World War II conjures up images of men fighting in the trenches, but there was another aspect of the war, the home front. Women are the unsung heroes of this war. In our fast-paced world, we take for granted women’s right to work however; it has not always been this way. Prior to World War II, women played a different role in our society. Traditionally, society has believed a woman’s place was in her home caring for her husband and children, instead of in the workplace. Society valued feminine traits such as a gentle nature and obedience, it was feared that exposure to the workplace would cause those traits to vanish (Nieva & Gutek, 1984). It has been many years since the end of World War II and women have made many strides in the workplace, it has been speculated that World War II was the turning point for women in the workplace. World War II and America The roots of the transformation from traditional female to postmodern female can be traced back to World War II. During World War II, the federal government undertook a massive propaganda effort to alter public perceptions of working women. Many critics believed that employing women was a threat to the very fabric of American society, not to mention a future obstacle to job-seeking veterans. Nevertheless, in 1942, due to necessity, the federal government did call upon women to enter the workforce to support the war effort. Women had always worked but never before were they encouraged to work by the Government. In fact, “the cultural division of labor by sex ideally placed white middle class women in the home and men in the workforce” (National Park Service, ND). This belief was due in part to the high unemployment rate during the Depression when it most benefited society to keep women out of the workplace and give the jobs to unemployed men (The National Archives, ND). Nevertheless, during the war, women were called into the workforce. In1944, some nineteen million women were employed and among those, five million were new to the labor force. In some areas of America women accounted for about fifty percent of the wartime labor force (Kessler-Harris, 2003). These women, many of them war widows, left the home and became not only the soul of the family, but the mother, father, and provider all in one. Being employed allowed these women to enjoyed access to jobs previously reserved for men, high wages, and social independence. Many critics cited concern about the long-term implications of these working women citing concern about social issues such as latchkey children, potential juvenile delinquency, and sexual promiscuity. Such objections were remnants of earlier, Depression-era arguments about working women (Chafe, 1991). To win public support for the mobilization of women, government propaganda assured its necessity was only “for the duration”. The mass media worked hard to glamorize women workers and likened industrial jobs with women’s traditional domestic work (Jowett & O’Donnell, 1999) Despite this, their selfless service continued until the end of the war. When the time came for peace, regardless of their sacrifice and dedication to home and country, the same women who kept America running were forced out of the work place again. Those who did choose to remain in the workplace were often forced back into traditional roles of menial labor, their wartime sacrifices forgotten. It has been the trend for women to enter the workforce in the employment of lower status and lower paying jobs, and generally to become stuck there (Tinklin, Croxford, Ducklin, & Frame, 200