Phase 2- Looking Deeper From Different Perspectives
Oral History |Women in the Military |Women at Work |Culture
INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Your WebQuest team will explore the topics below (Women and Work, Women in the
Military, Women in Popular Culture).
2. Visit as many web sites as possible and read through the files. If you print out
information, underline the passages that you feel are the most important. As you look at
the files on the computer, take notes on sections you feel are important by typing into a
word processor which you can keep open and minimized on the screen..
3. Note: Remember to bookmark or copy/paste the URL of the file you take the notes from so
you can quickly go back to it if you need to to prove your point.
4. Read through the questions carefully. For each set of questions (1,2,3,etc.)
brainstorm as a team to come up with an hypothesis (see Hypertext dictionary) or
conclusion that you feel might best answer the questions.
5. Divide the questions among the team members for research purposes.
6, Each team member should be prepared to report back to the team with his/her
findings.
7. As a team, reevaluate your original hypothesis. How accurate were your original
answers? What was surprising, what was not?
8. Each teammate should record his/her own reflections about what she/he has learned
as part of his/her self- evaluation.
QUESTIONS:
1. The greatest effect of war on people is change. World War II brought women more
freedoms and more opportunities. Why? Consider the roles of women in American society
before World War II. How did the war allow for changes in the roles of women? What new
roles did women assume due to the war? How did the American public react to these changes?
In what ways did these changes affect, or not affect, the families of the 1940's?
2. What factors shaped the wartime experiences of American women? Consider ideas
such as:
Geography (did where women lived make a difference- certain parts of the
country, or urban vs. rural)
Race or ethnicity (African-American, Native American, German-American,
Japanese-American, Jewish, etc.
Economic status
Were there certain universal experiences common to all women despite their individual
differences
3. Examine the various ways men and women were portrayed in popular culture of the
1940's (see the links to posters and ads, comics, movies of the 1940's). What conclusions
can you draw about the 'ideal' man or woman of the 1940's and how were these ideals used
to encourage men and women to support the war effort? What conclusions can you draw about
the power of advertising to instill patriotism in people? Why was it necessary to 'sell'
this war effort?
4. It has often been said that wars are not won on the battlefield but rather, on the home front, where the efforts and support of the civilian population are vital to a soldier's success. What information can you find that supports this idea? How did American women contribute to American military successes of World War II at home, in the factory or in the armed forces?
5. The men returned from the war to find that women had changed. How did the males
react to these changes? What adjustments did women have to make when the war ended and the
men returned?
6. Compare and contrast the women of the 1940's with the women of today. One commonality would be the prevalence of women in the workplace. Why was this idea of working women not acceptable to most Americans at the end of the war? What fundamental beliefs did Americans hold about women's roles that were not altered by the war? Why do you think this was so and are these beliefs still common today? If so, why?
These questions will form the foundation of your project to write women back into the history of World War II.
