Unpopular Sentiment

February 19, 1946, Menasha Record

Consider the time of this article and consider the mood today.  A mood that empowers women to be men's equals, for equal pay, whenever possible.  A lot has changed since the time of this ex-serviceman's plea.  The social mores of his time demanded a male head of household and his inability to adequately provide for his family via this set of circumstances must have engendered a woeful frustration to him and other ex-service members.  My own mother left a World War II-era job at Kimberly Clark after my father returned home to became a homemaker full time and raise her children.  To her dying day, she defended that action because in her heart of hearts, it was the right and proper thing to do as those traditional family roles were burned into her psyche.  I am not saying what she did was right or wrong, but merely a presentation of an issue that is often given short shrift in the discussion of World War II and the home front.  Whatever day-to-day societal pressures were put upon women in these positions might have been difficult to endure, as wearing a scarlet letter is always painful.  No one wants to be labeled a labor scab or some such.  But this writer's perceived emasculation leads me to ponder this- if a non-veteran had held that same job, would he also have been asked to step aside to satisfy this guy's need?  Was it simply his lack of being able to get a good job, or more an issue of who was filling that job?