am very glad she did because now Iunderstand more of what she was going through.Aside from being a mother and a father during the war while my father was away,she now was the permanent mother-father figure. She not only had to keep house andcare for three growing children, but she also had to provide the financial stability for thefamily that would put food on the table. The time after the war has been difficult for many people all over the world. Women who had been able to hold masculine jobs while the men were away fighting hadto give up those jobs when the men returned. Curious development occurred in thosewomen who kept working. In some cases though, as in Helen Thomas situation, womenhad to keep working because the deaths of their husbands made them the sole providersfor the family. Apart from the cultural and socio-economic conditioning, several things pointedto the identity crisis as the most powerful factor apparently holing women down, just asthey were ready to break new ground for themselves. The experiences of women duringthe war have done little to encourage the search for a new identity. There was not muchopen resistance to the part of women to go back home and resume their wifely andmotherly duties when the men returned.Many women who were forced to quit working could not afford to quit for thesimple fact that they had to provide financially for their families. In the end, manywomen had a very difficult time after World War I....
