Supply and Demand of Married Women in the Labor Force Term Paper

Introduction

The global labor force has witnessed significant changes as far as women’s participation is concerned, as evidenced before during and after the Second World War. This is the case is mostly among married women. These changes have been occasioned by several factors of either a social, political or economic nature. Women’s participation in the First and Second World Wars led to changes in their social status as well as their working lives in different parts of the world and more so in those countries which were directly affected by the two wars. This paper seeks to analyze the demand and supply of married women in the labor force in the United States, before, during and after the Second World War, while at the same time giving the reasons, which led to these changes.

Married Women’s Demand for and Supply of Labor Prior to the Second World War

Kim (2003, para.1) states that before the onset of the war women were basically confined to household duty, which generally comprised of caring for the little ones, cooking, maintaining the backyard and washing up. It is important to note that women were judged mostly according to beauty and not according to their ability and talent. Nevertheless, he continues to add that as far as the 1880’s many were involved in industries like the textile industry, but excluded from the heavy industries.

On the onset of the war (that in major way took up most of the male working force) the demand for human resource in the industries was eminent. On the other hand, the need for married women to continue putting food on their children’s table grew by the day. With this came the influx of women in the industries which were previously run by men.

Kim continues to add that newspapers started writing more and more articles covering the topics on how women are achieving greater and greater heights in terms of tertiary education, and also gaining success in such fields as sports and other areas of society. An example quoted is that of an Argentinean woman who was hailed for her achievement in the field of civil engineering. It was evident that women had now replaced men in virtually most industries including heavy ones as was noted by a newspaper writing that noted that more than four thousand women had registered as workers in the Pennsylvania Railroad. Women at the time would work as nurses for the injured war soldiers while others worked on the farms that were left undone by the men who went to war.

Others literally joined the industries most of which had been converted for ammunition manufacturing, so that the products would help out in the wars. If that was not all, a section of them helped in the war as spies. This was dangerous work for them but was one of the most effective ways of spying on the enemy (Kim, 2003, para.4).

Demand for labor from the women who were left back home was high, and since the women had to provide a way in which to feed their young ones, the supply concurrently increased.

Wilde (2010, para.5) explains that the main reason why the women joined the labor force was basically because of their patriotism for the country: that it was out of national duty, request by the government and thought out from their own conscience. These industries they joined paid higher wages than what they would receive from textile industries where they were previously used to. Nevertheless, pay for the women was low compared to those of the men who worked o the same jobs. The government, in such places as Britain employed methods such as breaking down of jobs into different segments, in an attempt to employ more working women.

Wilde continues to explain that these caused strikes and demonstrations in places like France over the continuous harassment by their employees. Trade unions were on the rise by the middle of the war period.

Demand and Supply of Labor by Married Women during World War Two

Women are said to have played a major role during the Second World War as their working efforts were essential to many countries, such as the United States, succeeding in the War. The period covering the Second World War, that is 1940 to 1945, the number of women working in the United States grew by 50% (National Archives para. 1). The war also gave women who had been previously employed an opportunity to rise to higher ranks, meaning better paying jobs.

The jobs women were engaged in also became more varied ranging from military nurses jobs, engineering, manufacturing industry jobs, vehicle assembly, farming and truck driving. Others joined in the military. The effects of the war demanded this rise in the demand for women in the labor force as countries engaged in the war needed the skills, numbers and the time women would offer.

The demand for women in the formal work sectors translated into a rise in demand for married women in these industries too. According to Kamerman & Kahn (338), among all the workingwomen in 1940 in the United States thirty percent were married. This shows a great increase compared to previous years, for example during the great depression, where married women were discouraged from working on new jobs.

Around 1942, most industries and governments began to have a shortage of men in the work force and therefore were forced to rely on the abilities of women and the benefits they would bring to these sectors once women started to fill in the gaps that were left by their male counterparts (National Archives, 2010, para.2). Lack of proper family care in terms of provision of basic needs gave an almost automatic demand for women to be the bread winners for their families. This meant that the women had to step in and get paying jobs so that they could be able to support their families.

But the public held a different opinion. They still demanded to have the women in that era at home working on their homesteads, So great was the public pressure to an extent governments like that of the United States started a deliberate campaign to have women join the working force. In a vivid explanation about this, Khalid (2004, para. 2-7) tells of how the government used the notion that unless the women participated in the national duty of working, then the war their young men participated in could not be won.

The government unleashed magazines like the “Magazine War Guide” which sensitized the public on the importance of having more and more women in the work force. Having slogans that implied that that a good citizen is the one who is working, the government made a deliberate move to get women into the industries. The magazines praised the effort many women made in the industrial sector. The media was also involved in this campaign.

Khalid continues to explain how dummy characters were introduced in the radio and television shows whereby they mimicked the advantages of a working lady. Over and over again, the government was able to convince the majority of the public against a once tightly held tradition. More than six million women, both married and unmarried were able to join the labor force of America. A rise from 36% before the war to 50% in 1954 was caused by such aggressive campaigns as these ones.

With such an increase in supply, the demand for labor was favorably met and the economy would stabilize. Khalid finally explains of how America would experience a time of economic growth immediately after the war period.

Demand and Supply of Labor by Married Women after the Second World War

Despite the problems associated with women working during the Second World War, that made various trade unions, wage discriminations, family obligations, most women maintained their jobs after it ended. A majority of the married women did so too but others abandoned their jobs to continue taking care of their families. For the married women, the period after the Second World War proved to be major as it is during this time that their participation in the labor force greatly increased, especially during the period covered after 1950 and before 1980, and the problems they were facing reduced.

In the United states, the number of married women participating in the labor force during this period continued to go up both for women who were married with children, as well as for those who were married but without children. According to Kamerman & Kahn (338), the number of married women with children who were in the labor force between 1950 and 1980 in percentage was 18.4%, 27.6%, 39.7% and 54.1% respectively in each decade, while the percentage for the percentage of women without children in the same period of time was 30.3%, 34.7%, 42.2% and 46% respectively in each decade.

The participation of married women in the labor force was to a large extent influenced by their husbands’ incomes, as well as the motivation to enter the workforce. The presence of trade unions that bargained on their behalf ensured that their wages were dependent on their duties and not on gender discrimination. The opportunities for women in the labor force also continued to expand and they were accepted in different industries including those that were previously considered a preserve for men.

The increase in the demand for goods after the Second World War also contributed to the decision taken by most married women to stay on in their places of employment and this trend has continues even to the present day. Since the consumption needs of the families were increasing, the married women had to choose between staying at home taking care of their families and going to work to earn income for in order to satisfy the consumption needs of their families.

Connection of the Labor Demand with the Supply and Demand Curve

Just like in the supply and demand curve in business, the same applies for the demand for labor force considering factors such as the ones that were experienced before World War 1, after the war, during World War 2 and after World War 2. In the analysis of the supply demand curve in any business transaction that takes place, we may find it important to define demand as the ability of a consumer to purchase a good at a given price while other factors remain constant.

Demand is usually inversely proportional to price of a quantity, so that when the price of a commodity’s quantity will increase, its demand automatically decreases. Demand is quite different from such terms as wants and needs. In the same way, the labor force demand would be compared to this business term as in the ability for industry to take in a certain amount of labor force at a particular time, with other factors held constant.

Similarly, supply in business can be defined as the amount of a good the producer is willing to offer at a certain particular price, where other factors remain constant. With its variation with commodity price being proportional, the producer is willing to supply more of the commodity when the price of the commodity on the market is increased. As it were in the time of the war, this principle would apply for the employment of more and more women in the industries and other job markets.

During the war period, the supply for labor was low; therefore an effective demand for labor through the women who were at home became very high. This demand was explained by the government’s deliberate effort to get more and more of the women into their industries, so as to try and relieve the demand pressure that was straining the economy of the country.

Connection with the Labor-Leisure model

According to the Labor-Leisure model it is assumed that people’s activities can be divided into two, consumption and leisure. If a person chooses to work for long, then he foregoes the time he would have spent on leisure activities. Since the person needs money for consumption and it can only be obtained by working, the person normally resorts to working for longer hours (Tarpy & Webley, pp142, para.1). When one chooses between the number of hours to spend working and those to spend participating in leisure activities the actual choice is said to be between income and leisure as represented in the diagram below.

The Leisure-Income Trade Off

If an individual’s wage rate is increased, the effect is an upward shift of the budget constraint line from XY1 to XY2. What this means is that the individual can be able to buy more commodities represented by an increase in utility from A to B with a new indifference curve IC2. An understanding of this effect on the labor leisure trade off depends on income or substitution effect of the wage rate increase.

In the diagram below, the income effect is represented by a movement from A to C with consumption increasing from Ya to Yc and leisure hours from Xa to Xc, which represents a decrease in the time spent working. When the wage rate is increased a reasonable individual will choose to work longer so as to earn more income and in effect spend less time on leisure activities. A movement represents the substitution of leisure for more income from C to B. The total effect of the income and substitution effects is represented by a move from A to B. When the substitution effect is greater than the income effect, it shows that the individual chooses income over leisure.

This is related to the case of married women, in that more of them choose to work as a way of increasing their household income, and even as a preference to join the work force. Meaning that their budget constraint was pushed higher, allowing for higher rates of consumption. Married women are more likely to work today due to the rising costs of family expenses. Before the two world wars, the cost of living was not as high and the family could survive on the income of just one person. After, this was not possible and therefore substitute income was deemed necessary and this income could only be secured when the married women also worked.

Conclusion

From the above discussion the conclusion is that in the period before the Second World War, the supply and demand for labor among married women was low as a result of the political, social and economic factors that were prevailing at the time. After the war, while some married women opted to abandon their jobs; others chose to continue as necessitated by consumption and the need for supplementary income by households. This phenomenon continues up to today meaning that more married women are continuing to take up jobs as opposed to staying at home taking care of their families. Probably there are more lessons that human beings learn from a war than we may commonly visualize.

Works Cited

Kamerman, Sheila. & Kahn, Alfred Family Change and Family Policies in Great Britain, Canada, New Zealand and the United States. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. Print.

Khalid, Areeba, Bint, And They Called it Women’s Liberation. 2004. Albalagh. Web.

Kim, Tae, H. Where Women Worked During World War I, 2003. Seattle General Strike Product. Web.

National Archives. “Women in Industry World War II”. 2010. Web.

Tarpy, Roger and Webley, Paul. The Individual in the Economy: A Textbook of Economic Psychology. New York: Press Syndicate Publishers, 1987. pp 142, para.1. Print.

Wilde, Robert. Women and Work in World War 1, 2010. European History. NewYork Times. Web.