Historically, feminism has been progressively changing over the course of centuries. At any given period of time, the term “feminism” has meant many different things. The term itself is not often even used to describe what one would most likely consider feminist ideas, as it is often riddled with negative connotations. The time period that I based my research project on was the 1930s and 1940s, which was between what most people consider the “first wave” and “second wave” of feminism. This made it significantly difficult to find information about feminism directly, as it was not as much of a focus during that time as it had been earlier and would be later on in the century. For this reason, I had to discover what it meant to be feminist during the time period I was researching, without searching for feminism specifically. While doing this, I realized that for a woman to be a feminist means she defies social norms to break down the barriers she is faced with, creating change. Women were faced with many barriers during the mid-twentieth century, and while there were undoubtedly women who followed the most accepted social structure, there were also many women who broke away from that structure, changing the course of feminist history. There were three main topics that I felt would best illuminate the way women defied social norms: women getting a post-secondary education, working women, and women who participated in the war effort during WWII. These topics are each described separately in the other pages under “Research Project.”