Social+Adjustments+and+the+development+of+new+wartime+families

**NAME** - Dorothy Williams
 * AGE** - 17
 * HOMETOWN** - Alturus, California
 * HIGH SCHOOL** - Modoc County High School
 * BIRTHDAY** - June 1st, 1928
 * ZODIAC SIGN** - Gemini
 * RELATIONSHIP STATUS** - Boyfriend's location unknown
 * INCOME** - My father makes around $30,000 a year as a doctor in the army
 * OCCUPATION** - I am a student, but my father is a doctor, and my mother is now a nurse in the U.S.
 * FAMILY** - I have a mother, a father, an older brother, and a younger sister.

The war we are in now, some are calling it the second World War, is effecting America’s social society and family life more than I could have imagined. The first aspect of life in the U.S. that has changed since the beginning of the war is the economic situation. The people who normally would occupy all of the biggest jobs, the young men of America, are now fighting in the war. In 1944, estimates showed that there were about four million men in the military, aged around twenty to thirty (Burgess 343). The men who hadn’t left for the war now took some of the extra jobs and naturally, unemployment rates have decreased drastically (Danzer 591). In order to keep the economy from collapsing, women have also entered the work force in great numbers, taking over jobs that wouldn’t usually be available to us (Roosevelt 1). I’ve heard that by now, June of 1945, more than 6 million have gotten jobs for the first time (Danzer 591). Many women have gone to be nurses for the US army, gotten jobs in factories, started working in day care services, or took over nurses’ jobs back here in America (Roosevelt 1). Others have started jobs in defense plants with occupations such as witnessing, clerking, and domestic service, or tried their hand at creative jobs like journalism or other art-related fields (Danzer 591). My father was a well known doctor in California, so when the war started he was sent off with our troops to care for sick or wounded soldiers. We were very supportive of him and his choice to help the country which we love, but I know that each member of our family is waiting for the day when he can return safely. Meanwhile, my mother has had to get a job to support our family. She had been helping my father with patients before he left, so she decided to become a nurse. A lot of nurses and doctors went off to the war, so nurses are in high demand right now in the home land (Roosevelt 1). Right now I am still going to school, but I work part time at a nursery where my little sister, aged 9, goes after she gets out of school. My older brother, aged 20 right now, went off to war two years ago, one year after my father, but he went to the army. My mother wanted him to stay home and go to college, but he thinks that fighting for America is the noblest act anyone can commit in their lifetime. His new wife works on her father’s farm, which is prospering right now due to the high demand of crops because of the war and the improved climate (Danzer 591). Actually, my brother and his wife only got married last year, right before he left for the army. They had been high school sweethearts and wanted to get married before my brother left, something I hear was quite common (Burgess 345). The marriage rate was one of the highest it has ever been since the first Great War, because everyone wanted to get a husband before all of the men were gone (Burgess 343). Our family and millions of others have been disrupted by the war. I know that my mother is having a hard time raising my sister and I alone, but I try to make it easier (Danzer 592). A lot of kids my age are becoming delinquents due to the small number of parents that are actually around (Danzer 592). I am trying to keep studying and working hard to make a contribution to my country like my whole family has been. A lot of families have been destroyed thanks to separation during the war, but we are all striving to keep this from happening to us. We write to my father and brother every week, and my mother comes home and reads us the letters that they have sent back several times each night. Hopefully, when my brother and father do finally return, they won’t have much trouble adjusting to life in America once again. Last year in 1944 Congress passed the Servicemen’s Readjustments Act, or the GI Bill of Rights which provides education and training or returning soldiers (Danzer 592). This allows soldiers to make an easier transition back into home life, but I fear that many families will never be the same.

Danzer, Gerald A., Jorge J. Klor de Alva, and Larry S. Krieger. __The Americans__. Evanston, Il: McDougal Littel, 2003.
 * __Works Cited__**

Burgess, Ernest W. "The Effect of War in the American Family." __The American Journal__ __of Sociology__. 48.3 (1942): 343-352. JSTOR. HCRHS IMC. Flemington, NJ. 24 Oct. 2007 http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=00029602%28194211%2948%3A3%3C3 43%3ATEOWOT%3E2.0.CO%3B2-8>.

Roosevelt, Eleanor. "American Women in the War ." __The Reader's Digest__. 1944: 42-44. __JSTOR__. Flenington, NJ. HCRHS IMC.24 Oct. 2007 .

__**Picture Citations**__

http://www.guillerault.com/FamilyStory.htm