Chapter 3: White women working in traditionally female jobs in 1945-1950
Chapter 3: White women working in traditionally female jobs in 1945-1950
During World War 2, the labor market needed women to take over the jobs men left behind. Therefore, in advertisements, women were displayed as tool-makers, as drill-press operators, as the breadwinner of the house. During the war, advertising defined femininity through strong women who financially contributed to their households. Even though the number of women in the workforce kept increasing after the war, advertisements did not reflect this increase in number. Indeed, there was a decrease in the number of working women in advertising and women were usually depicted as homemakers. However, there was still a number of advertisements which depicted women in the workplace. These working women depicted in advertisements had traditionally female jobs.
Advertisements in post-World War 2 period demonstrated women as secretaries, waitresses, nurses, bookkeepers and other traditionally female jobs. Display of women in these advertisements constructs women’s role in the workforce and helps the target audience to relate certain occupations with certain genders.
Data on working women suggests that in 1950, about one third of women were employed. Ten most popular jobs for women, in a decreasing order, were operatives workers, clerical workers, secretaries, salesmen, teachers, bookkeepers, managers, nurses, telephone operators and laundry and dry cleaning operators. Even though managers made up one of the top ten occupations for women, advertisements did not reflect this and they focused more on traditionally female occupations of women. For example, although being a manager was more popular for women than being a nurse, advertisements portrayed women as nurses more than they did as managers.
What these traditionally female jobs and portrayal of women in advertisements in this period have in common is that they all reflect women in supporting and nurturing roles. Highlight of these characteristics for women in different contexts, helps constructing femininity. In this period of time, femininity is defined as submissive, supporting and nurturing (Hesse-Biber and Carter 2005) through advertising.
