Most women took up service-sector jobs, especially in Washington D.C., where they worked for the government as typists, secretaries, or clerks. These women were known as “government girls” and worked long hours for government agencies. Even the women enlisting in the WAC (army) or the WAVE (navy) held mainly clerical jobs and did not see real battle on the front. A vast majority of the women worked here, although propaganda we see now suggests otherwise.
Factories were one of the biggest concerns. Before the war, although some women did work in factories doing less intense work, they never did the “hard” jobs such as operating heavy machinery, unloading freight, or working the steel plants. Although some people were worried about women doing such hard labor, others likened it to “cutting airplane wings to make a dress pattern, and mixing chemicals to bake a cake.” Women were able to break down much racial discrimination because of necessity, and women of all walks of life were offered a job. In total, however, only a tiny fraction of working women took a blue-collar job in factories, but they did manage to significantly boost the work in shipyards, steel mills, munitions factories, etc.
Childcare centers sprang up across the nation in order to fulfill the gap in children’s lives as their mothers began working. Although a majority of mothers felt it was their duty to stay home, others felt the need to work, and left their children in these centers. While it was advised that mothers should stay home with children under 14—to combat juvenile delinquency—most women even left children under 6 at home alone, in locked cars, or in the crowded childcare centers. Now, women could not only work for their nation, but also be respected for doing so (without children holding them down).
“Rosie the Riveter” was a popular image mentioned in songs, posters, and in the media. The most notable image of a blue-collared Rosie saying “We can do it!” was initially coined by Rose Will Monroe’s being scouted from a Ford Motor Company aircraft assembly line to appearance in a film promoting the war. From this, Norman Rockwell created a “Rosie” picture to symbolize these “Rosies” working in the factories, and the significance of their contributions.
Women were one of the most important components to the war effort on the homefront, and gained many economic and social advantages throughout the duration of World War II. Although the men from World War II eventually returned and demanded their old jobs back, nothing could change the shift in thinking that they produced, and nothing lowered the number of women holding jobs to pre-war levels.
Rationing, Unions, Blackouts, and Victory Gardens:
