How did womens work change at home during the war? What about after the war ended?

The iconic image of women during World War II is that or Rosie the Riveter, a beautiful, powerful woman working in a munitions factory, making a muscle, and proclaiming We Can Do It. With the quick mobilization after the beginning of World War II, and the sudden rush to war after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, it was necessary to have all American citizens hands on deck. Men were recruited for the armed forces. Women were required to perform duties once solely relegated to men, and jobs that even before the war were said to be only capable of being performed by men. For example, More than 310,000 women worked in the U.S. aircraft industry in 1943, making up 65 percent of the industrys total workforce (compared to just 1 percent in the pre-war years) (Rosie the Riveter).

Of course, even before World War II, women had worked in backbreaking labor, in domestic...

But the Great Depression (when it was difficult for even men to find work) had increased resistance to the idea that women could work, because of fears women would take away mens paychecks. With near full employment during World War II, this was no longer the case. As well...…but work again became increasingly gendered, with higher-paying manufacturing jobs once again being characterized as mens work, rather than womens work. Statistically speaking, by the 1960s, women still were participating in higher numbers in the workplace than ever before (Women and Work).

But because more men had salaries that could support a family single-handedly, there was still pressure for women not to work, to downplay the significance of their work, or to find work inside rather than outside of the home, working around the schedules of their family (Women and Work). The fact that the ideal was women should not work was very damaging for women who wished to secure public recognition for their efforts…