If they both worked, they worked different shifts so they could take turns babysitting. Many who did have young children shared apartments and houses so they could save time, money, utilities and food. They assembled into groups and shared such chores as cooking, cleaning and washing clothes. Those women with children at home pooled together in their efforts to raise their families. Many of the women who took jobs during World War II were mothers. One government advertisement asked women: 'Can you use an electric mixer? If so, you can learn to operate a drill.' : 160 Propaganda was also directed at their husbands, many of whom were unwilling to support such jobs. Government campaigns targeting women were addressed solely at housewives, likely because already-employed women would move to the higher-paid 'essential' jobs on their own, or perhaps because it was assumed that most would be housewives. A 1943 Monsanto advertisement for refrigeration reveals ambivalence, emphasizing that after the war, women will return to their homes as 'Rosie the Housewife.'Īlthough most women took on male-dominated trades during World War II, they were expected to return to their everyday housework once men returned from the war. Unfortunately, this was reckoned as unnatural and as men began to return home from the war, the government instituted another propaganda campaign urging women to 'return to normalcy'. It expanded their own expectations for womanly duty and capabilities. Many women discovered they enjoyed the autonomy these jobs provided them with. Forty women were hired by Pan American Airways to replace men in the repair and maintenance department in the hangars at LaGuardia airfield for service, repair and overhaul on the fleet of aircraft including the Boeing 314 Flying Boat flying to and from Europe. They began to work heavy construction machinery, taking roles in lumber and steel mills as well as physical labor including unloading freight, building dirigibles (which are airships similar to air balloons), making munitions, and much more. Women responded to the call of need the country was displaying by stepping up to fill positions that were traditionally filled by men. Only three million new female workers entered the workforce during the time of the war. Many of these women were already working in lower-paying jobs or were returning to the work-force after being laid off during the depression. Nearly 19 million women held jobs during World War II. World War II was similar to World War I in that massive conscription of men led to a shortage of available workers and therefore a demand for labor which could be filled only by employing women. During World War I women across the United States were employed in jobs previously done by men.

History Women in the wartime workforce Women workers in the ordnance shops of Midvale Steel and Ordnance Company in Nicetown, Pennsylvania, during World War I (1918)īecause the world wars were total wars, which required governments to utilize their entire populations to defeat their enemies, millions of women were encouraged to work in the industry and take over jobs previously done by men. Rosie the Riveter became the subject and title of a Hollywood film in 1944. Images of women workers were widespread in the media in formats such as government posters, and commercial advertising was heavily used by the government to encourage women to volunteer for wartime service in factories. The idea of Rosie the Riveter originated in a song written in 1942 by Redd Evans and John Jacob Loeb. Similar images of women war workers appeared in other countries such as Britain and Australia. She is widely recognized in the ' We Can Do It!' poster as a symbol of American feminism and women's economic advantage. These women sometimes took entirely new jobs replacing the male workers who joined the military. Rosie the Riveter is an allegorical cultural icon in the United States who represents the women who worked in factories and shipyards during World War II, many of whom produced munitions and war supplies.

A 'Rosie' putting rivets on an Vultee A-31 Vengeance in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1943

For other uses, see Rosie the Riveter (disambiguation).

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