Cory Ihnotic

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Cory Ihnotic

• Period 4
• 2-1-12

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Prompt

• Analyze and assess the extent to which the First
  World War accelerated European social change in
  such areas as work, sex roles, and government
  involvement in everyday life.

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The First World War
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The Impacts on Work

• In order to have a chance at winning the war,
  generals and politicians noticed that pure
  patriotism would not be enough.
• This led to the outrageous need for men and for
  military weapons.
• The Auxiliary Service Law
• Men who didnt get drafted into the war were
  still required, between the age of seventeen and
  sixty, to work at a job that was crucial to the
  war effort.
• This law applied to just about everyone else as
  well. Aged men, women, and children had to work
  in war factories, mines, and steel mills, mainly
  focusing on things that would only help the war.
• Now as all of the men were being recruited into
  army, many job opportunities were opening up and
  now everyone who could now had the ability to
  work.
• This differed from the early ways of
  overpopulation and poverty due to unemployment.

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• Labor Unions
• A change brought about by the availability of
  jobs was greater power and prestige for labor
  unions.
• They cooperated with war government on work
  rules, wages, and production schedules in return
  for real participation in important decisions.
• This entry of labor leaders and unions into
  policymaking councils paralleled the entry of
  socialist leaders into the war governments.
• The war also promoted greater social equality,
  making the gap between the rich and the poor
  smaller and smaller.
• This was most apparent in Great Britain.
• The bottom third of the class lived better than
  ever before due to the shortage in labor.
• This also caused an increase to the economy of
  the local stores because people were now able to
  afford more with their new jobs and wages.
• In continental countries, greater equality was
  reflected in full employment, rationing according
  to physical needs, and a sharing of hardships.
• This caused the society to become more uniform
  and more egalitarian (more equal as a whole).

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Sex Roles During the War

• The need for men during the war was great as
  millions left theirs homes to serve for their
  country.
• This gave the women of the community a large
  chance to improve their social status in every
  day life.
• Because of all of the job openings, women were
  able to work in jobs like bank tellers, mail
  carriers, and even police officers.
• Nearly 43 percent of the labor force in Russia
  was made up of women.
• Women also showed a growing spirit of
  independence during the war.
• They showed this independence by subtle matters
  such as bobbing their hair, shortening their
  skirts, and even by smoking in public.
• By the end of the war, Britain, Germany, and
  Austria granted women the right to vote.
• The aristocrats of labor (skilled workers and
  foremen) were often spared from war in order to
  train the newly recruited women and older
  unskilled men.

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(No Transcript)
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The Involvement of the Government

• In each country, a government of national unity
  began to plan and control economic and social
  life in order to wage total war.
• Free market and capitalism was abandoned.
  Instead, government planning boards established
  priorities and decided what was to be produced
  and consumed.
• Rationing, price and wage controls and even
  restrictions on workers freedom of movement were
  imposed by the government.
• This made the war a war of whole peoples and
  entire populations meaning that everyone was
  involved with it to help their nation win.
• By having the government manage and control this
  highly complicated government, socialism was
  strengthened as it became the first realistic
  economic blueprint rather than a utopian program
• There were national variations but similar
  movements toward planned economies commanded by
  the established political leadership.

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• Walter Rathenau
• A talented, foresighted Jewish industrialist in
  charge of Germanys largest electric company.
• He convinced the government to set up the War Raw
  Materials Board in order to ration and distribute
  raw materials.
• From this, every useful material from foreign oil
  to barnyard manure was inventoried and rationed.
• The board launched successful attempts to produce
  substitutes such as synthetic rubber and
  synthetic nitrates, both needed to make
  explosives and essential to the blockaded German
  war machine.
• An aggressive recycle campaign greatly helped
  these efforts portrayed by the War Raw Materials
  Board.

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Relations to Each Other
War
Government taking control of economy and social
life.
Millions of soldiers drafted for war
Job openings
Total war
War Raw Materials Board
Free market and capitalism was abandoned
Women earn more rights in work
Labor unions took advantage of situation
Women earn rights to vote
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Thank you