During the early war years, up to 1942, homemaking and motherhood remained the most important job. As the need for increased supplies of female labour increased, Australian media began to change the image of its heroine. As long as women were needed in the workforce, media propaganda painted an attractive image of the working woman. But as soon as the war was over, the working woman ceased to exist for media; more specifically women's magazines, being replaced by the bride once more even though women continued to work, refusing to leave their jobs which they enjoyed.
What is propaganda?Propaganda is information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or point of view. During the War we saw lots of propaganda distributed about women
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How was it used?Globally during World War 2 many countries, mainly from the allied forces used proganda to encourage women into the workforce to replace the male workers who had enlisted into the armed forces.
Newsreels and movies of the day show women happily coming to work in the factory each day to make bomb casings, tanks or parachutes and drew similarities between the things women are used to doing, such as filing their nails, with the work they do in the factory, such as filing the inside of munitions casings. Similar recruitment programs were used to great effect in Australia. |