USA HISTORY

AMERICAN IMPERIALISM(1890 1919)

THE UNITED STATES IN WORLD WAR I

[SOURCES]
How did World War I impact women in the United States?

(A) Women received equal pay for equal work.

(B) Women were prohibited from working as Red Cross volunteers.

(C) ** Women worked jobs that had been held almost exclusively by men.

(D) Women no longer held traditional jobs such as nursing or teaching.

EXPLANATIONS BELOW

Concept note-1: -During WWI (1914-1918), large numbers of women were recruited into jobs vacated by men who had gone to fight in the war. New jobs were also created as part of the war effort, for example in munitions factories.

Concept note-2: -When America entered the Great War, the number of women in the workforce increased. Their employment opportunities expanded beyond traditional women’s professions, such as teaching and domestic work, and women were now employed in clerical positions, sales, and garment and textile factories.

Concept note-3: -Answer and Explanation: The end of World War I had a very negative effect on American women in the workplace. Returning soldiers not only took their jobs, but some even went on strike to force employers to fire the women who had been hired during the war.

Concept note-4: -With millions of men away from home, women filled manufacturing and agricultural positions on the home front. Others provided support on the front lines as nurses, doctors, ambulance drivers, translators and, in rare cases, on the battlefield.

Concept note-5: -Roughly 6.7 million additional women went to work during the war, increasing the female labor force by almost 50 percent in a few short years. 1 A large share of these new entrants worked in previously male-dominated jobs constructing aircraft, assembling muni-tions, and staffing a burgeoning federal service.