Women in WWII

Civilian jobs in Great Britain and the United States of America

Introduction

In many ways, the story of women’s employment during WWI was repeated during WWII. The
entry of the United States of America and the United Kingdom into WWII completely transformed the
types of jobs open to women. In fact, before the war, women were generally working in the female field
as nursing and teaching. As men from all over the country joined the fight, women were called upon to
help. They were now in the midst of the action. The USA such as the United Kingdom used all their assets,
women included.

Framework

- Varied tasks in the workforce

a. Sustaining industry
b. Feeding the country
c. Other various positions
- Propaganda : the example of “Rosie the Riveter”
- Working conditions for women in the WWII
- After work impact : gains and losses for women

Varied tasks in the workforce

Women were increasingly encouraged to take over responsibilities on the home front. They
realised varied tasks in the workforce. They took skilled and unskilled, manual and office jobs. They were
streetcar operators, taxi drivers, construction workers, steel workers, lumber workers, munitions workers,
agriculture workers, government workers or even office workers. As a matter of fact, women worked in a
variety of positions. In the UK, 7 million women joined the workforce. In the USA, the female labor force
grew by 6.5 million. At the height of the war, there were 19,170,000 women in the labor force.

1) Sustaining industry

Unprecedented numbers of women entered the ranks of factory workers. They worked in the
defense industry so that American and British industry could meet their wartime production demands for
planes, tanks, ships, and weapons. In fact, in the United States of America, after the Japanese attack on
Pearl Harbor, the government called upon manufacturers to produce greater amounts of war goods.
Women sustained this growing demand.

In the United Kingdom, from 1941, women were called up for war work, in roles such as
mechanics, engineers, munitions workers or air raid wardens. At first, only single women between 20 and
30 years old were called up. Nevertheless, after 1943, almost 90 percent of single women and 80 percent
of married women were working to take action in the war effort. They were doing a “man’s job” but were
paid less.

The largest employers of women during World War II were airplane manufacturers such as
Boeing Aircraft, Consolidated Aircraft Corporation, and Douglass Aircraft Company. Other major
employers included Chrysler and Ford. The aviation industry saw the greatest increase in female workers.
More than 310,000 women worked in the U.S. aircraft industry in 1943, representing 65 percent of the
industry’s total workforce (compared to just 1 percent in the pre-war years). Thus, one in three aircraft
workers was a woman. Moreover, women were often given welding jobs in parts of aircraft bodies
difficult to reach because they were smaller and more agile than men. In munitions and electronics
industries, one in two workers was a woman.

2) Feeding the country

Food supplies became a major concern for the United States and the United Kingdom at home
and abroad during World War II.

In the UK, more than 80,000 women joined the Women’s Land Army. The Women's Land Army
(WLA) played a major role in the development of the British food production during the Second World
War. Women who worked in farms were known as ‘Land Girls’. These women endured tough working
conditions and long hours in isolated rural lands to prevent Britain from starvation. They worked in all
weathers and conditions and could be sent anywhere in the country. They also had to live on these farms
and follow strict rules. Their tasks were varied. They looked after animals, ploughed fields, dug up
potatoes, harvested crops or killed rats.

By the summer of 1942, in the USA, farmers faced a severe labour shortage. By 1943 the U.S.
Congress allocated funds for the Emergency Farm Labor Service, which included the recruitment, training,
and placement of female farm labourers. The Women’s Land Army, a subdivision of the United States
Crop Corps, was created. Its creation is therefore slower in the United States than in the UK.

In the UK and the USA, women planted “Victory Gardens”. They planted gardens in backyards,
empty lots and even city rooftops.

3) Other various positions

If they filled jobs left by men who entered military service, women also built morale and
organized various home front initiatives such as fundraisings. They kept morale high during what could be
the darkest period of the troops’ lives. For instance, they entertained soldiers at USO canteens. In fact, the
USO was an organization which provided recreation and aid services for the men and women of the
Armed Forces.

Women also gave blood or volunteered as nurses’ aides. In the UK, over one and a half million
people were evacuated from British towns and cities in the beginning of 1939, owing to a fear of massive
German bombing raids. Eight hundred thousand children headed for the countryside. This has created a
vast movement of people and women helped to keep children safe.
 In New Orleans, as the demand for public transportation grew, women even became streetcar
operators and conductors for the first time. They were operating the cars and performing maintenance,
keeping the cars on schedule but also enforcing racial segregation within the transit vehicles. These
women were called “conductorettes”.

Propaganda : the example of “Rosie the Riveter”

In Great Britain as in the United States of America, propaganda has grown. In fact, thanks to it,
women redefined their personal and domestic ideals of womanhood. That allows them to go against the
roles that have been assigned to them by the society. Therefore, propaganda is a key aspect of women's
contribution to the war effort.

In the beginning of 1942, as an increasing number of American men were recruited for the war
effort, women were needed to fill their positions in factories. In fact, following the attack on Pearl Harbor,
the United States entered the war. To overcome the lack of manpower in the industry, a major
propaganda campaign was launched by the government. It encouraged women to do men's jobs. Rosie
the Riveter was part of this propaganda campaign. She became the symbol of women in the workforce
during World War II.

The war propaganda used “Rosie” as a metaphorical representation of the millions of women
who joined the workforce. This massive national campaign, implemented by The War Advertising Council,
convinced women to take action during the wartime as part of their patriotic duty. The government and
employers used patriotism as a primary argument to recruit women for war work.

“Rosie the Riveter” is based, in small part, on a real-life worker. However, she is primarily a
fictional character. The identity of the real Rosie is debated. She can be Rosie Will Monroe, an assembly
line worker at the Ford Motor Company plant in Michigan. She helped build B-29 and B-24 airplanes for
the war effort. She can also be a Californian waitress named Naomi Parker Fraley.

The term "Rosie the Riveter" was first used in 1942 in a song of the same name written by Redd
Evans and John Jacob Loeb. Following the release of this song, Norman Rockwell’s drawing of his version
of the female defense worker appeared on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post, on May 29, 1943. This
Rosie had a blue jumpsuit, with a red bandana in her hair. However, the most prominent image of Rosie
the Riveter in the American culture was the version released by the United States government with the
“We Can Do It!” posters. This Rosie looks like Rockwell’s Rosie, but she is less masculine. She is depicted
with her sleeves rolled up, a polka-dot bandana on her head, showing off her biceps and saying "We can
do it ! ".

The figure of “Rosie the Riveter” was reinforced in movies, newspapers, propaganda posters,
photographs and articles. Nowadays, if she is a historical and cultural symbol, she also became a feminist
icon.

Working conditions for women in the WWII

 If women proved that they could do "men's" work, and do it well, it was not all positive for them.
Women workers had to face discrimination in the workplace. They rarely earned more than half of what
their male counterparts earned. They were not well perceived by some men, colleagues or trade unions.
In fact, they were seen as a threat on men’s wages after the war, when they would go back to their jobs.

Moreover, even if women had access to more jobs than ever before, they were paid far less than
men. Indeed, women earned up to 60 per cent less than men for the same job. Besides, mothers had to
balance childcare and work. In an attempt to address women's dual roles as workers and mothers,
Eleanor Roosevelt encouraged her husband Franklin Delano Roosevelt to support the first U.S.
government childcare centres. As a result, seven centres, serving 105,000 children, were built. She also
urged industry leaders to build nurseries for their workers. However, these efforts had not met all the
child care needs of working mothers.

Minority women also faced difficulties and injustices. As a matter of fact, not all women were
treated the same in the workplace. For instance, African American women struggled to find jobs in the
defense industry. They were paid less than their white peers and did not have the same job opportunities.
Another example is the situation of Japanese American women. In western states, they were sent off to
Japanese Internment Camps. These camps were established by President Franklin Roosevelt in reaction to
Pearl Harbor in order to prevent espionage by Japanese people.

After war impact : gains and losses for women

After the war, a lot of women left their wartime jobs. The end of the war put an end to the
industrial career of many riveters so that the men could take their jobs up again. Some found work as
secretaries or shop assistants. Their service during the war inspired their fight for social change and
equality. These women furthered the women’s rights movement started a hundred years ago with the
first suffragettes. World War II empowered women to look for new opportunities and fight for equal pay.
Women workers continued to campaign for equal pay through the 1950s. Women’s trade union
membership increased through the 1950s and the 60s.

Moreover, these changes in women's working life have led to a shift in family patterns. For
example, the separation between wives and husbands fighting overseas increased the number of
divorces. Moreover, mothers had to balance childcare and work.

The American historian Stephen Ambrose sums up the role of women during the Second World
War by saying that they “became proficient cooks and housekeepers, managed the finances, learned to
fix the car, worked in a defense plant, and wrote letters to their soldier husbands that were consistently
upbeat.”. To conclude, no matter what paths these women took after the war, they are remembered and
saluted for having contributed to the war effort.