Women enter the workforce
The picture above on the left-hand side depicts a woman working on an assembly line at an ordinance facility.
The neccessity for female work expanded the age range for who was eligible to work. Girls as young as fourteen and fifteen years old were now getting to work, and the same applied for older women at the opposite end of the spectrum. However, in the second half of the decade when the war was drawing to a close, the men returned home and replaced the women in the factories. This would not be the last time you see women in the workforce though. After working on assembly lines and in the shipyards during World War II, women gained a sense of individualism and independence, and they realized they were capable of doing jobs other than cooking and vacuuming. Women in the workforce today"In politics, If you want anything said, ask a man. If you want anything done, ask a woman."
― Margaret Thatcher In today's society, it is commonplace for women to graduate from college, and continue on to pursue jobs as doctors, lawyers, and politicians. Many women work outside the home --or even inside—for pay. According to the latest U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, "approximately 70.5 percent of mothers are now in the workforce" (Tossi). Some women may work because her family needs two incomes every month in order to make ends meet. Other women may choose to enter the workforce because they studied hard in school for years to earn a degree, and they want to test their capabilities.
Mothers that work full-time have the added stress of balancing their work, while still being involved in their children's lives. Especially if both parents work, mothers sometimes have no choice but to leave their children with a nanny or at a daycare center with strangers while they go to work. When working mothers leave the office, their day is far from over. They now have to transition into "mom mode," because as soon as they walk in the door, their children bombard them with questions about when and what is for dinner, and if they can have help with their homework. |
The picture to the left is of a woman on the production line in the process of making amunition
Josephine Von Miklos worked in an arms plant and a shipyard. She wrote about the need for constant attention to detail: “If your piece of steel is one-thousandth larger than it is designed to be, there will be too much powder—by a minute fraction—in the ring, and the fuse will go off too late. If your piece of steel is a thousandth too small, there will be a minute fraction of powder missing, and the fuse may go off too early. The shell will either not hit the enemy, or will hit your own lines. …There is no tolerance in tools like these. There is no tolerance in death.” (taken from her book, "I Took a War Job")
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