Introduction
When
people think of some of the more iconic and inspirational figures of World War
II, they often think of Uncle Sam and Rosie the Riveter. While Uncle Sam was
used to inspire men to sign up and ship out to war, the figure of Rosie the
Riveter was meant to inspire the women these men left behind. Rosie the Riveter
has become an iconic image in American culture, and her image inspired many
women to join the war effort. For many women this meant staying home and caring
for their children, their homes and in some cases assuming roles in factory
jobs that had been left behind by their husbands, fathers, brothers and
friends. For nearly 420,000 women, this meant joining the men in the military reserves,
overseas in hospitals or working on ships and in some instances on or near the
battlefield to help care for wounded and fallen soldiers. In the four years
that the United States was involved in World War II, 1941 until 1945, the
United States sent their young men and women in to war, but people don’t always
think about the efforts on the home front, or the many women who served in a
more official capacity during the war. This paper will examine the role women
had on the war front, the role of women who were making efforts on the home
front to support the war and how all of the women, both on the home front and
fighting the war, were inspired by the iconic image of a woman in denim, red
socks, black boots and a classic red bandana with polka dots, Rosie the Riveter.[1]
“Over
There”
“Up until World War II, with the
exception of the World War I period, the adage that “if
the Army had wanted you to have a wife, it would have issued
you one” aptly summed up the Army’s attitude toward families.”[2]
In World War I, most married men were not drafted, as they needed to provide
for their families, by 1941 this was no longer a feasible option for the United
States military. Wives of military men sought to gain rights for military
families who, at the time, did not have transportation costs or living costs
covered.[3]
For some women, helping to shape policy and benefits for military families was
not enough. There were women who were unmarried, or simply wanted to be the
boots on the ground in some way, that enlisted in the branches of the United
States military that would accept women in the late 1930s and early 1940s.
The
National World War II Museum states that there were 150,000 women in the
Women’s Army Corps, 100,000 in the Navy’s Women Accepted for Voluntary
Emergency Service, 10,000 in the Coast Guard Women’s Reserves, 23,000 in the
Marine Corps Women’s Reserve, 60,000 in the Army Nurse Corps, 14,000 in the
Navy Nurse Corps and 1074 Women’s Airforce Service Pilots. Altogether, this
totals 418,074 women in the service during World War II.[4] Many American women joined
the force to serve their country. They filled roles that they had not filled
before at a much larger capacity. When America joined the war, after the Pearl
Harbor attack on December 7th, 1941, there were now many
opportunities for a country who had struggled through the depression of the
1930s, to get back to the work and to aid the war effort, if not joining in the
fight themselves.
On
the Home Front
It is very easy to
overlook the challenges that were faced on the home front in terms of
encouraging women into the workforce and overturning prejudice in the mindsets
of the factory owners who were losing their “manpower.” This is one of the many
issues that Emily Yellin talks about in her book. Yellin discusses the
obstacles that sprang up when women were proposed as a solution to losing a
large number of men in the labor force during World War II. She states that,
“There were those entrenched attitudes of many employers, male workers,
husbands, fathers, and women themselves against females working outside the
home, particularly in industrial jobs.”[5] Early on, the idea was met
with opposition, and it took many coordinated efforts on the part of the American
government to change the mindset that many had. President Roosevelt gave a
speech on Columbus Day in 1942 stating, “In some communities employers dislike
to hire women. In others they are reluctant to hire Negroes. We can no longer
afford to indulge such prejudice.”[6] The new goal was to focus
on convincing the middle-class men and women of America, that allowing women to
fill these positions was a benefit rather than a hazard. The United States
government did this through speeches, pamphlets and figures like Rosie the
Riveter.
Marc
Miller wrote an article that focused on the domestic aspects and effects that
World War II had on women. He states that, “the war led to a dramatic rise in
the number of women working in the United States; from 10.8 million in March,
1941, to more than 18 million in August, 1944, reversing a downward trend
attributed to the depression.”[7] Historians and their
readers tend to focus on the men of the war, and when there are movies made
about WWII, with the occasional exception, the women are included in the story
as a love interest rather than as central characters. This is evident in many
movies, but there was a movie that was released in 1980 entitled The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter, that sought to give a real life
look at the life of women, or the “real Rosie’s.” [8] The movie was directed by
Connie Field and it looks at the lives of five women during the war. She chose
three African American women and two white and interviews them and has them
recall their experiences during the war and she carefully cuts in other footage
from other films, news clips and modern songs. Field was able to give a
different and real life look at the lives of these women, who were far more
than just a love interest. Marc Miller’s article also takes a better look at
the role women like the five in the film played. The 1930s began a period in
American history where it became more acceptable for women to work outside the
home. The jobs that were held during the nineteenth century mostly focused on
the textile industry. Amy Platt’s article discusses women in Oregon, where she
states that by 1944 over 100,000 women held jobs that had been created as a
direct need for World War II.[9] Her article goes on to
discuss some of the photos from the exhibit. In these photos, the women of the
American workforce are shown working on ammunitions, as well as working in
shipyards. She also points out that these jobs were mostly made available to
white women, and says that while, “African American men and women faced
discrimination, including limited job opportunities, restricted union benefits,
and difficulty in finding housing and childcare,” that, “Black women were
consistently denied access to skilled jobs, even when they had been trained and
certified. The Kaiser shipyard in Vancouver hired the most black women of the
three yards — 31 percent of the workforce — but only 20 percent of the welders
and electricians were black women.”[10] This was a far cry from
equal opportunity, both for women, and women of color, but It did begin to
bring some major national attention to the inequalities in the workforce.
Reflection
on the Past
When
it comes to teaching World War II history, the focus is usually on the major
battles of the war, the diplomacy, the holocaust and the technology
advancements. Karen Anderson writes about this in her article, Teaching About
Rosie the Riveter: The Role of Women During World War II. She focuses on the
changes to the workforce and says that, “women's wartime employment threatened
to undermine stereotypes that had been used to defend their confinement to the
home…”[11] This was the beginning of
a new chapter for American women, who were beginning to make up a larger part
of the workforce than they ever had. Despite being a new chapter, women’s jobs
and roles were still under fire. “The areas of change and continuity in women's
places, roles, and status during World War II laid the foundation for the
complex patterns of the postwar era. Women, especially wives and mothers,
continued to enter the paying workforce in growing numbers. Debates over
women's roles in family, politics, and work, grew in intensity.”[12] Anderson concludes that
these issues in gender relations would go on to foster the growth of what we
now know as the modern women’s movement.
There
is also an economic factor to consider when teaching the history of women in
World War II. “The government tapped "married women without children under
the age of ten as the best source of workers for the duration of the war."
Government policy makers of the War Production Board's (WPB) labor division put
forth the idea of recruiting "large numbers of women who do not normally
consider themselves a part of the industrial labor supply.”[13] The thought was that all
of these women would go back to being housewives after completing their
“patriotic duty.” The WPB was so confident in their idea that the women in the
workforce would only be their temporarily and would likely not do as good a job
as their male counterparts, that it focused its effort into creating a pamphlet
that was called. “"What Job is Mine on the Victory Line?” This pamphlet
focused on giving domestic attribute to more than thirty industrial jobs that
women would be performing.[14]
The
pamphlet, “What Job is Mine on the Victory Line,” outlined jobs for women to
assist the war effort by aligning them with work a housewife might complete. “If you’ve sewed on buttons or made
buttonholes on a machine, you can learn to do spot welding on airplane parts. If
you’ve used an electric mixer in your kitchen, you can learn to run a drill
press. If you’ve followed recipes exactly in making cakes, you can learn to
load shell.”[15] When
studying the past, it is important to remember that pamphlets like the one
released by the United States Women’s Bureau are a form of propaganda. For many
women, it was inspiring to know that they could do something at home to support
the men on the ground overseas. There were newspaper articles that were printed
regularly that told women where to go to obtain their free copy of the
pamphlet. One article printed in the Long Beach Independent in May of 1943
stated, “The transition from buttonholes to aircraft is only one of those
outlined in a study, “What Job is Mine on the Victory Line?” Surveying the
household duties and peacetime jobs in which women have been most proficient,
the Women’s bureau of the Labor Department points out that a large number of
these have provided skills easily transferable to vital war industries.”[16]
The aim of the pamphlet was to provide women with ideas for an easy transition
to the workforce based on skills they likely already possessed.
Conclusion
The women of the United States came out to support their country during World War II, and this would be a catalyst for women in the workforce in a post war era. Nearly 420,000 women joined or worked for the United States military during the war. The women on the home front grew the workforce and provided support to the nation and filled the jobs of many men. This was an inspiring venture for women, and it paved the way for women in the future generations to enter the workforce and not just be confined to the roles of wife and mother. The United States Department of Labor was incorrect in their assumption that women would automatically return to the life of a housewife after the war. The figures that were well remembered like Uncle Sam and Rosie the Riveter could be described by many as inspirational or even propaganda, but for most these figures simply inspired them to complete what they felt was their patriotic duty. Despite the baby boom, that has now been defined as the years 1946 to 1964, women were no longer going to allow themselves to be relegated to the roles they had been confined to in the years before World War II. Each woman that played a part in furthering rights for women in terms of the workforce and later, in terms of equality, could be said to be their own kind of Rosie the Riveter, because they would go on to be the face of strong women and the face of change in the world as it would evolve after the events of World War II.
Bibliography
United States. Women's Bureau. What Job is Mine on the
Victory Line? Washington D.C.: Goverment Printing Office, 1943.
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1980.
Anderson, Karen. "Teaching about Rosie the Riveter:
The Role of Women during World War II." OAH Magazine of History,
1988: 35-37.
Dresser, Sherrie A. Kossoudji and Laura J. "Working
Class Rosies: Women Industrial Workers during World War II." The
Journal of Economic History, 1992: 431-446.
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to Get Defense Jobs." Long Beach Independant , May 30, 1943: 10.
Miller, Marc. "Working Women and World War II." The
New England Quarterly, 1980: 42-61.
National World War II Museum New Orleans. Research
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Rosie Rally. August 17, 2017. http://www.rosietheriveter.org/news/blog/itemlist/tag/RORI?fbclid=IwAR3MwRpb_WU2S1Za_KoCYCeuJ_NLAunMboQNNpa8eGTh5mwAks_VHKho_VM
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[1]
The Rosie the Riveter Trust. Home Front Festival and Rosie
Rally. August 17, 2017.
http://www.rosietheriveter.org/news/blog/itemlist/tag/RORI?fbclid=IwAR3MwRpb_WU2S1Za_KoCYCeuJ_NLAunMboQNNpa8eGTh5mwAks_VHKho_VM
(accessed May 20, 2019).
[2] Rostker, Bernard. "CHAPTER FIFTEEN The Role of
Women in the All-Volunteer Force." In I Want You!: The Evolution of the
All-Volunteer Force, by Bernard Rostker, 559-590. Santa Monica: RAND
Corporation, 2006.
[3] Rostker, 578.
[4] National World War II Museum New Orleans. Research
Starters: US Military by the Numbers. n.d.
https://www.nationalww2museum.org/students-teachers/student-resources/research-starters/research-starters-us-military-numbers
(accessed May 22, 2019).
[5] Yellin, Emily. Our Mothers' War: American Women at
Home and at the Front During World War II. New York: Free Press, 2005.
[6] Yellin, 39.
[7] Miller, Marc. "Working Women and World War II." The New England Quarterly, 1980: 42-61.
[8]
The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter. Directed by Connie Field. Performed by Wanita Allen, Lyn
Childs, Margaret Wright, & Gladys Belcher and Lola Weixel. 1980.
[9] Platt, Amy E. "“Go into the yard as a worker, not
as a woman”: Oregon Women During World War II, a Digital Exhibit on the Oregon
History Project." Oregon Historical Quarterly, 2015: 234-248.
[10] Platt, 245.
[11] Anderson, Karen. "Teaching about Rosie the
Riveter: The Role of Women during World War II." OAH Magazine of
History, 1988: 35-37.
[12] Anderson, 37.
[13] Dresser, Sherrie A. Kossoudji and Laura J.
"Working Class Rosies: Women Industrial Workers during World War II."
The Journal of Economic History, 1992: 431-446.
[14] Dresser and
Kossoudji, 432.
[15] United States. Women's Bureau. What Job is Mine on the Victory Line? Washington D.C.: Goverment Printing Office, 1943.
[16] Long Beach Independant . "Labor Department Tells
How to Get Defense Jobs." Long Beach Independant , May 30, 1943:
10.
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