CLEP US History II

Answer: D - The increase in the number of working American women during World War II, and the de facto roles many women simultaneously assumed as breadwinners in their families, created a sense of accomplishment and fulfillment that many women were not happy to lose when the war ended. Millions of women were automatically fired from their jobs at the end of the war when returning soldiers would be looking for work, since women’s roles in the workforce were considered a wartime need, not a basic right. While many women were happy to re-assume “traditional roles” as stay-at-home wives and mothers after the war, the fact that it was virtually impossible to find high-paying jobs or be an equal competitor to a male applicant for a position when they wanted to work outside of their home became a leading cause of the women’s movement nearly two decades later.