A Different Point of View

Archived Newsletters: Spring 2004

“Partners in Winning the War” Exhibition Opens

The official opening of the National Women’s History Museum’s exhibition honoring the women of the World War II ear called ‘Partners in Winning the War; American Women in World War II’ took place on Sunday, May 30th.  Because NWHM does not yet have a museum site, ‘Partners’ is located at the Women’s Memorial at the gateway to Arlington Cemetery.  In conjunction with the opening, NWHM offered a program to complement the activities taking place for the dedication of the national World War II monument.  Numerous women who had contributed to the war effort, their families, members of the community, leaders of national women’s organizations, and people involved with the NWHM attended the opening ceremony.

Acting as the Master of Ceremonies, author Emily Yellin told the audience how she was inspired to write her book Our Mother’s War after she realized that women are usually absent from the history of public life and often are only found through reading their diaries and letters.  With her mother as her inspiration, Yellin decided to research the stories of other women.

 

Secretary of the Interior, Gail A. Norton delivered the key note address.  She called World War II a unique war because everyone pulled together, and noted that, sadly, the home front contributions are too often forgotten.  Women were “America’s secret weapon,” she declared, because of their huge contributions in the defense plants, civil service positions, and volunteer work in the community and with the troops.  In looking at women’s history, Sect. Norton said that the “women of the World War II generation led the way” in changing the role of women and opening new doors for later generations.  In closing, Sect. Norton said, “History must be told and retold to each generation,” and asked the audience to “do your part in telling the history.”

A former ‘government girl’ during World War II and current delegate to the Maryland General Assembly, Pauline Menes briefly spoke about her experiences.  During the war, Rep. Menes took a war-temporary appointment with the federal government, meaning that she would have no right to the job after the war was over.  When the war ended and the soldiers returned, she trained her future husband for her job and then she was released from the position.  Several years after her marriage, her husband encouraged her to become a delegate to the General Assembly, and when she was elected in 1966, he helped care for their children.  Rep. Menes felt that before the war she would not have had the opportunity or support to participate in politics; the war did change society and women’s options within it.

Other speakers included Susan Stacey, Special Assistant to the U.S. Department of Labor Women’s Bureau, who briefly spoke about the contribution of civilian women, especially those who worked in the factories.  Brigadier General Wilma Vaught, President of Women In Military Service For America Foundation and a member of the Board of Directors for the NWHM, said that the exhibition is partly a tribute to the 400,000 women who fought in the military during World War II but it also honors the 19 million civilian women who helped with the war effort.  The program also included the reading of excerpts from World War II era women’s oral histories and letters by six members of the NWHM Board of Directors.  In the closing remarks, President Susan B. Jollie acknowledged the contributions of many individuals and organizations that had volunteered their time and expertise to produce the exhibition.  She thanked the major corporate sponsors, Ford Motor Company, the Department of Labor Women’s Bureau, Northrop Grumman Corporation, and the Altria Group Inc.

The ‘Partners in Winning the War’ exhibit will remain at the Women’s Memorial at Arlington Cemetery until fall 2004.  The summer hours for the exhibit are from 8 a.m to 7 p.m. and it is free to the public.  There is a blank wall at the end of the exhibit where women are encouraged to post their World War II experiences for others to read. 

 

World Was II Era Female Political Leaders Help Shape Post-War Society

The exhibition "Partners in Winning the War" demonstrates the resourcefulness of women in many ways. But one of the most surprising is the way in which female political leaders used emergency wartime conditions to create opportunities for women. The exhibition includes brief profiles of some of these pioneering political leaders.

Frances Perkins is one woman whose name may still be recognized today. As the Secretary of Labor for twelve years (in office from 1933-1945), and the highest-ranking female at the time, she guided fundamental changes in civilian employment. For example, she contributed laws that revitalized the U.S. Employment Service, the Fair Labor Standard Act that set a floor under wages and a ceiling over hours, and the Wagner Act that protected workers' rights to organize. She also established the Labor Standards Bureau and, as the chairperson of the President's Committee on Economic Security, helped design the Social Security Act.

Mary McLeod Bethune made an impact on American society through her political activism. Already having an impressive list of accomplishments, including serving as the president of the National Association of Colored Women and successfully petitioning for the integration of African American women into the Red Cross, Bethune served as the assistant director of the Women's Army Corps during WWII. She helped organize the first women's officer candidate schools and lobbied federal officials on behalf of African American women who wanted to join the military. She carried on her fight for equality in treatment and through founding and presiding over the National Council of Negro Women.

Congresswoman Edith Nourse Rogers, who held office from 1925-1960, introduced a bill in 1941 to establish the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps, which enabled women to train in noncombatant military jobs and would receive food, uniforms, living quarters, pay, and medical benefits. Rogers was a co-sponsor of the G.I. Bill in the House in 1944, one of the most important acts of Congress. The G.I. Bill provided veterans with education and training benefits and allowed them to take large loans in order to purchase homes, helping a majority of Americans transform from renters into homeowners and helping veterans adjust to post-war life.

The structure of post-war American education was framed by the Congresswoman Frances Payne Bolton, who held office from 1939-1968. The Bolton Act, which passed in 1943, subsidized and improved nursing education through federal funding and allowed more women to become nurses in the future. The Act created the U.S. Cadet Nurse Corps, which graduated a total of 125,000 nurses to help during WWII. The Act was the first to provide funds directly to students to subsidize their education.

Women like Perkins, Bethune, Rogers, and Bolton used their political positions to help gain ground for women's rights and other causes through their various forms of activism, and in doing so, helped shape the post-WWII society.

 

Portrait of Former Congresswoman Mary T. Norton was Unveiled in March

While Secretary Gale A. Norton is a woman who currently accomplishes much for the government, another woman named Mary T. Norton also contributed greatly to the country through her political activism in the mid-twentieth century.

Starting out as an active participant in local, county, and state Democratic Party politics in New Jersey, Congresswoman Norton was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1924; she was the first Congresswoman from the Democratic Party. She served thirteen terms in office, from 1925-1951. While in Congress, she served as for ten years as the chairperson of the House Labor Committee (1937-1947), participated in Democratic Party politics at the national level, and served as "Womanpower Consultant" to the U.S. Secretary of Labor in the early 1950s. Not only the first Democrat Congresswoman, Norton is also a pioneer as the only Congresswoman in U.S. history to have chaired three major House committees: Labor, District of Columbia, and Administration. One of her important legislative contributions during office was her persistence in helping to pass the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, in part by redrafting versions in order to make it more agreeable to enough people that it could pass. The Act provides minimum standards for both wages and over-time entitlement and the administrative procedures by which covered work-time must be compensated. Some of the other provisions included in the Act are related to child labor and equal pay.

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (right), Congresswoman Louise Slaughter (D-NY) (left) and Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) (middle), hosted a reception to unveil the portrait of Congresswoman MaryT. Norton

Not only has her pioneering place in Congress often been overlooked, but her actual existence has too. Several years ago a portrait of Congresswoman Norton was discovered in a closet in a Capitol annex building. Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur, who has sponsored legislation to display more artwork featuring women in the Capitol, "rescued" the portrait and hung it in her office. On March 18th, Norton's portrait was moved to House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi's office in the Capitol. The portrait paid tribute to this first Democratic Congresswoman and other women during Women's History Month.

 

Letter from our President

This issue devotes a great deal of attention to the Partners exhibition and NWHM's efforts to make sure that women's voices are heard durign the weekend of the dedication of the World War II memorial. Most people do not learn their history from books, but from popular culture. This is a process that helps explain how women's roles in historic events are obscured or forgotten as TV reporters interviewed the war veterans and women were given recognition as entertainers in a recreated USO tent show on the Mall.

Partners offers a panoramic overview of what women in World War II experienced, from the heroic to what some might consider to be mundane everyday clerical jobs, factory work, or dealing with rationing. The government and PR machines of the day depicted glamorous women supporting the boys fighting the war - popular imagery that persists to this day. Partners tells the real story using photos of women that are the most striking features of the exhibition. The faces of these real life women have character - even when their work was far from glamorous, these photos from 60 years ago communicate pride and determination. Thanks to America's women, the country not only continued functioning but also improved in a number of ways - something that was inconceivable in a global war that brough devastation elsewhere. Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to come to Washington, D.C. in the coming months. With your help, NWHM will send the message that what women did in World War II was instrumental in winning the war and shaping the peace that followed.

Celebrate These Women Born in Spring

The first woman to receive her dentistry degree was Lucy Hobbs Taylor (3/14/1833). She first wanted to become a doctor, and headed to Eclectic Medical College, which was the only school that accepted women. When she arrived she found that the school had adopted a new policy not to accept women. She was told to apply to dentistry school, since there was less stress involved. She found a dentist in Ohio who taught her to pull teeth and make dentures. Even with this training, she was not admitted into dentistry school, because she was a woman. She apprenticed with other dentists without a degree, a common practice.  She opened her first office in Iowa, and eventually was admitted to the Iowa state Dental Association. Later, she was accepted into the Ohio College and graduated in 1866 with a degree of Doctor of Dental Surgery. She taught her husband dentistry and they started a practice together. She practiced dentistry until she died of a stroke in 1910.

Mary Pickford (4/8/1892) was the first woman to create and own a production company. Along with husband Douglas Fairbanks and Charlie Chaplin, she created United Artists. Born Gladys Smith in 1892, she became an actress to help support he family. She worked in silent films and by 1916 she was a world-renowned actress surpassing even Charlie Chaplin in fame.  The contract she signed gave her a million dollars for two years of work, an extraordinary sum for the time. In 1927 she and fellow actors founded the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.  In 1929 she received an Oscar in the category that was set up for “talkies”. In 1976, she received an honorary Oscar by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts andSciences. She died in 1979 at age 87.

Bertha Van Hoosen (3/26/1863) was a medical pioneer. She founded the Medical Women’s National Association (or the American Medical Women’s Association, as it is called today) where she was elected acting president. Many women opposed the organization.  She felt that a women’s organization would help play a positive role for women in the medical profession. The association documented inadequate training that women received thereby helping women to get better medical training. She also discovered a way to give pregnant women anesthesia in a procedure known as “twilight sleep.”

Lorraine Hansberry was an African American writer born on (5/19/1930) in Chicago to a wealthy family. Her parents were activists who challenged the Jim Crow Laws. She often saw Paul Robeson, W.E.B. Dubois and other civil rights leaders as a child who helped her understand the civil rights issues of the time. She attended the University of Wisconsin but left school to go to New York. She was able to get a job as a reporter for Freedom, a progressive black newspaper. She was in her 20’s when she wrote her best known work “ A Raisin in the Sun” which dealt with race issues of the time.  The title of the play was from a work by Langston Hughes poem with the line that says, "What happens to a dream deferred? / Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun, / Or does it explode?” The play won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award. She was the 5th woman, the youngest, and the first black woman to win it.  Sadly, she lost a bout with cancer and died at 34.

 

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