Expanding Social Roles and Postwar Activism: 1938 to 1960

Description

Written in engaging and accessible prose by experts in the field, this reference introduces readers to the "hidden" history of women in America from 1938 to 1960, bringing their achievements to light and helping them gain the recognition they deserve. 

Chapters include:

• Arts and Literature


• Business


• Education


• Entertainment


• Family


• Health


• Politics


• Science and Medicine


• Society.

Sujets

• Histoire
• Women
• América
• History of the United States
• Woman
• Politics
• Activism
• The Women
• American
• United States
• History
• American History

Informations

• Publié par: Infobase Publishing
• Date de parution: 01 février 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781438183244
• Langue: English

Extrait

Expanding Social Roles and Postwar Activism: 1938 to 1960
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Contents Chapters Women in American History, 1938–1960 Women in Society, 1938–1960 Women s Health, 1938–1960 Women s Education, 1938–1960 Women in Politics, 1938–1960 Women in Science and Medicine, 1938–1960 Women in the Arts and Literature, 1938–1960 Women in Business, 1938–1960 Women in Entertainment and Sports, 1938–1960 Women and Family, 1938–1960
Chapters
Women in American History, 1938–1960

As the American economy continued its uneven recovery from the Great Depression in 1938, the federal government began turning its attention to rising tensions in Europe, Asia, and the Pacific, where German and Italian fascists and the Japanese Imperial Government were seeking to expand their power bases. The United States saw Japanese efforts to take over the Chinese territory of Manchuria and areas of Southeast Asia and Indochina as threatening American interests. After initially responding with economic sanctions, officials began negotiating a compromise with the Japanese. Although the United States was officially neutral, warring countries could purchase U.S. war materials if they paid at delivery and shipped the goods in their own vessels. Once the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, however, the United States entered World War II with a vengeance unmatched by any other war in American history.
At the same time the world was gearing up for war, the lives of American women underwent major changes in response to continuing industrialization, the Great Depression, and President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal programs. Both birth rates and divorces were down in 1938 because of the Depression, and families had become more hopeful about their futures. Women were finding their voices and expanding their roles in politics, education, entertainment, and industry at unprecedented levels. With the outbreak of World War II in 1941, women broke down even more barriers by proving that they could serve in the military and fill a variety of jobs left vacant by men at the front. After the war, some women dutifully returned to their homes and focused their attention on raising families, but others refused to be limited by what they saw as outdated images of women's roles.
U.S. Involvement in World War II
When World War II broke out in Europe, most Americans continued to adhere to isolationism, determined that the United States should not send another generation of men to fight in a war that did not directly concern Americans. Calls for direct aid increased once Germany occupied France and began heavy aerial bombings of Britain. President Roosevelt sought additional means to aid Britain as the tide of war turned against the Allies by repealing an earlier arms embargo in favor of a "cash and carry" policy allowing Allies to purchase arms. The Lend-Lease Act, in which Roosevelt traded American arms and equipment for the authority to establish American military bases in other countries, allowed the United States to become what Roosevelt termed an "arsenal of democracy." Convinced that American entry into World War II was only a matter a time, Roosevelt also began a military buildup and instituted the nation's first peacetime draft.
President Roosevelt also became involved in wartime diplomacy before U.S. entry. He secretly met with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and created a statement of postwar goals known as the Atlantic Charter, which was similar to President Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points introduced at the end of World War I. In addition to calling for an end to imperialistic aggression, Roosevelt called for the "right of all peoples to choose the form of government under which they will live," and the restoration of sovereign rights to those countries that had lost them. Roosevelt's core assumption that all people had a basic right to human dignity would have enormous implications for future generations of women around the world, since those rights were incorporated into the charter of the United Nations after Roosevelt's death.
Although the U.S. and Japanese governments were in ongoing negotiations, U.S. military advisors were alarmed by what they believed to be a likely possibility of Japanese attack. However, they lacked specific details regarding timing or locations. On December 7, 1941, which President Roosevelt later proclaimed was "a date which will live in infamy," several hundred Japanese planes launched from aircraft carriers off the coast attacked the U.S. Pacific Fleet based at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. U.S. losses included 21 warships and 165 planes, in addition to 2,338 lives. Pearl Harbor united most Americans behind U.S. entry into the war, and only Congresswoman Jeannette Rankin, a pacifist who believed that Roosevelt had deliberately provoked the Pearl Harbor attack, voted against American entry into World War II. The attack on Pearl Harbor resulted in widespread anti-Japanese fears, and thousands of Japanese-Americans, including scores of women and children, were removed from designated military zones on the West Coast and placed in internment camps. Once the United States entered the war against Japan, Germany and Italy declared war on the United States.
Women entered the workforce in large numbers during World War II, as symbolized by the figure of Rosie the Riveter. Many women worked in traditionally male occupations for the first time. The military branches began actively recruiting women, particularly nurses and airplane pilots. By 1943, there were 400,000 women serving in the U.S. military. According to some reports, as many as 625 females served as pilots. Although women were banned from combat, many women were involved in battles or taken as prisoners of war. African Americans also found work, and the federal government legally prohibited discrimination in the defense industry. Racial tensions remained, however, and race riots broke out in major cities. Many families relocated to the south and west in pursuit of defense industry jobs. Shifting urban dynamics often led to overcrowding, housing shortages, racial tensions, and rising rates of juvenile delinquency as war disrupted family life.
In response to government efforts to mobilize public opinion along with the economy, American women joined in support of the war, selling and buying war bonds, participating in scrap metal drives, and serving as civilian spotters along the eastern coastline and Gulf of Mexico. Women also became the guardians of coupon books, which were the result of mandatory rationing of goods such as sugar, gasoline, and meat. Women and children also did their part by planting "victory gardens" and observing "meatless Mondays" and "wheatless Wednesdays."
The military mobilization that had begun before U.S. entry into the war escalated rapidly after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Approximately 16 million Americans in the armed forces served during World War II. Women served in the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC), the Women's Air Force Service Pilots (WASPS), the Navy's Waves, and the Coast Guard Reserve Unit (SPARS). They also packed parachutes; performed reconnaissance duty; directed air traffic; and served as secretaries, nurses, and drivers and in a host of other supporting roles. World War II was the last war in which the U.S. military was segregated, leading many to claim that African Americans were fighting for democracy overseas, although they did not yet have it at home.
President Franklin Roosevelt and his military advisors first turned their attention to the war against Germany in Europe because they considered Adolph Hitler the most dangerous enemy. As part of Germany's pursuit of a two-front war in Europe, Hitler launched a massive invasion of the Soviet Union on the Eastern Front, including a winter siege of Leningrad. On the Western Front, Germany occupied France and instituted a campaign of devastating air raid bombings of the British Isles. Ultimately, Allied victories drove the German army out of North Africa, precipitating the end of Mussolini's rule and the 1943 surrender of Italy. After succeeding in a campaign of air bombings of Germany and its territories, the Allies launched Operation Overlord on D-Day, June 6, 1944, in a massive surprise attack on the beaches of Normandy, France, paving the way for the Allies to march across France and into Germany. Meanwhile, fighting in the Pacific cleared the way for the invasion of Japan. The United States also used air bombings and submarine warfare to cripple the Japanese economy and military production.
Allied troops liberated Paris, France, in August 1944, and began the march through Germany after repelling the last great German counteroffensive of the war at the 1945 Battle of the Bulge. Advancing Allied troops brought to light the extent of the Holocaust, which had killed approximately six million Jews. Germany formally surrendered on May 8, 1945, which was celebrated as V-E Day for the day victory was achieved in Europe, but the Japanese refused to surrender.
After the unexpected death of President Roosevelt on April 12, 1945, President Harry Truman made the difficult decision to use the newly created atomic bomb to force a Japanese surrender because military strategists believed that preventing a mainland invasion of Japan would save an estimated one million casualties to U.S. forces alone. On August 6, 1945, the plane Enola Gay dropped the first bomb on Hiroshima,