What caused women's roles to change in World War ll and how did this effect females?
The changing roles of women in WWII had many causes, effecting females across Australia between 1939 and 1945 (Carrodus G, Delany T, Mcarthur K, Smith R, 2012). With more men across the country leaving their jobs to go to war, the government soon became desperate, employing women to be used as replacements to fill in for the soldiers while they were gone. This affected all females as going into these roles would mean they needed to give up their domestic jobs for the time being (Carrodus G, Delany T, Mcarthur K, Smith R, 2012). With more and more women changing into new positions, this made other women feel the need to do the same and the more females swapping to men jobs, the more feminine tasks were put off. The government then started to advertise this new role for women by using propaganda posters as this would be the most effective method. In this primary source (refer to poster on the right), the women are smiling, appearing to be happy, healthy and proud. It is clear that this would have been a very persuasive method (Carrodus G, Delany T, Mcarthur K, Smith R 2012).
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Above, is a range of propaganda posters that were used by the government during World War II to convince more women to help out by joining into these new positions.