Opposition to Female Employment

Magda Trott

Opposition to Female Employment

Thesis: Women in the workplace were ready to step up to the new positions provided for them by the men who left for the front but their success was hindered by their male colleagues who were afraid of competition with them in the workplace.

· In the second year of the war a German woman described the hostility faced by women in the work force.

· With men leaving the workplace to go to war women were urged not to waste the opportunities offered them by war and to continue their education so that they would be prepared to take on the position once held by a male colleague

· In the six months since the beginning of the war women began to enter into many fields where only men had been employed before

· All those who were certain that women would be completely successful were disappointed when many women resigned who were invited to step up to a higher position

· Enemies of women’s employment where delighted by this failure

· All women were ready to accept these new positions but it was evident even on the first day it was obvious that not everything would proceed as supposed.

· Women were seen as intruders who were taking the position of a colleague who was fighting on the front

· Women also received half the salary of the man filling the exact same position.

· Saving so much on salaries, it became feared that bosses would continue to draw on female personnel and a united male front was organized

· Women were helped in learning their new jobs and their appointed mentors let them fail on purpose

· If these women in the years before the war had learned their business and asks their colleagues question they would have been glad to answer.

· Magda Trott urges all women to use this time of war as a learning experience and keep their eyes open.