Yakich 1
Michael Anthony Yakich
Professor Harnack
September 13, 2012
Goff Essay #’er 2
Women During World War II

At the beginning of World War I women were fighting against the rights of equality. During the beginning World War I women were being classified by their gender, as well as the class system. It did not matter if women were righ or poor; women could not vote, own property or even take custody of their own children without permission from the husband which can be defined as “head of household”. There was a time where many thought that the war would have been decided by Christmas (Sachem 1). During the war’s early stages before there was a swarm of abled bodied men that enlisted, life for women carried on pretty normally. Many wives during this time maintained their roles as the happy housewife, keeping the house clean and writing their husbands letters for their safe return home. However, as the war continued and a higher number of men enlisted to go overseas, women saw their roles changing. In 1916, conscription was introduced. As time went on and the war progressed the government was seeing a major decline in the amount of people who would enlist to replace the high number of casualties in the Armed Forces. Many considered this to e controversial since it questioned civil liberties. As a
Yakich 2 result, those who refused conscription on moral grounds were treated like criminals. No longer playing the passive role at home, women rushed into that workplace relishing the opportunity to broaden their horizon into jobs that were naturally done by men (Sachem 1). For the longest time, women who had engaged in work outside home were subjected to criticism. It was not until the end of the Second World War that women began entering the workforce at an alarming rate. Before WWI, very few women would work outside their home. Many