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Comparing The Paradox Of Change And American Women During World War II

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Comparing The Paradox Of Change And American Women During World War II
Working skilled jobs during World War II greatly increased American women’s socioeconomic status by challenging the conventional image female behavior and by allowing women to earn wages. The historical investigation explored the types of jobs worked and salaries earned to analyze the altered stereotypes and monetary benefits that affected women during World War II. By doing so, the historical investigation determined that entrance into the workforce did indeed raise American women’s social and economic statuses and that the shift led to an increase in women’s activism.

The historical investigation evaluated two sources, The Paradox of Change and American Women and World War II, for origins, purposes, values, and limitations.

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Because the Germans and Japanese had a ten-year head start on producing weapons, the Allies scrambled to match the opposing side in a very short time. The men were already at war, so the country turned to the women. The backbone of the changes can be accurately summed up by the phrase, “production was essential to victory, and women were essential to production” (Weatherford, 116), and luckily for the country, women were eager to help (Weatherford, 117). The media began recruiting females through magazine ads depicting starving troops looking helplessly over the seas and through posters that declared, “Victory is in Your Hands” and “Shopgirl Attacks Nazis” to make women feel a part of the war (Weatherford, 117). The contributions were now regarded as important toward the country’s common …show more content…
However, a limitation was Weatherford’s heavy liberal views. Her work was not an objective source, making it difficult to distinguish facts from opinions. The value of the second source was that the book puts the women workforce during the war into perspective by reporting statistics from the time periods before and after. Nevertheless, it did have its limitations. Because the book told of the changes throughout the entire 20th century, only a small portion of its content pertained to women in World War II. The section that did discuss female contributions was quite limited and did not describe in-depth the changes of behaviour. Therefore, Weatherford’s American Women and World War II was the better source for the historical investigation simply because it provided more information that reached the depth needed for the

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