World War as an Agent of Change for British Women - Research Paper Example

World War as an Agent of Change for British Women The world of today has evolved from a lot of pleasant and horrible occurrings of the past. All things whether good or bad have contributed to a great extent towards the way the life is being led in the twenty first century. World wars are among such events which changed the course of future of the world. Both the world wars had drastic impacts on all spheres of life be it; social, political or economic. The world wars acted as agents of change in several different arenas. The world’s economic dynamics changed, as the different countries had to emerge from the fiscal depression that wars created during the years of conflict. Political dynamics changed, as once the wars were over the world was clearly divided into different blocs, with countries having similar ideologies bunching together. Socially there were many changes that were brought about by these wars. For instance, people moved into urban centers from the rural ones. The rise in industries to meet the needs quickened the rate of urbanization. Another great social change brought by the wars was work opportunities for the minority groups in countries like America. People belonging to minority ethnicities and races stood up to work shoulder to shoulder in the defense arena, so that the needs of the hour can be met and everyone had to play their part in achieving this goal. The wars not only changed the power dynamics but the gender dynamics as well. Women all over the world got an opportunity to prove themselves during the years of wars. After the wars were over, they acted as a mechanism of change for the women’s social status. The times were demanding and desperate, such circumstances compelled men to make way for women in all walks of life. The treatment started to differ and a marked change from pre – war era was noticeable. Status of British Women before the Wars In the time before the wars, patriarchy was a common feature in the British society. Women were considered inferior to men and therefore their treatment was based upon this belief of inferiority. Generally, British women were expected to be experts only in areas such as wife-hood and mother-hood. They were responsible to take care of the household matters and to raise children in the correct manner in accordance with the social standards of that time. They were given minimal rights and their representation at organizational level was limited as well. Pre-World War women were not considered as smart and clever as men so they did not have the jobs that men did. An average woman would usually spend her day taking care of her children, nurturing them, cleaning the house and cooking for the family while her husband went to work and earned. To the women at that time, their families were very important. Even though women wanted to be treated equally as men, they were subservient to their men and limited and defined themselves to their homes and the chores they did around the house. [Ans] Young girls followed the footsteps of their mother, so it was not considered important for them to go to school and acquire education. Despite being the caretakers of the household, women had no say in any of the matters. This was true for all household, regardless of their financial standing. If a poor man chose to send his children to the 'poorhouse', the mother was legally powerless to object her husband. [Ans] Some woman did pursue their careers in the 18thcentury; the women would study to become doctors, lawyers, preachers, teachers, writers and singers. However, instead of seeing a rise in women’s status, 19th century saw a decline in their status. Women were again limited to factory labor and domestic work. The only professions they were allowed to pursue were writing and teaching. Textile and clothing trades were also believed to be 'women's work' as these industries utilized far more women than men. (Adams, 1978) Not everything was bad for women before World War I. Some communities did let the women act as lawyers in courts. Women could take somebody to court for property and they could even own property in their own names if their husbands agreed. [Ans] Just before 1914, few countries like New Zealand, Australia, and several Scandinavian nations gave women the right to vote; but with the exception of these countries there was slight or no female involvement in the political process. (Adams, 1978) World Wars as Agent of Change for British Women Change in Economic Status World Wars marked a significant change in the status of women as far as economic arena of the British society was concerned. During the years of the wars women not only played significant civilian roles but vital military as well. The extent to which the change happened was by all means limited but on the other hand the change was happening. According to the article, “Women in the Home Front in World War One” by Professor Joanna Bourke, the war offered numerous employment opportunities for the women which were not present before. The chance of women getting into paid formal labour market increased during those times. From the years 1914 to 1918 around two million women replaced men in the employment sector of the economy. [Pro11] This constitutes as a significant change because previously women were subjected to domestic work only and they had limited representation on the industrial sector. With men moving on to join military, women got a chance to work in the factories and industrial plants. Women were now presented with a wide variety of work choices as compared to earlier times. “From the 19th century to 1911, between 11 and 13 per cent of the female population in England and Wales were domestic servants. By 1931, the percentage had dropped to under eight per cent.” [Pro11] The number of women opting for civil services also rose considerably, from 33,000 in 1911 to 102,000 in 1921. These figures are evident that war opened up new vistas for women in British society. They could now earn higher wages than before, can opt for diverse jobs and therefore can enhance their standards of living and can strengthen their own social standing. It was not only the industrial or clerical work that opened up for women during and after war years. Professions such as medicine also became accommodating for the women. Firstly, they worked as nurses or paramedics but slowly n gradually worked their way up on the professional ladder. In the olden days, women belonging to British society were completely shunned from professions like these and it was because of the wars that these changes were brought about. It is not the case that after the wars were over there was drastic improvement in the treatment of women in the workforce, it was rather a slow process. It was not until 1975 that law was made against discrimination in the workforce on the basis of sexuality. But the process of change can be traced back to the days of wars. To sum up the changes, which were set in motion in the economic arena for British women, it would be unfair to discredit the other side of the story. According to the critics the changes brought about by these wars were illusory and short lived. Skeptics claim that it was only during the war years that women got a chance to get economic independence, once the wars were over, the situation reversed to the prewar days. They say stereotyping of women still existed and once men were back from war, they needed their jobs back, which created a lot of frustration directed towards women. [Sop11] Whether the new economic position of women after war was short lived or not, should not be the focal point. What matters is the fact that, British women over a period of time gained economic freedom and increasing opportunities and the beginning of the change was these wars. The role of world wars as an agent of economic change cannot be declared the direct influence but rather a modest one. [Gol91] Change in Social Status When we talk about wars, we can only think of men fighting against men on battlefields, in the sky or at sea. We forget that behind the scene there are thousands of people working who makes it possible for those men fighting on the front. These people contribute in the continuous process of providing food and ammunitions. With all the men fighting in the wars, the factories and other industries became under staffed. All the men engaged in warfare lead to a constant fall in the production. Only those men who could not be a part of the war or those who could not take part because of health or age were working in these factories. Now women realized that they could earn a lot by working in factories. This opportunity was not present for them before the outbreak of the war. This was when the governments refused women to take part because of the trade unions, which thought that women were weak and inferior to men, hence, could not take such a kind of employment. They thought that these roles were supposed to be masculine, therefore, only the men strength can take up such jobs. However, they were being inconsiderate of the fact that the men were up at the front, fighting. The other problem to which they rose was that, women should not earn as much as the male counterparts, hence, the jobs were not appropriate for them. The other reason why the government was being hesitant about women working was that they feared that if the women would start working so the life at home will be neglected. Children would suffer, household chores will be disturbed and husbands would not be taken care of. Hence, the family life will be shambles. Eventually, the government had to relent because of the sheer amount of male volunteers into the armed forces. This lead to the government signing up a registration of employment for men and women between the ages of 18-65. This was in regards to the work related to the war. December 1941 was when Britain had made history. This happened when they introduced the National Service act no two. According to this act, it was not only the war work, which was made compulsory for women, but Britain became the first nation in the world to conscript women. This increased the status of women. The tasks, which were once expected of men to do, now the women, were assigned to do. This was mainly to speed up the productions in the factories; hence, the women were made to do the work on the factory floor. It happened for the first time that women were operating heavy machinery, turning lathes, stoking boilers. They made the supplies of the battlefields. These included airplanes, shells and tanks. The men were now dependent on the women for providing the warfare arms. With the rumbling of the war, women started working for 80 hours a week. However, in the aircraft factories, they were expected to work between 100-120 hours every week [Joc12]. Change in political and ideological status Since centuries, the role of women was summed up and circumscribed by three ‘K’ words. These included Kinder (children), Kirche (church), and Kuche (kitchen). Women have gradually won victories in their quest for equal rights throughout the twentieth century. It all started when in 1919 they received the right to vote in Germany. Women remained in the workforce in the east. Women’s participation in the economy was mandated by the Soviet-style system. The government opened up vocational and educational opportunities for women. By the 1950’s family and marriage, laws were also re-written. This was done in order to accommodate working mothers. Abortion was legalized. The State funded it in the first trimester of the pregnancy. An extensive system of day care network for the children was put up. This permitted the women to be both mothers and workers. Women in the east entered higher educational institutes, emancipated ‘from above’ for economic and ideological reasons. After seeing so much progress in the eastern part of Europe, the women of the western part started demanding after several decades of conforming to traditional social patterns. There protests proved to be successful and eventually they were granted majority of the rights [Lew12]. Until the mid 1800’s women were regarded as inferior as and less important than men were. These people believed that home was the perfect place for women. This gave rise to an ideology which is popularly known as feminism. Their beliefs have existed throughout the history. It was in 1800 and 1900 that feminism grew to power. After growing into power, they won a number of new rights for women. This became a turning point in the history of society. Initially, the feminist movement concentrated more on gaining legal equality. This included the right to vote which was called suffrage. This right was obtained during the early 1900’s. Moreover, the feminist movement nearly disappeared after increasing numbers of women entered the labor force. The factor, which created a revival of the feminist movement, was that the high paying jobs were closed to women. There were a couple of organizations, which fought to end educational and job discrimination against women. One of the organizations was the National Organization for Women (NOW). Large numbers of women entered law, medicine, politics, business, and other traditionally male fields. They also worked for wider availability of birth control information and legalized abortion. Men and women were called to share childcare and other family related responsibilities (The World Book Encyclopedia p 71-72). Hence, we can see how the roles of women have evolved since the World Wars. Initially they were treated as no more than servants/ slaves of men. Men would treat women merely as sex objects. All women were bound to do was look after the house, children and satisfy their men. However, later when the world was falling apart, women only saved the men. It is still a norm for women to stay at home, but now they are increasingly moving into the public spheres of paid work and are contributing largely to skilled jobs and national decisions [Mar11]. Bibliography Ans: , (Answers Corporation), Pro11: , (Bourke, 2011), Sop11: , (Sophie, 2011), Gol91: , (Goldin, 1991), Joc12: , (Jock), Lew12: , (Lewis), Mar11: , (Mare, 2011), Read More