Women After Ww2

After World War II the women of America had new choices and old problems facing them. They had the opportunity to be well educated, make their own informed choices about birth control. These same women who had won the semi-equality they had been fighting for, now must face their choices and be the best wife and mother they can be. Many women felt they were not meant to be only mothers and wives and tried to take matters into their own hands and some even remained single working women.

Parents, not only mothers of this period in America’s history had a great role to fulfill, they had to prepare their families for atomic warfare. Parents were told to love their children “with a never failing love, affection, and the assurance of being wanted...where neither father or mother should reign supreme.” (Pg.411) Girls were to be given the same opportunities as boys , and parents had to keep a strict sense of discipline children and let their abilities blossom and help then grow in social behavior. To these parents to grow in social behavior. Children who behave were a direct reflection on their parents even more so their mothers.

In the time after World War II many people believed in a very idealistic idea of what the world should be. They believe that even potential parents should be skills in parenting and trained to be a good parent. (Pg. 412) All of these potential needs parents may need one day sound like a great idea, if you wanted to be a wife and mother and happy homemaker. Many women of this time had enjoyed “an education identical with that of her brother” and “ expect to be allowed to select any kind of work for which she has inclination and training...and expects to marry.” (Pg. 412) This was the real beginning of the modern working women. These forward thinking women enjoyed freedom their own mothers and grandmothers had only previously dreamed of. These modern women could decide where to live, when and who to marry and whether to stay married as well as new contraceptive which allowed a new ability, family planning. (Pg. 412)

The women who chose to work and have families encountered a new problem, the demand of their constant energy and attention. (Pg.413) Women against working mother took the case that the home will take second position and that daycare or other supervision does not substitute for the love and care of a mother who will end up “deeply in conflict and only partially satisfied in either direction....which is essentially a denial of her femininity”(Pg.414) A women was not supposed to feel dominance in the family but feel that “ a husbands love and children are to them the entirely adequate answer” (Pg. 414) This new breed of working women and mothers felt they had to make a choice and were made to feel like they were failing their families if they weren’t their first choice. (Pg. 415)

The choices all of a sudden thrown at a generation of young women