WOMEN IN PRODUCTION

 

Pamphlet, Boarding Homes for Women War Workers, Special Bulletin No. 11, January 1943, published by the Women’s Bureau, U.S. Department of Labor

Credit: Women’s Bureau,
US Department of Labor
Poster, "Women: There’s work to be done and a war to be won…Now!" by Vernon Grant for the Office of War Information, 1944

 


Credit: Department of Labor


During her 12 years as Secretary of Labor, Frances Perkins oversaw fundamental changes in civilian employment. She contributed to the laws that revitalized the U.S. Employment Service, the Fair Labor Standards Act that set a floor under wages and a ceiling over hours, and the Wagner Act that protected workers' right to organize. She established the Labor Standards Bureau. She was also the principal architect of the Social Security Act.

 

 

Article, “Boom Town in Skirts,” by Don Eddy from
The American Magazine, June 1944

Credit: Women’s Memorial Foundation

 

The war created job shortages of domestic household workers and service employees—the jobs that most women filled before the war. The U.S. Employment Service classified occupations in restaurants, hotels, laundries, and stores, as “essential civilian industries” because these services were needed to support war production workers.


Credit:  Women’s Bureau, U.S. Department of Labor
Click on image to see larger version

Unmarried women also labored as telephone operators and in the electronics industry, then in its early stages. Women were thought to have superior manual dexterity and a greater tolerance for repetitive tasks than men.

Pamphlet, "Your Country Needs You: Women Wanted for the Essential Civilian Industries," published by the Women’s Bureau of the Department of Labor 1943.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Housing shortages sometimes discouraged migration for jobs. Labor needs were met through patriotic appeals to women who already lived in the area. These appeals were designed to overcome prejudice against older women or women working after marriage. Some innovative employers offered health care insurance, cafeterias, and child care to attract married workers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Article, "Grandma's drafted too!" by James Gordon from The American Magazine, June 1944

Credit: Women's Memorial Foundation
Click on image to see larger version

 

 


Poster, "I’m proud…my husband
wants me to do my part,"
by John Newton Howitt, 1944

Credit:  Library of Congress

 

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