Women and Work: Changes and Challenges from World War I Through the Great Depression — Presentation Detail — Celebration of Scholars

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Additional Information

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Thomas Carr
Katherin Hilson
Kim Instenes
John Kirk
Sarah Terrill

Women and Work: Changes and Challenges from World War I Through the Great Depression

Name: Victoria Worden
Major: History
Hometown: Racine, WI
Faculty Sponsor:
Other Sponsors:
Type of research: Senior thesis

Abstract

The lives of women began to change with events such as World War I and gaining the right to vote. Women were now looking at their lives in a different way; there were new ideas of independence, education, work, marriage, and family. As these changes began to take place, the Depression hit. Many women still wanted to get jobs and there was now a greater need for them to be working as men were being laid off and not able to get jobs as easily as women. Married women in the workforce became a contentious political and social issue. Women working with families was another change that occurred because of factors relating to the Depression and created changes that affected the entire family. After WWI and during the 1920s women’s lives were changing. They were beginning to leave the home to get better jobs, better education, and they now had the right to vote. When the Depression hit those advancements women gained were challenged. They were blamed for taking men’s jobs, jeopardizing the family, and abandoning their proper place at home. Reading works by historians such as Lois Helmbold, Winifred Wandersee and others as well as first hand accounts, this paper discusses the changes women were experiencing at the end of WWI through the twenties and the challenges women’s advancements faced during the Depression.

Poster file