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AMERICAN CIVILIANS 

American Civilians: a person who is not onactive duty with a military, naval, police, orfire fighting organization.

During WWII many things occurred bad andgood. People were selling bonds, rationing,making gardens to survive on. The menwere drafted after the Pearl Harbor attack.So women were left behind with theirchildren. They needed to take the men’s

 jobs so they could support war. It was hardon the women because they had to be awife, mother, and worker.

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RATIONING All types of food were rationed, which meant you

were only allowed to buy a small amount (even ifyou could afford more).

The government introduced rationing because

certain things were in short supply during the war,and rationing was the only way to make sureeveryone got their fair share.

War ration books and tokens were issued to each

American family, dictating how much gasoline,tires, sugar, meat, silk, shoes, nylon and otheritems any one person could buy.

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RATIONING CONT.

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HTTP:// WWW.HISTORY.COM / VIDEOS / SAVING-FAT-FOR-MUNITIONS-PLANTS#SAVING-FAT-FOR-MUNITIONS-PLANTS 

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• The familiar blue box of Kraft

Macaroni and Cheese Dinnergained great popularity as asubstitute for meat and dairyproducts. Two boxes required only

one rationing coupon, whichresulted in 80 million boxes sold in1943. After three years ofrationing, World War II came to awelcome end. Rationing, however,

did not end until 1946.

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“THE VICTORY” 

Victory Gardens were prevalentduring WW2 as a means for

individuals to contribute to the wareffort by growing their own food and indoing so allow a major portion ofcommercially grown produce to feedour troops. It was a grand idea. And

citizens in the US embraced it. Theycalled these gardens "VictoryGardens" because they potentiallyhelped win the war. Eleanor

Roosevelt thought it was a good ideato plant a victory garden on the lawnof the White House.

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BUYING WAR BONDS 

War bonds and stamps were sold toprovide war funds, and the Americanpeople also united throughvolunteerism. Communities joinedtogether to hold scrap iron drives,

schoolchildren pasted saving stamps inbond books.

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•World War II opened up tremendousopportunities for women because so many

men joined the armed services and wentabroad, leaving open many jobs that hadbeen previously closed to women. It hadbeen long assumed women couldn't dothose jobs -- engineering, other professionsin the sciences, manufacturing jobs that

had been considered men's work, thingswomen were believed to be too weak to do.As women's opportunities in the paid laborforce outside the home contracted, womenbegan to infuse the work of being ahomemaker with professional virtues. Theideal was not only to be someone who

cleaned the house and took care of thekids, but to be someone who became aprofessional, nurturing and educating herchildren, managing her household.

Women in Action

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WOMEN CONT.• The Women's Land Army: • As in World War One, women were called on to

help on the land and the Women’s Land Army(WLA) was re-formed in July 1939. Their workwas vital as so many men were being calledup into the military.

• The Women's Voluntary Service (WVS): 

• During the Blitz on London women involuntary organizations did a very

important job. The Women’s VoluntaryService provided fire fighters with tea andrefreshments when the clear-up tookplace after a bombing raid.

• The Women's Auxiliary Air

Force: • Women who joined the Royal Air Forcewere in the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force(WAAF). They did the same as the ATS(cooking, clerical work etc) but theopportunities were there for slightly more

exciting work.

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Industrial Group Number of

Women

Number of Women

Employed in 1940

Number of Women

Employed in 1944-45

All industries

ManufacturingGovernment

Trade, Service and Other(includes transportation,communication, publicutilities, finance, insurance,real estate, and other

626,600

141,90021,600

463,100

1,266,200

565,200138,100

562,900

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HTTP://WWW.METACAFE.COM/WATCH/YT-TIYBNVIJFL0/WOMEN _ DURING _ WORLD _ WAR _ II/ 

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THE EFFECTS OF WAR ON WOMEN 

The war was finally over and millions of men would finallybe able to return to their homes.

No longer was there a need for women to leave theirhusband and children to work eight hours in a factory.

Some women were glad when the war ended because

that meant that they could go back to the home wherethey felt they belonged.

Other women returned home not because they wantedto, but because their husband and much of the American

society believed they should. Still other women led their jobs, because the return of their soldiers meant the abilityto resume pre-war plans (i.e. marriage or pregnancy.)

Yet there were some women who elected to stay atwork. They enjoyed their new found independence.

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BABY BOOMERS 

A lot of women got married and had childrenafter the war, and they generally stoppedworking after that.

The marriage age dropped dramatically --

young people were rushing into marriage, and alarger percentage of people married than everbefore.

It wasn't that people started having largefamilies... it was that everybody was having a

few children, at all levels of society. Another factor was that prosperity was available

after the war.

There had been rationing, a lack of consumerproducts to purchase. With the conversion of

the economy and the high savings rate, therewas a lot of money available to get married --without fear of falling into poverty -- and to havechildren.

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GRAPHS ABOUT THE BIRTHS AFTER WW2

Year

USresidentpopulation(thousands)

Netchange(thousands)

Percentchange

1941 133,121 1,161 0.881942 133,920 799 0.60

1943 134,245 325 0.24

1944 132,885 −1,360  −1.01 

1945 132,481 −404  −0.30 

1946 140,054 7,573 5.721947 143,446 3,392 2.42

1948 146,093 2,647 1.85

1949 148,665 2,572 1.76

1950 151,868 3,203 2.15

10 yearaverage

- 1,991 1.43

America was not the onlycountry with the Baby Boomers

it was also Canada, Australia,and New Zealand.