In the early 1940s, womens participation in the U.S. labor market

Question

In the early 1940s, women’s participation in the U.S. labor market changed dramatically as a result of the labor shortages resulting from the drafting of men to fight in World War II. Although persistent and institutionalized discrimination had discouraged women from paid work during the 1930s, the wartime government used patriotic propaganda to encourage women to work in defense industries. While women’s employment was still viewed as an extraordinary measure for extraordinary times—and the female worker as merely filling in for a soldier to whom the job “properly” belonged—gender barriers were lowered somewhat during this period, and pay began to equalize. Despite these moves toward women’s participation in the workforce, however, shifting forces in the post-war labor market meant that fewer American women worked outside the home in 1952 than in 1942.    1 
 1. According to the passage, which of the following was true of working women in the United States during World War II?

(A) As soon as soldiers returned home from the war, women were happy to give up their paid jobs and return to the home.
(B) Women exhibited extraordinary levels of skills relative to what was expected of them.
(C) Wages for women were closer to the typical wages paid to males than had been the case in earlier decades.
(D) Gender barriers were lowered, resulting in greater educational opportunities for women.
(E) Women were better suited than men to certain tasks needed in the defense industries.

2 
 2. Which of the following can be inferred regarding women’s employment during the period discussed in the passage?

(A) Discrimination against women in the workplace increased between 1942 and 1952.
(B) Women’s job qualifications decreased during the period 1942–1952.
(C) The end of World War II caused many men to come home and take back jobs they had once held.
(D) Increased economic prosperity in the 1950s meant women didn’t have to work.
(E) More women worked outside the home in 1942 than 10 years later.

3 
 3. The author mentions the female worker as merely filling in for a soldier to whom the job “properly” belonged primarily in order to

(A) argue that women should not have taken jobs away from soldiers 
(B) assert that women were generally less competent than men to do the jobs in question
(C) establish that persistent and institutionalized discrimination still predominated in the workplace 
(D) acknowledge that the changes brought about for female workers during this time period were not universally positive
(E) explain why gender barriers were lowered somewhat during the period in question

Sajjad1994 · Accepted Answer

Official Explanation

1. According to the passage, which of the following was true of working women in the United States during World War II?

Difficulty Level:   Easy

STEP 1: IDENTIFY THE QUESTION

The language according to the passage indicates that this is a Specific Detail question. The question stem further indicates that you are looking for information about working women in the United States during World War II. (Note: You may already know that World War II took place from 1939 to 1945. If not, the first sentence of the passage indicates that the war was going on in the early 1940s.)

STEP 2: FIND THE SUPPORT

The 1940s time frame was mostly detailed in the middle of the passage. The information about the 1930s (that women were discouraged from working) was pre-war and the information about 1952 was post-war. Find the relevant text and, in order to get full context, start reading two to three lines before the “meat” of the text. Here’s the relevant text for the wartime period:

“Although persistent and institutionalized discrimination had discouraged women from paid work during the 1930s, the wartime government used patriotic propaganda to encourage women to work in defense industries. While women’s employment was still viewed as an extraordinary measure for extraordinary times—and the female worker as merely filling in for a soldier to whom the job “properly” belonged—gender barriers were lowered somewhat during this period, and pay began to equalize. ”

STEP 3: PREDICT AN ANSWER

So what was true? The government encouraged women to work. They were still viewed as filling in, not the real workers. But gender barriers were lowered a bit and pay got a little bit more equal.

STEP 4: ELIMINATE AND FIND A MATCH

(A)  Based on the last sentence of the paragraph, it sounds like the women did eventually give up their jobs, but nothing indicates that they did so happily, nor does the passage indicate that this occurred as soon as the men returned home. Eliminate.

(B)  The passage does use the word extraordinary, but in a different context. The fact that women were doing what was usually “man’s work” was viewed as extraordinary, or very unusual. The passage does not indicate how competent the women were at their jobs. Eliminate.

(C)  Yes! This matches the language pay began to equalize. It was not as equal before (in earlier decades), and it began to become more equal during the wartime 1940s.

(D)  This answer choice starts out well, but then veers into issues not discussed in the passage. The passage says that gender barriers were lowered, but educational opportunities are never mentioned. Eliminate.

(E)  The passage does not indicate anything about the competence or skills of women in the workforce in the 1940s. Eliminate.

Answer: C

2. Which of the following can be inferred regarding women’s employment during the period discussed in the passage?

Difficulty Level:   Easy

Step 1: Identify the Question

The word inferred indicates that this is an Inference question. The question stem further indicates that you need to infer something about women’s employment.

Step 2: Find the Support

Most of the passage is about the topic of women’s employment, so remind yourself of the major time frames:

…discrimination discouraged women from paid work during the 1930s
…wartime government…encourage  women to work
…fewer women worked outside the home in 1952 than in 1942

Note:  The passage contains additional detail about wartime employment; if none of the answers match on your first pass, you can narrow down and review the more specific details about the 1940s.

Step 3: Predict an Answer

The correct answer should  “flip”  what the passage says. If women were discouraged from working in the 1930s but encouraged in the 1940s, then there was a change in behavior or attitudes toward women working. If fewer women worked outside the home in 1952, then more worked outside the home in 1942.

Step 4: Eliminate and Find a Match

(A)  Discrimination was mentioned for the 1930s, not 1942 or 1952. Eliminate.

(B)  The passage indicates that fewer women worked outside the home in 1952 than in 1942, but it does not say why. One possibility might have to do with job qualifications, but this does not have to be true. Eliminate.

(C)  This sounds pretty good—that’s probably what happened when the war ended. Leave this choice in.

(D)  The passage doesn’t mention anything about economic prosperity. Eliminate.

(E)  This is exactly what Step 3 says: More women worked outside the home in 1942! But what about answer (C)?

It turns out that  answer (C)  is a big trap. While it certainly sounds reasonable to assume that a lot of men came back from World War II and took their old jobs back, the passage doesn’t provide the information needed to make this inference. What if most of the soldiers died or were too injured to resume their old jobs? What if they came back and wanted to take new jobs, not resume their old ones? The passage does state that fewer women worked outside the home by 1952, but it does not provide information to infer that soldiers specifically took back their old jobs.

The correct answer is (E).

3. The author mentions the female worker as merely filling in for a soldier to whom the job “properly” belonged primarily in order to

Difficulty Level:   Hard

Step 1: Identify the Question

The words in order to indicate that this is a Specific Purpose, or Why, question. Why did the author include the specific line quoted in the question stem?

Step 2: Find the Support

On Why questions, you’ll need to make sure you have the full context. The sentence or two preceding the quoted text will typically tell you why the author introduced that text, so start a bit before the quoted text, in this case:

“Although persistent and institutionalized discrimination had discouraged women from paid work during the 1930s, the wartime government used patriotic propaganda to encourage women to work in defense industries. While women’s employment was still viewed as an extraordinary measure for extraordinary times—and the female worker as merely filling in for a soldier to whom the job  “properly”  belonged—gender barriers were lowered somewhat during this period, and pay began to equalize.”

Step 3: Predict an Answer

Before the war, women experienced a lot of discrimination. Then, the government started encouraging women to work. The while start to the next sentence indicates a twist: The fact that women were working was still viewed as something they wouldn’t (or even shouldn’t) be doing if the men hadn’t gone off to war, but some things did get better for women.

The author is showing the two sides of the coin. The country needed women to work, and the fact that so many did helped to lower gender barriers, but many people still felt that the situation was, or should be, only temporary.

Step 4: Eliminate and Find a Match

(A) The men were off at war; they were literally unavailable to take the jobs. The government encouraged the women to fill in. Eliminate.

(B) The passage mentions nothing about the competency of either men or women. Eliminate.

(C) While it is likely true that discrimination still existed, the passage doesn’t provide enough information to say that it predominated. All the passage indicates is that conditions did get at least somewhat better for women during this period. Eliminate.

(D) Yes! The sentence does list two positives (gender barriers lowered, pay more equalized), but the specific line quoted is a negative for women. The author is showing both sides of the coin.

(E) Just the opposite, in fact! The lowering of gender barriers was a positive for women. The fact that they were still viewed as filling in for men to whom the jobs “properly” belonged is a negative. Eliminate.

The correct answer is (D).

RashmikaAnegama · Answer

Briefing the given Passage:
Early 1940s - war time - women employment increased - patriotism - extraordinary measure - merely filling - gender bias lowered - Pay equalized - jobs decreased in 1952

1. According to the passage, which of the following was true of working women in the United States during World War II?

This is a must be true question, so let's check the options given
 
  (A) As soon as soldiers returned home from the war, women were happy to give up their paid jobs and return to the home. 
There was no sign of women's mood to return their jobs, so eliminate

(B) Women exhibited extraordinary levels of skills relative to what was expected of them. 
The lines from the passage say that -  women’s employment was still viewed as an extraordinary measure for extraordinary times 
This proves that they have exhibited extraordinary levels of skills - so, this must be true.

(C) Wages for women were closer to the typical wages paid to males than had been the case in earlier decades. 
 than had been the case in earlier decades.  - we have no proof telling that women worked before 1940s

(D) Gender barriers were lowered, resulting in greater educational opportunities for women. 
There was no sign of educational opportunities for women, so eliminate

(E) Women were better suited than men to certain tasks needed in the defense industries. 
This was also not mentioned explicitly in the passage, so eliminate.

2. Which of the following can be inferred regarding women’s employment during the period discussed in the passage?

This is an inference question. Let's review the options given.
Last few lines of the passage says -  shifting forces in the post-war labor market meant that fewer American women worked outside the home in 1952 than in 1942.

(A) Discrimination against women in the workplace increased between 1942 and 1952. 
It was shifting forces what caused the decrement in the number of women, not discrimination.

(B) Women’s job qualifications decreased during the period 1942–1952. 
How can qualifications decrease over time?

(C) The end of World War II caused many men to come home and take back jobs they had once held. 
This is the one. So post-war when soldiers(men) returned, they took back their jobs, for which reason, women count at work place has decreased

(D) Increased economic prosperity in the 1950s meant women didn’t have to work. 
We can't really say whether the economic prosperity increased or decreased during the given time

(E) More women worked outside the home in 1942 than 10 years later. 
This is obvious and explicitly stated, there is now new inference here, and option C is better than this, so eliminate it

3. The author mentions the female worker as merely filling in for a soldier to whom the job “properly” belonged primarily in order to

This is comparatively a harder question.
I felt BCDE are contenders. So let's try to eliminate each..

(A) argue that women should not have taken jobs away from soldiers 
This is not the case. They are given jobs to women, that was the requirement. So we can eliminate it

(B) assert that women were generally less competent than men to do the jobs in question 
Yes, this is the case. "Properly" here is explaining the author thoughts of women being less competent than the men who would have taken those jobs

(C) establish that persistent and institutionalized discrimination still predominated in the workplace 
There can't be predominant discrimination, because, women had to do those jobs, and the jobs are offered to them, instead of they demanding for the jobs. So, we can eliminate this option

(D) acknowledge that the changes brought about for female workers during this time period were not universally positive 
This is the not the right point. So, we can eliminate this option

(E) explain why gender barriers were lowered somewhat during the period in question 
This is a good trap answer as it is immediately comes after the line in the question, but these 2 statements themselves are opposite.

So IMO, the answers are  B, C, B

Vie3nrose · Answer

Question 1. According to the passage, which of the following was true of working women in the United States during World War II?
 
(A) As soon as soldiers returned home from the war, women were happy to give up their paid jobs and return to the home.
 INCORRECT   -- Although the last two sentences imply that once the war was over and the soldiers returned, women may have given up their jobs to soldiers "to whom the job “properly” belonged", there is no mention in the passage that women were "happy" to do so (vs not given a choice in the matter)
 
(B) Women exhibited extraordinary levels of skills relative to what was expected of them.
 INCORRECT   -- "women’s employment was still viewed as an extraordinary  measure  for extraordinary  times "; no mention of women exhibiting extraordinary skills
 
(C) Wages for women were closer to the typical wages paid to males than had been the case in earlier decades.
 CORRECT   -- "gender barriers were lowered somewhat during this period, and pay began to equalize", implying that the gender pay gap between women and men began getting smaller vs the period leading up to the war
 
(D) Gender barriers were lowered, resulting in greater educational opportunities for women.
 INCORRECT   -- "gender barriers were lowered somewhat during this period, and  pay  began to equalize"; no mention of educational opportunities as one of the barriers that were lowered for women 
 
(E) Women were better suited than men to certain tasks needed in the defense industries.
 INCORRECT   -- "as a result of the labor shortages resulting from the drafting of men to fight in World War II... government used patriotic propaganda to encourage women to work in defense industries"; no mention of women being better suited for certain tasks in the industry, simply an "extraordinary measure" and "merely filling in for a soldier to whom the job “properly” belonged"

Question 2. Which of the following can be inferred regarding women’s employment during the period discussed in the passage?
 
(A) Discrimination against women in the workplace increased between 1942 and 1952.
 INCORRECT   -- We know that "discrimination had discouraged women from paid work during the 1930s" and that in the early 1940s "gender barriers were lowered somewhat" as a result of men leaving to fight in the war, and also that "shifting forces in the post-war labor market meant that fewer American women worked outside the home in 1952 than in 1942"; however, the author didn't specifically attribute the drop in working women to discrimination (vs other possible factors) 
 
(B) Women’s job qualifications decreased during the period 1942–1952.
 INCORRECT   -- we know that "shifting forces in the post-war labor market meant that fewer American women worked outside the home in 1952 than in 1942"; however, the author didn't specifically attribute the drop in working women to a decline in job qualifications (vs i.e. increased discrimination) 
 
(C) The end of World War II caused many men to come home and take back jobs they had once held.
 INCORRECT   -- we know that "shifting forces in the post-war labor market meant that fewer American women worked outside the home in 1952 than in 1942", and that this is likely due to soldiers coming home and returning to their jobs (especially given the previous sentence), but the author doesn't specifically make the connection for us so I prefer not to make this inference 
 
(D) Increased economic prosperity in the 1950s meant women didn’t have to work.
 INCORRECT   -- we know that "shifting forces in the post-war labor market meant that fewer American women worked outside the home in 1952 than in 1942", and although it's definitely possible that this may have been one of the factors, the author didn't mention anything about economic prosperity so we would be relying on external knowledge to make this inference
 
(E) More women worked outside the home in 1942 than 10 years later.
 CORRECT   -- the author states that "shifting forces in the post-war labor market meant that fewer American women worked outside the home in 1952 than in 1942", which is exactly this answer choice, said in the reverse direction.

TarunKumar1234 · Answer

Summary:  Women discriminations were persistent and institutionalized in 1930 to 1940. Due to WW-II, men forced to move to war front and more women got opportunity to work. Slowly, unequal salary barrier reduced, but they felt as incompetent with men for a particular job. In 1950s, less women got the opportunity to work as men returned from war.

1. According to the passage, which of the following was true of working women in the United States during World War II?

(A) As soon as soldiers returned home from the war, women were happy to give up their paid jobs and return to the home. -> Incorrect.
(B) Women exhibited extraordinary levels of skills relative to what was expected of them. -> Incorrect.
(C) Wages for women were closer to the typical wages paid to males than had been the case in earlier decades. ->  correct. 
(D) Gender barriers were lowered, resulting in greater educational opportunities for women. -> Incorrect
(E) Women were better suited than men to certain tasks needed in the defense industries. -> Incorrect

2. Which of the following can be inferred regarding women’s employment during the period discussed in the passage?

(A) Discrimination against women in the workplace increased between 1942 and 1952. -> Incorrect.
(B) Women’s job qualifications decreased during the period 1942–1952. -> Incorrect.
(C) The end of World War II caused many men to come home and take back jobs they had once held. ->Incorrect.
(D) Increased economic prosperity in the 1950s meant women didn’t have to work. -> Incorrect.
(E) More women worked outside the home in 1942 than 10 years later. ->   Correct.

3. The author mentions the female worker as merely filling in for a soldier to whom the job “properly” belonged primarily in order to

(A) argue that women should not have taken jobs away from soldiers -> Incorrect.
(B) assert that women were generally less competent than men to do the jobs in question -> Incorrect.
(C) establish that persistent and institutionalized discrimination still predominated in the workplace -> Incorrect.
(D) acknowledge that the changes brought about for female workers during this time period were not universally positive ->  Correct. 
(E) explain why gender barriers were lowered somewhat during the period in question -> Incorrect.

Deepakjhamb · Answer

1. According to the passage, which of the following was true of working women in the United States during World War II?

answer - c) Wages for women were closer to the typical wages paid to males than had been the case in earlier decades.
 
(A) As soon as soldiers returned home from the war, women were happy to give up their paid jobs and return to the home:  its never mentioned in passage that women were happy to give up their paid job and return home , secondly question is regarding duration of word war 2 and not after end of it , so this is out  
(B) Women exhibited extraordinary levels of skills relative to what was expected of them. :  its never mentioned that women exhibited extraordinary levels of skill that that was expected of them , looks like a recycled language trap of extraordinary measure for extraordinary times which was actually a metaphor , so this is out  
(C) Wages for women were closer to the typical wages paid to males than had been the case in earlier decades -  yes this looks ok as in the passage its stated that pay began to equalize during world war 2 . 
(D) Gender barriers were lowered, resulting in greater educational opportunities for women :  its never mentioned that lowering of gender barriers resulted in greater educational opportunities for women , looks to be a recycled language trap with half truth and half wrong language  
(E) Women were better suited than men to certain tasks needed in the defense industries :  this kind of comparison is never mentioned in the passage , so its out

2. Which of the following can be inferred regarding women’s employment during the period discussed in the passage?

answer : e)More women worked outside the home in 1942 than 10 years later. 
(A) Discrimination against women in the workplace increased between 1942 and 1952:  actually during this from passage we can only infer that fewer women worked outside home due to shifting forces , so concluding that discrimination against women increased is extreme language , so ruled out  
(B) Women’s job qualifications decreased during the period 1942–1952 :  we know nothing about women qualifications - its outside scope of this passage , so out  
(C) The end of World War II caused many men to come home and take back jobs they had once held :  actually passage only mentions shifting force post world war 2 , we cannot infer that shifting forces mean that men came back home and took back same jobs that they held once , so out  
(D) Increased economic prosperity in the 1950s meant women didn’t have to work : t here is no mention of increased prosperity as the reason that women did not have to work in the 1950's 
(E) More women worked outside the home in 1942 than 10 years later :  right bang on the answer , this is the flip in language and can be inferred as passage states that fewer American women worked outside the home in 1952 than in 1942.

3. The author mentions the female worker as merely filling in for a soldier to whom the job “properly” belonged primarily in order to
 answer is (D) acknowledge that the changes brought about for female workers during this time period were not universally positive 
(A) argue that women should not have taken jobs away from soldiers :  no this was done for this purpose , it was done to just show that it was not something very positive to be boasted about  
(B) assert that women were generally less competent than men to do the jobs in question:  no this was done for this purpose , it was done to just show that it was not something very positive to be boasted about 
(C) establish that persistent and institutionalized discrimination still predominated in the workplace :  actually this is too extreme language and also a contrast with some universally positive things like gender barriers were lowered and pay began to equalize is shown , so this is not so apt for purpose  
(D) acknowledge that the changes brought about for female workers during this time period were not universally positive :  this is right as this is correct contrast with some universally positive things like gender barriers were lowered and pay began to equalize is shown 
(E) explain why gender barriers were lowered somewhat during the period in question :  no actually this is one of the different parts of contrast mentioned and thus cannot explain the reason

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In the early 1940s, womens participation in the U.S. labor market

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In the early 1940s, womens participation in the U.S. labor market

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