The last key force was America’s involvement in War, which in the short term provided American women with work opportunity typically reserved for males, also paving the way for second wave feminism. Many women began working outside the home for the first time When America entered WWI in 1917, a male labour shortage, meant that women took over traditional male roles while they were at war. The Woman's Land Army of America, brought over 20,000 women to rural America, these "farmerettes" were paid wages equal to male farmers and an eight-hour working day protected them. 11,000 women, served abroad as nurses; others became ambulance drivers. For many, this provided an example of women mobilizing themselves. They challenged conventional thinking about gender roles which celebrated by many e.g. The Los Angeles Times proclaimed "farmettes" were “To turn new earth in history of the …show more content…
By 1918, around 3 million women were working employment rates of women increased from 23.6% in 1914 to about 40% in 1918. Similarly during World War Two, women became involved in war work. Women first filled administrative and clerical jobs to "free a man to fight." But soon women were serving in virtually every occupation except direct combat—in the motor pool, as radio operators and repairmen, gunnery instructors, mechanics, flight instructors, and in other advanced technical and scientific fields. Rosie the Riveter, became a symbol of female empowerment, a type of wartime propaganda and the symbol of work and sacrifice for millions. Rosie’s image epitomized the millions of American Women who supported the war effort by going to work in the defence industry, taking factory jobs typically held by men. Over six million entered the work force during the war making them one-third of the labour force and this number increased as the war escalated. Millions worked six days a week, forty-eight hours a week. Over four hundred thousand women left their domestic jobs and went to work in war