25. The United States and the Second World War, 1939

Women and Families, Guns and Butter

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Millions of American women gladly took their places on assembly lines in defense industries. At the start of the war, about a quarter of adult women worked outside the home, but few women worked in factories, except for textile mills and sewing industries. But wartime mobilization of the economy and the enlistment of millions of men in the armed forces left factories begging for women workers.

VISUAL ACTIVITYRiveting Rosies Dora Miles (left) and Dorothy Johnson (right) were among the millions of women (nicknamed “Rosie the Riveter”) who flocked to work in war industries at jobs formerly held by men. Like many other women war workers, Miles and Johnson helped build airplanes. Here they are depicted riveting the frame of an aircraft at a plant in Long Beach, California.READING THE IMAGE: How does the work Miles and Johnson are doing compare to the conventional work routines of women before the war? What does the photo suggest about the relationship between Miles (driving the rivet into a hole) and Johnson (smashing the end of the rivet snug against the airframe)? CONNECTIONS: What contributions did American women make to the war effort?

Library of Congress, 8e01288.

Government advertisements urged women to take industrial jobs by assuring them that their household chores had prepared them for work on the “Victory Line.” One billboard proclaimed, “If you’ve sewed buttons, or made buttonholes, on a [sewing] machine, you can learn to do spot welding on airplane parts.” Millions of women responded. Advertisers often referred to a woman who worked in a war industry as “Rosie the Riveter,” a popular wartime term. By the end of the war, women working outside the home numbered 50 percent more than in 1939. Contributing to the war effort also paid off in wages. A Kentucky woman remembered her job at a munitions plant, where she earned “the fabulous sum of $32 a week. To us it was an absolute miracle. Before that we made nothing.” Although men were paid an average of $54 for comparable wartime work, women accepted the pay differential and welcomed their chance to earn wages and help win the war at the same time.

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The majority of married women remained at home, occupied with domestic chores and child care. But they, too, supported the war effort, planting Victory Gardens, saving tin cans and newspapers for recycling into war materiel, and buying war bonds. Many families scrimped to cope with the 30 percent inflation during the war, but men and women in manufacturing industries enjoyed wages that grew twice as fast as inflation.

The war influenced how all families spent their earnings. Buying a new washing machine or car was out of the question since factories that formerly built them now made military goods. Many other consumer goods—such as tires, gasoline, shoes, and meat—were rationed at home to meet military needs overseas. But most Americans readily found things to buy, including movie tickets, cosmetics, and music recordings.

The wartime prosperity and abundance enjoyed by most Americans contrasted with the experiences of their hard-pressed allies. Personal consumption fell by 22 percent in Britain, and food output plummeted to just one-third of prewar levels in the Soviet Union, creating widespread hunger and even starvation. Few went hungry in the United States as farm output grew 25 percent annually during the war, providing a cornucopia of food for export to the Allies.