llion voluntarily left. These female losses in the work force were offset by the gain of 2.75 million women into the work force. “When women who had been laid off managed to return to work, they often lost their seniority and had to accept reduced pay in lower job categories” (310). Due to the severe segregation by gender, the postwar economic life for women was appalling.Postwar American life became organized around marriage and family. As men came back from the war they merged with the peacetime economy, taking jobs away from women and sending them back to the home. With the demise of Mary and Rosie came new role models whose ideas and beliefs were focused around the home and not the workplace. This was due to the fact that during the war many writers were female and supported involvement in the labor force and after the war many of these women’s jobs were taken by men with the desire of a “cozy domestic life” (312). “Almost overnight, television became the preeminent mass medium, carrying imaging--feminine or otherwise—of American culture into the home” (313). Television shows displayed the personification of what a husband thought a wife should be. An example of this was the show “Ozzie and Harriet” which showed a warm-hearted, attractive, submissive woman who was only competent within the confines of her own home. Children who grew up seeing this behavior in their own home as well as on television tended to use that lifestyle as a model. Without any external reinforcement, and only by repetition the children learned that men and women had different roles in society. It was this learned behavior which carried the new “feminine mystique” from generation to generation.”As many have said before “history repeats itself” with WWII as well as WWI, the return of peace meant that “women faced layoffs, renewed wage discrimination, and...
