How did womens roles change from WW1 to WW2?
During WW!, a lot of women took over jobs that had been vacated by men, workig in heavy industry, in munitions, in farming and forestry and on the railway sand the buses etc. Professsional women found new opportunitites in managerial positions etc. The competence of women in filling these jobs impressed the goverment of the USA, the UK, Germany etc, and influeced their decision to give women the vote after the war. The 1920s was an era when there was generally a decline in interest in careers, education, social issues etc among women. The ‘New Women’ of the pre-WW1 era, who had been keen on education, careers and social reform, seemed stuffy and old-fashioned to the fun-loving flappers of the 1920s, who were more interested in having a good time, drinking and smoking and dancing and going out with men without chaperones etc. The idea of staying single to purssue a career seemed very unappealing to most young women of the 1920s. A great many women had to work for a living of course, but
