Cold War Gender Roles-Joe DiMella

 The Women's Rights Movement was fueled during the 19th and early 20th century and then through WWII.  To start things off, during the war, both Soviet and US women had more increased roles in the workforce. US females were helping in government agencies, and Soviet women were doing other things like working a normal job and joining the military or even spending their time as spies. Usually, United States women were helping out in anti-communist movements and feminist movements because they didn't have a lot of freedom from the way of life at the time. The two contrast each other as the US women were known as housewives, while the soviets were looked at as hardworking women. As males were returning from war,  jobs that women filled were getting filled by people returning from war, leaving women in the dust, meaning they were losing their jobs. Family relations had a little change, and when jobs were stable and families were up and running, it made life a little more peaceful for all of them.  The roles women filled were mostly housewives; some claim this caused more functional families at the time while playing the wife and mother role. Elizabeth Stanton and Lucretia Mott kickstarted a revolution and starting turning heads even though they were under fire but led a charge. Countless movies and magazines pushed this narrative thanks to Elizabeth and Lucretia. However things werent always smooth sailing.

Women had some different jobs while their men were at war, but things went right back to the way they were, and it left them in a place of confinement, not physically but from an emotional well-being state. They felt trapped and left with no freedom in assuming the roles of women. That said, the quality of these women's jobs wasn't the best. They can be described and shown to have losing feeling and purpose in their lives while working there profesion.  During the Cold War, propaganda from high-up politicians and well-known magazines promoted the fact that women in the US had one purpose, so it really added to the narrative of women retaining the housewife role. The woman attaining the house wife were not sent in the direction of getting education under there reputure because taking care of their family comes first. Studies during that time showed that these women working housewife roles after the war were depressed. Homophobia played a key role in the anti communist movement around the basics of them being very bad, unheard of, and excluded. The two were compared and put at steak and at the forefront of the United States, and some magazines portreyed this. The LGBTQ community was disregarded and pushed back while stiring the pot of politics amidst the chaos. The LGBTQ and woman empowerment movement were born in the United States and left a mark for ages to come.