Chapter 2: Story of the working women in the U.S.

In U.S. labor history, World War 2 was a turning point for women. During the war, when men had gone off to fight, was when women started to participate more in the labor force and appear in the workplace in advertising. With men being gone, the labor market needed women to take over the jobs men left behind.

Once the war was over and men came back, women were laid off from traditionally male jobs, such as as tool-makers, drill-press operators or mechanics, and left with traditionally female jobs, such as secretaries, nurses or waitresses (Hesse-Biber and Carter 2005). Even though women were laid off of traditionally male jobs, they did not go back to working in the household. On the contrary, the number of women in the workforce continued to increase after the war (Hesse-Biber and Carter 2005).

Over the past 70 years, women’s participation in the labor force increased greatly. Immediately following World War 2, less than 30 percent of women were in the labor force. In 2015, 57 percent of women were participating in the workforce (U.S. Department of Labor 2015). In 2016, women made up nearly 50 percent of the labor force (US Department of Labor 2016). Although women are still clustered in traditionally female occupations, women’s participation in traditionally male jobs has increased throughout the years (US Department of Labor 2016).