Widows and Orphans

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WIDOWS AND ORPHANS

America's involvement in the Spanish-American War, World War I, and World War II left a population of widows and orphans in its wake. Faced with rebuilding their lives alone, many wives and mothers confronted great emotional and financial hardship. War orphans found their situation equally difficult as they faced growing up without their fathers. There were ways, however, in which these victims of war coped with their unique situation through self-determination, aid from family, and government assistance.

emotional toll

Widows blunted the emotional hardship in a variety of ways. Many sought comfort by moving in with family members. Others remarried soon after their husbands' deaths in order to bring some sense of normalcy to their lives. Those with children found that remarriage also eased the financial and emotional strains associated with single parenthood. In extreme cases, widows overwhelmed with grief succumbed to alcoholism, suffered severe bouts of depression, or committed suicide.

The children of soldiers killed in battle also experienced difficult periods of adjustment. In World War II alone, government records show that 183,000 children lost their fathers during their service overseas. Many young children had no recollection of their fathers and thus depended on family stories, mementos, pictures, and letters to provide a link that memory could not. Children's ability to cope with their father's death varied considerably: some experienced a short-term loss of security whereas others endured long-term psychological disorders.

With little assistance from public organizations, children's ability to cope with a father's death depended greatly on family response. As William Tuttle points out in Daddy's Gone to War, psychologists during World War II commonly advised mothers assisting grieving children that "if you can take it, your children can" (Tuttle p. 45). Furthermore, families often helped children in the grieving process by restructuring their daily routines to accommodate the absence of their fathers. Memorials in the home and larger community also helped children to adjust to a father's death by providing them with an emotional outlet. The presence of a stepfather in the home, however, often complicated children's ability to cope. Some war orphans reported a troubled home life caused by a neglectful mother or an abusive stepfather, but others recalled that the presence of a stepfather helped fill the emotional void left by the father's death.

financial cost

The financial costs of losing a husband or father added to the hardships of war widows and orphans. Between 1898 and 1945, society generally embraced men as breadwinners and the heads of their households. During wartime, soldiers' wives continued to rely on their husbands' income. Although women during the two world wars found new job opportunities in war industries, they received lower pay than men and had fewer chances for advancement. Given popular attitudes toward women in the workforce, war widows confronted hardships adjusting to the loss of their husbands' income. In the aftermath of the Spanish American War and World War I, many widows moved in with their fathers, brothers, or other male relatives who could assume primary responsibility for supporting their families. Widows did have the option of assuming the role of breadwinner and working outside the home, but inequalities in pay and lack of public childcare made it difficult for women to work while raising a family. During World War II, however, increasing numbers of women joined the workforce as jobs in areas such as industry and clerical work increased and the government took steps to provide childcare for working mothers. Yet some mothers grew frustrated with the financial demands of maintaining a family without the income of a spouse and placed their children in orphanages.

federal assistance

The federal government recognized the need to provide these victims of war with financial assistance. Since the passage of the first widows' pension act in 1836, war widows and orphans received some form of government aid. World War I prompted the government to liberalize benefits to accommodate the growing population of widows and orphans as well as to meet yearly increases in the cost of living. Assistance to wives and children varied according to the war in which their husbands or fathers had served.

During World War I, the government initiated new forms of veterans' benefits that affected aid to war widows and orphans. Under the War Risk Insurance Act of 1917, the government provided monthly payments to the wives and dependents of soldiers who died in battle and allowed soldiers to take out life insurance payable to their families in the event of their death. In 1920 and 1926, legislators approved benefits for widows of the Spanish American war that provided monthly payments based on family size. The government likewise addressed the needs of war orphans. Traditionally, a child received benefits until the age of eighteen, but in 1928 Congress raised the age to twenty-one for those attending college. As the United States entered the Great Depression, the government removed a number of widows who had remarried from their roster and reduced the annual allotment of pensions; but by the late 1930s legislators again raised pension payments to help families recover from the financial crisis. Legislators continued to expand benefits to wives and children as America entered World War II. A federal law in 1944, for example, allowed benefit payments to the dependents of soldiers missing in action upon confirmation of their death by the secretary of war or secretary of the navy.

Between 1898 and 1945, the number of war widows and orphans in the United States rose considerably. The wives and children of deceased soldiers found a variety of ways to cope with financial and emotional hardships. Many developed a sense of self-reliance that allowed them to adapt to the loss of a spouse or father, whereas others turned to the help of family members. Government officials also recognized the growing number of widows and orphans and took steps to provide financial assistance. Although the experiences of war widows and orphans varied, all found a degree of solace in the private and public sectors of American society.