OTOH ...... One should remember that while all these women joined the war effort work force, many stayed in the workforce after the war and thus were the spearhead of the liberal feminist movement.
Nope. Not buying that.
I'm not going to agree or disagree with this, but I will tell you a behind-the-scenes story. Y'all can judge for yourself.
My grandfather was an executive VP of Formica. Among other things, he had Personnel under his command. After the war ended, a representative of the Truman admin showed up, and told him that he had to fire all the women asap so that there would be jobs for the GI's coming back. Grandpa tried to resist; as it turned out, the women did a better job than the men in a lot of functions. However, the Feds said he had to fire all the women.
It just so happens that my future FIL was one of the GI's that came back and got one of those jobs-- he and a bunch of my inlaws. On the other hand, a mother of one of my best friends was one of the women let go. She was sincerely bitter and harbored ill feeling towards me clear up into the 80's. If memory serves me, she married a returning GI and became a house frau. I think that's what most women did. Mine did. Most everyone around me growing up was that way: Dad was a Vet; Mom stayed home and was happy to do so.
Did WWII start the Women's Lib movement? I dunno. My opinion is that most women stayed home and the real Women's Lib surge started as a result of the various recessions and such of the late 60's and early 70's. Around me, women started to get into the work force, because single-income households just were not cutting it anymore.
BTW: What did Formica make during WWII? Grandpa was exempted from the draft even though his own FIL, my Great-Grandpa had to register at age 54. Formica made, among other things, the table surfaces that X-Ray machines needed. They had to be absolutely free of X-Ray defects. Thousands were made during the war and shipped all over the place. All the tables came from a plant on Spring Grove Avenue in Cincinnati. I've had X-Rays done on those tables. They lasted for years. I recognized the material, because Grandma's dining room table was made out of a huge slab of the stuff. It was a factory reject, but in visible light, it was perfect. Grandpa had it cut and brought home as a present. I grew up living on reject Formica.
