What would the world be like today if post WW2 women kept their jobs?

[Inlaw]

Inspired by the ballerina/ trad wife rabbit whole thread; I ended up down another warren.

That when the workforce had been replaced by women during WW2; they were then replaced by men again after. Often against their preference.

I knew that but I didn’t know that America went a step further and actually subsidised 1950s women to stay at home to encourage them out the workforce.

What would life be like if we had stayed? This seems like a potentially pivotal moment to me.

Would feminism / equality in the workplace be further along than it is now. Or would we have just ended up in another war because we had a surplus of a lot of unhappy unoccupied men.

Anyone ever thought about this?

Very interesting question. Potentially yes women could have overcome a lot of the challenges we are still facing. Although there will always be backlash and if it hadn’t been that it would have been something else.

I certainly think a lot of the rhetoric that drives the idea that it’s better for a woman to remain at home is rooted in that era and that time played a strong role in imprinting the “template”.

It’s also worth noting that a lot of the pressure on women to remain at home in the postwar period was driven by status as opposed to any concrete idea that it was better for the children. My own grandmother, who was born just before the First World War, got a double first degree from Cambridge in the 30s and was basically forced not to work by my grandfather because he thought it would undermine him if his wife went out to work. A lot of men considered having a SAHM wife as a status symbol because of what it signalled to the world about his earning potential.

Most of the women in work during WW2 were not doing the same jobs men had done - the jobs were diluted or decomposed protect men's work (unions argued for this) eg women would do 50%.

So unless this what been rectified at some point women would have been working just as hard at jobs that had artificially been declassified compared with men's jobs (and paid less).

Many of the women working in wartime were doing work that was not needed in peacetime - ATS, WAAFs, WRNs, munitions, aircraft factories etc. Those jobs no longer existed, so they couldn't have stayed in them.

And of course many working class married women always had worked, it just tended to be under-recorded
and
Women's employment varied enormously from region to region depending on the local economy. In the Lancashire cotton mills, the workforce was predominantly female. And in seaside resorts, a huge number of women ran boarding houses.

I think the women's movement would have happened anyway, it was starting to happen before WW2, but agree that it opened many women's eyes to the opportunities they could have. My granny worked in engineering during the war and loved the money she was able to earn having been brought up in poverty in a tiny rural village. it was beyond her wildest dreams!
I think the powers that be conspired against us though and got their own back in the end, so now women have to work just to keep a roof over their heads, thereby removing our choices again. It's such a shame that so many can't afford to stay at home with their children when they really want to.

This is very interesting. My nan worked as a nurse during world war 2. After the war she married my grandad and was a farmer for the next 60 years. Also raised six other children besides my dad who was a g.i. baby. Very stubborn headstrong lady, but very much loved

My mum was in the Land Army, then a munitions factory and straight after the war fast tracked into teaching, which she did until retirement.

Bit different from taking up the singing scholarship to Guildhall. But not all women were " homemakers"

Thank you everyone. Really interesting as have never thought about this much.

My own grandmother worked in the war but was young at the time; but not after which may have just been marriage related. I don’t know.

Only other references I have are film and book.

What do you mean by diluted/ decomposed / declassified @OMGsamesame ?
I get the we don’t need to make war equipment anymore but I think you mean something else which I missing

My gran worked in the war in a driving / mechanical job! She was also the towns best drummer. Post war she never drummed or drove ever again.

But in her late 90s she was keeping a beat to Metallica and tapping on her knees.

My other grandma was a teacher but was told to quit once she married :(

For example (this is just an illustration)l let's say you have men working in a supermarket who have been trained to stack shelves, operate the tills and work the customer services desk. Then the women coming into those jobs "for the duration" are trained either to stack shelves or operate tills or work customer services, and therefore can justifiably be paid a lower wage than the multi-skilled man.

Ahh I see. That poor lady brain must have an easier task 🤣
Thanks