While most scholarship on womens employment in the United States reco

Question

While most scholarship on women’s employment in the United States recognizes that the Second World War (1939–1945) dramatically changed the role of women in the workforce, these studies also acknowledge that few women remained in manufacturing jobs once men returned from the war. But in agriculture, unlike other industries where women were viewed as temporary workers, women’s employment did not end with the war. Instead, the expansion of agriculture and a steady decrease in the number of male farmworkers combined to cause the industry to hire more women in the postwar years. Consequently, the 1950s saw a growing number of women engaged in farm labor, even though rhetoric in the popular media called for the return of women to domestic life.    1 
 1. It can be inferred from the passage that the manufacturing and agricultural sectors in the United States following the Second World War differed in which of the following respects?

A. The rate of expansion in each sector
B. The percentage of employees in each sector who were men 
C. The trend in the wages of men employed in each sector 
D. The attitude of the popular media toward the employment of women in
each sector
E. The extent to which women in each sector were satisfed with their jobs

2  
 2. Which of the following statements about women’s employment in the United States during and after the Second World War is most clearly supported by the passage?

A. Most women who joined the workforce during the Second World War wanted to return to domestic life when the war ended.
B. The great majority of women who joined the workforce during the Second World War were employed in manufacturing jobs.
C. The end of the Second World War was followed by a large-scale transfer of women workers from manufacturing to agriculture.
D. The increase in women’s employment that accompanied the Second World War was longer lasting in agriculture than it was in manufacturing.
E. The popular media were more forceful in calling for women to join the workforce during the Second World War than in calling for women to return to domestic life after the war.

Sajjad1994 · Answer

OE

1. It can be inferred from the passage that the manufacturing and agricultural sectors in the United States following the Second World War differed in which of the following respects?

Explanation

The correct choice for this question is  Choice B.  We are told that few women remained in the manufacturing sector once men returned from the war, while the number of women who worked in agriculture increased after the war as the number of men in agriculture decreased. It is therefore inferable that the percentage of employees working in manufacturing who were men increased while the percentage of employees working in agriculture who were men decreased.

Choices A, C,  and  E  are incorrect because the passage provides no information about rates of expansion, wage trends, or women’s job satisfaction.  Choice D  is incorrect because the only mention of the popular media occurs in the final sentence, and no distinction is made between the sectors there.

Answer: B

Sajjad1994 · Answer

Official Explanation

2. Which of the following statements about women’s employment in the United States during and after the Second World War is most clearly supported by the passage?

The correct choice for this question is  Choice D.  We are told in the passage that women’s employment in manufacturing fell quickly after men returned from the war. However, not only did women’s employment in agriculture not decline after the end of the war, it actually increased. The other choices are incorrect because the passage provides no information about what women who joined the workforce wanted to do; about the distribution of women across industries; about what happened to women who left manufacturing; nor about media appeals for women to join the wartime workforce.

Answer: D

While most scholarship on womens employment in the United States reco

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