed May 19, 2003
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Wland.htm. Accessed May 19,2003
http://world wide web.nurse-at-war.org. Accessed May 23, 2003.
Footnotes
[1] "Protecting the working mothers" Seattle Matrimony Tape. Apr 24, 1918
[2] "Slogan" Washington Standards. July 20, 1917
[three] "Slogan" Washington Standards. April 5, 1918
[4] "State of affairs Wanted-Female" Seattle Daily Times. June fourteen, 1918
[5] "Female person Help Wanted" Seattle Daily Times. August i, 1917
[half-dozen] "Find women are apt" Seattle Post-Intelligencer. June 24, 1917
[7] "Situation Wanted Advertising" Seattle Postal service-Intelligencer. June 16, 1917
[8] "Cherry-red Cantankerous Slogan" Northwest Labor Journal. May 25, 1917
[nine] "These girls are doing their durndest." Seattle Argus. March 30, 1918
[x] "YWCA plans for war piece of work" Seattle Union Record. Apr 26, 1918
[11] "Do they get men's pay?" Co-operative News. December 20, 1917
[12] "Women on railroad" Seattle Post-Intelligencer. November 27, 1917
[thirteen] "Women picks on railway roadbed" Seattle Postal service-Intelligencer. Nov xvi, 1917
[xiv] "http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/war/wwone/women_employment_02.shtml" Accessed May 10, 2003
[15] "Organized working women to meet in convention" Northwest Labor Journal. May 4, 1917
[16] "Help Wanted Ads" Seattle Post-Intelligencer. June 16, 1917
[17] "http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/prs-tpic/nurses/nrs-eastward.htm" Accessed May 19, 2003
[18] "http://world wide web.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Wland.htm" Accessed May 19,2003
[19] " Women to work in Naval Station machine shops" Seattle Daily Times. June xxx, 1918
[xx] "Women prefer non to wear overalls at work" Seattle Mail service-Intelligencer. December 2, 1917
©2003 Tae H. Kim
Source: https://depts.washington.edu/labhist/strike/kim.shtml
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