Wartime Women: Gender Roles, Family Dynamics & Women's Status in WWII - Historical Study on Female Contributions | Perfect for History Classes, Feminist Research & WWII Book Collections

Does war affect the lives of the average citizen, not involved and not related to anyone in combat? The answer to that question, according to Karen Anderson, is "yes." This book concentrates on the experiences of female works living in Seattle, Detroit, and Baltimore during World War II. Anderson chose these three cities because they were boomtowns in different regions of the country that faced similar problems.Anderson argues that traditional values and sex roles remained extremely strong during the war. The conflict, though, did bring some limited change in the lives of women workers. Job opportunities increased as men went off to war while demand increased, particularly for married women. Inequities in pay and work conditions shrank as well. These increased economic opportunities increased the standard of living that women enjoyed in these three cities. These changes took place because these women did not seem like radicals and could argue that their efforts to get out into the work placed serviced another traditional value--patriotism.Anderson's research is deep and solid, and clearly supports her arguments. In the mark of a talented historian, she presents history as she finds, letting her subjects speak for themselves and avoids editorializing on or about these views. The problem is a detailed case study of three boomtowns is too narrow a study on which to make broad generalizations.