Gender, Sexuality, and Anti-War Peace Movements: World War II and Vietnam

      My initial reaction to the idea of how gender and sexuality connect with anti-war movements was that they didn’t really have anything to do with each other. However, after doing research on the topic I realized that I was not entirely accurate in my assumption. During World War II and the Vietnam War women took on social roles that were not commonly expected of them, and women became very involved in organizational protests and peace movements.  

      The article "A New Decade for the American People" was written by a History Channel correspondent named Bryon White. In an article he wrote for the academic journal The WWII Experience he outlined what life was like for women prior to, and during, World War II. In the 1930s we lived in a society where very specific social roles were expected of men and women. Men worked and supported their entire family financially, and women were expected to stay home, cook and clean, and care for children. In 1939 World War II began, and the social structure of America changed quite quickly. Many men went off to fight in the war and the women were taking on the roles of men (working to support their family financially), in addition to doing their regular tasks that maintained their households. There were even situations where women were working in factories to help make weapons. Bryon White's article made it very clear that this was not a traditional task for females. Usually women didn’t work period. But for women to be working jobs in factories and creating weapons was an entirely new concept. Many of the women during this time period believed that once their husbands returned from the war everyone would return back to their traditional roles, but they did not take into account death and injury. For the women whose husbands were severely injured in the war, the women still had to work, take care of children, and maintain the household but they also had the responsibility of taking care of an injured husband thrown on top of those things. For the women whose husbands were killed in the war, they were put in a situation where they would not be able to only stay at home and care for children unless they remarried. In both of these cases women had to take on the roles of men, and they had to adapt to learning to work and care for their families.

This photo shows women working in a weapons manufacturing factory while their husbands were fighting WWII

     According to wikipedia.com: the Vietnam War began in the year 1945, but the United States soldiers were not physically involved in fighting the war until the early 60s. Prior to the Vietnam War the way that people got information was over the radio where they could only hear broadcasts with no physical images to associate the words with. But by the time that the United States got involved in The Vietnam War, people were able to see what was going on in Vietnam. The online article "The History of Vietnam" discussed the fact that, unlike with previous wars, there was a visual representation of the violence that was taking place of people losing their lives, and of how bloody and awful the situation was. People seeing these images for the first time became extremely upset and they did not want to support soldiers fighting anymore. This lead to the formation of protest groups all across the United States. The article about the history of the Vietnam War also did a great job of outlining the roles that women played in organizing protests, and explained that it was a situation where women became extremely involved. Women created signs, participated in the rallies that took place, recruited members, and kept things organized. Women were an extremely important part of the process, and the men may not have been able to handle all of the work that goes into protests on their own. The fact that women were involved in these protests was interesting because women were still in a situation where they were expected to behave and act a certain way. Women being out and physically protesting the war took time away from them being at home and caring for their children, which a lot of men during that time seemed to take a serious issue with. I personally have a great deal of admiration and respect for these women because even though their husbands and other male family members disagreed with their actions, they stood up for what they believed in. It has been said that the protests against the Vietnam War involved more people than any other peace movement in our nation’s history, and that it involved more women than any other peace movement. I found these things to be very interesting, and before I did my research I had no idea how important women were when it came to the earlier wars that our military has been involved in.

This photo shows people, mainly women, in the act of protesting the Vietnam War. 

                                                            Works Cited
"History of Vietnam." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 21 Mar. 2013. Web. 21 Mar. 2013.      
     <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Vietnam>.
Vietnam History, People, Economy, Geography, Government." Vietnam History, People, Economy,   
     Geography, Government. N.p., 07 Sept. 2012. Web. 21 Mar. 2013.    
     <http://vietventures.com/Vietnam/history_vietnam.asp>.
White, Bryon. "A New Decade for The American People." History.com. A&E Television Networks, 
     15 Jan. 2008. Web. 21 Mar. 2013. <http://www.history.com/>.
"Women in WWII." Women in WWII. N.p., 11 Mar. 2012. Web. 21 Mar. 2013.   
     <http://www.womeninwwii.com/>.
                                                            Crystal Feska