World War II so often is hailed as women's big break in the workforce. With men off to war, women were recruited to fill in the formerly dominated jobs in industry and government. Women with math or science degrees were quickly swept up to help the war effort. Was this period of time really a breakthrough for women in the workforce or was it simply a tease that pointed out just how gendered science and technology are in the United States? I think that even though women constantly struggled to gain equal position with men, the World War II era did offer women opportunities to advance their position in the workforce.
As women took over traditionally male dominated jobs during wartime, the affects of feminization demonstrate the highly gendered workforce. In Jennifer S. Light's article "When Computers Were Women" she presents an interesting paradox that despite all the propaganda about women flooding the workforce, they were still hidden and their work was suppressed. Light states that, "While celebrating women's presence, wartime writing minimized the complexities of their actual work. While describing the difficulty of their tasks, it classified their occupations as subprofessional…they rarely received credit for innovation or invention" (456). A prime example Light uses is women's role in the ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer). As women filled the computing role in this technical industry, the reputation of this mathematical job became feminized. Although in the pre-war era this job had been viewed as a man's job, as women began to work at it, the high regard for this position diminished. Instead the man's job became the manager over these projects. Light says that, "popular accounts portrayed civilian jobs for women as appropriately feminine, "domestic" work for the nation—despite the fact they were formerly done by men."
Although it does appear that as women took to male dominated jobs the respect and credit typically given to men was not awarded women, the Wartime workforce experience was a necessary step to propel women into the workforce. Society of Women Engineers opened chapters on many university campuses with the goal of informing women of their capability and opportunities to become engineers. One reason that SWE was founded was to dismiss the belief that "girls often shied away from technical pursuits because they simply did not realize that women could go into engineering" (Bix). Since women's self-exclusion was an inhibitor of women's presence in the technical field, the media's call for women in engineering was an explicit invitation to them to join the workforce. In Light's article she cites the Department of Labor's Women's Bureau as saying, "The need for women engineers and scientists is growing both in industry and government…now is the time to consider your job in science and engineering." During World War II, the opportunity was opened for women to gain work experience in engineering fields. Even after men came back from the war, women had had a taste of participating in the working world. And this taste encouraged them to continue to fight for opportunities in the engineering work force, and also to know that they are capable of participating.
Although I agree that women did experience discrimination due to the sexual division of labor or the feminization of their roles as engineers during the war, I think that it was a beneficial experience that encouraged activism after the arrival of men.
Light (1999): "When Computers Were Women"
Bix (2004). “From “Engineeresses” to “Girl Engineers” to “Good Engineers”: A History of Women’s U.S. Engineering Education"
I agree with your ideas. I also thought of the quote where woman did not into the these fields and were therefore "self - excluding" themselves. To add on that I think that women were somewhat influenced by society as to what positions were regarded a feminized dutied and which ones society approved. I think that is also an important point. Other factors could be whethe they were encouraged to go into these fields to further theor education and again what where the careers that were approved by socirty they could follow.
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