America After World War 2

Wendy Coria

HIS-144

August 28, 2016

Suzanne Vogt

America after WWII

World War II occurred on September 1st, 1939 till September 2nd, 1945. The war made an impact in the American nation during and after. The war was the most momentous era in history. After the war, changes started to occur and people probably wanted to move on and start their lives again. Things that change after the war was gender spheres, the automobile and youth culture.

During the war, women had to step up and take over the workload of “men’s” work (American Experience TV's most-watched history series., 2013). Men had to aid in the military for World War II and during that time war equipment and supplies were growing in demand. Men were out to serve the military, so many jobs opened up for women to help make the materials and for them to earn power. The work was available for women during the war, which meant that it could have been over soon and men can take their jobs back (American Experience TV's most-watched history series., 2013). After the war, women were forced to go back home and some women did not like that. Women were back at housewives and baby boomers, women were likely to stay home and watch over the children when men were working (02.03.09: How War Changed the Role of Women in the United States., 2009). Women were still offered jobs as secretaries, servers or a religious job, which was called the pink collar work (02.03.09: How War Changed the Role of Women in the United States., 2009). The jobs that women were offered were not really well paid and women did not enjoy it and did not receive a challenge from it. With those jobs still, women accepted them to continue working or that they also needed it. Women wanted a life outside of the housewives lives. There were women that did unpaid help at many locations as schools, libraries, churches and more.

After the war, the automobile was a change too after that era. The government did not allow any passenger vehicles during the war.  The automobile industry earned a lot of income by manufacturing military vehicles, tanks and jeeps (Automotive industry: After World War II., 2015). When the war was over, automobiles were back to where they left off and the automobiles were in request.  The development of car owners after the war was high because during the war, there was not much to spend since the manufacture of the automobile was on hold, since they were helping the military. Many people saved a lot of money and when the war was over, passenger automobiles were really in demand. An industry called Kaiser-Frazer Corporation, was in production for ten years but it did not have the financial and sales incomes to stay on track after the war was over (Automotive industry., 2016). People wanted the freedom and give of an automobile.

Youth culture was a change after the world war II. Boys wanted to grow up and be able to help their country in the war. Young girls wanted to grow up and be able to source supplies for men that are out in war or out of the country. During the war, the youth was mainly being educated and expected for them to do that (Lancor, 2015). Mainly, for the youth to be ready and prepared if another war happened. Youth boys were really excited for getting into fights now and young girls had more attitude towards getting work or being housewives. After the war, youth were not excited anymore since the war is over now. Industries started to make cars again and it was flashier and there were more distinctive clothing styles. Brands where appearing more that new and more fabric was around (Lancor, 2015).  There were many new things that the youth was getting into. Gadgets, make-up, entertainment and even jobs for the youth community (Lancor, 2015).  The youth was rebellious, the adults were actually afraid of them and the youth wanted to be free of doing what they wanted. The youth community had a hard time to follow the authority and they literally disobeyed the adults. They wanted to show off the new clothing styles, cars and more of what is going on around them and the teenage frame was free from them (Lancor, 2015). It was a time that the youth wanted to be rebellious and wanted to be the opposite of the good teenager. They would wear darker clothing, have flames in their cars, have different hairstyles and listen to Rock n’ Roll, example, Elvis Presley (Lancor, 2015).