Social Sciences and History / Unit 2 SSH 0121 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
Wartime Conditions and Women's Work, Three Wars
The idea
Sample question nine asks what wartime conditions did for women, and the key is greater access to work. The anchor states the pattern three times. In the Revolution, the war provided new opportunities and new challenges for women alongside enslaved and free Black people. In the First World War, as soldiers left, women and African Americans took jobs previously reserved for White men, and workers won the right to organize in return for a no-strike pledge. In the Second World War, new employment opened for women and ethnic minorities as White men enlisted or were drafted, with Rosie the Riveter as the symbol of the defense industries.
In practice
To answer the question, look for the option that names access to work and nothing grander. Distractors will offer permanence, political power or equal pay. The anchor is explicit that most First World War gains were temporary and that the postwar culture expected the old order back, and that women who made professional gains in the Second World War were often dismissed afterward.
Where people slip
The trap is overclaiming. The key says access to work, not lasting equality. A question stem that asks what the wars gave women is answered by the door that opened, and the course adds that the door was closed again after each war, as the anchor records.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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