ages for women workers (Janeway x).
             In most cases, women's roles and the way in which the family is structured probably flows in the eddies and currents which pass from social to legal to political and back again. In the example of suffrage, it was social change which led to legal and political change. In the Depression years, a similar pattern followed, with social need requiring some sort of political and legal response to put the nations workforce back on their feet. In the example of World War II, the ebb and flow came from the political situation of war, which, in turn, influenced the social response allowing women to feel accepted in the work place more than at any time in history, even though just a few years earlier, there was government policy in place which would have severely hindered women, especially married women, from working (Woloch 301).
             World War II affected the family on several levels. Many families were affected by those leaving for military service overseas resulting in women becoming the head of the household. Others were affected by the relocation of jobs as new defense plants were established all over the country, especially the west coast. "By 1942, once men were scarce, reluctance diminished, but hostility to women in policy making continued (Woloch 302)". " 'Almost overnight,' wrote Mary Anderson, 'women were reclassified from marginal to a basic labor supply'. 'During the war,' said Eleanor Roosevelt, women became 'an indispensable part of the life of the country' " (Woloch 302). An example of this is that the number of women employed in the defense industry rose 406 percent (Woloch 302). "By 1943, at major factories like Boeing's huge Seattle plant, half the workers were women" (Woloch 302). The growth of government in Washington, DC and other cities drew many families and especially women. A November 23, 1943 feature in the New York Times reported that "the capital has been captured and sub...