#on how women entering the workforce in wwii impacted womens clothing

[trekkiemage]

I've seen academic papers talking about tests they ran during WWII trying to determine if gender affected anti-aircraft drill performance. It was run by the Americans during their whole "oh no I guess we gotta let women be Involved, but I promise it'll go back to Normal after" and seeing that the women in the UK were deeply involved in the military (because, wild, but being actively bombed was a little more important than women touching ammunition). The Americans tested out a men-only team, a women-only team, and a co-ed team - pretty much expecting the men to be the top performers. Nope. It was the coed team. What did the American military do with this info? They went "ah shit the public won't like that" and buried it. Classic.

But yeah, they were getting similar answers in the 1940s too.

God I can't Stand how people (and many if not most of them women!!) will see a group of girls get together like in the context of a summer camp where most of the counselors are girls, or whatever, and be like... "oh man, the internal conflict is going to be insane this summer, you know because it's all women and no guys." I hate, hate, HATE it. Not because I think a work environment composed of all women is going to be naturally harmonious, absolutely not we're not the fairer sex and we can butt heads and be assholes and all that but like !!! I cannot believe I have to say this in 2024 but that's not an inherently feminine trait!! As if all-male workplaces don't have petty dick measuring contests and are just beacons of community. As if co-ed workplaces don't have drama. Do social constructs affect how people of different genders are bitchy to each other? Sure absolutely. But like... bitchiness is a human trait. Tired of people just treating workplace drama as normal except when it's between women then it's bc they're women