In unexpected ways WWII changed women’s lives
Role in war effort helped shift societal perceptions and expectations
BY GLORIA STRAVELLI
Staff Writer
Women accounted for one-third of Air Force pilots during WWII. While she trudged through the snow to get to work, Doris Forman likened her trek to that of her serviceman husband off fighting in World War II.
"The winter of 1944-45 was rough because I was taking the train into Elizabeth, and then I had to walk to the refinery," said Forman, who worked at the Esso Research and Engineering Division at the Bayway Refinery in Elizabeth.
"I walked through several miles of snow that was up to my knees to get to work that winter, but my husband was also walking through snow, fighting in Europe," she recalled.
When her husband, Willard, was drafted into the U.S. Army’s 101st Infantry Division in May 1944, she learned to make bandages, served as an air raid warden and worked swing shifts to help on the home front while the men were off to war.
Women like this welder took jobs in heavy industry for the first time during WWII.
"Most fellows were enlisting or being drafted, so [companies] were short-handed. So during the war we worked extra shifts," explained Forman, of Eatontown.
Sandra Rubino sat at the kitchen table in her family’s Long Branch home and wrote to her boyfriend and two brothers every single night after they were drafted. When she graduated from Long Branch High School in 1943, Rubino, of West Long Branch, was hired as a war service appointee at Fort Monmouth.
Like many women whose husbands had gone off to war, Forman moved back in with her parents, she told audience members at "Rosie the Riveter: Women and World War II," a recent seminar held at Brookdale Community College in Lincroft.
The war had an impact on women’s history by encouraging thousands of women to work outside the home for the first time, Professor Jane Scimeca told the March 9 Women’s History Month seminar that was sponsored by BCC’s Center for World War II Studies and Conflict Resolution.
A Japanese-American woman awaits transport to an internment camp during WWII.
"During WWII, more than any previous war, women were actively identified with national defense," said Scimeca, chair of the BCC History Department and an authority on the role of women as workers, volunteers and members of the armed forces during WWII.
"WWII was a time of enormous patriotism and national unity, and that really formed the identity of the women of the time," according to Scimeca, of Millstone.
"Rosie the Riveter" became the symbol for women who stepped up and went to work to take the place of men who joined the war effort, she explained.
"In the American consciousness, as an icon of the war, her image was similar to that of Uncle Sam," she said.
Another popular piece of WWII propaganda — the "We Can Do It" poster — shows a woman rolling up her sleeves and ready to go to work.
"Both women are very determined looking, reflecting the patriotism of the country," she noted. "Rosie has a riveting gun on her lap and German propaganda under the heel of her loafers. The images were part of a propaganda campaign to convince women to join the war effort."
According to Scimeca, the WWII campaign to enlist women to work on the home front was needed to reverse popular sentiment. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, millions of men were out of work, and women were discouraged from working, she noted.
"Women, especially married women, were told if they went to work, they were stealing a job from a man and depriving a family of that wage," she explained. "The national feeling about women working was completely different before the war started."
The onset of WWII created an enormous demand for labor, Scimeca said. What was desperate unemployment turned into a shortage of workers, and the federal government launched a campaign to encourage women to join the defense effort.
"The type of jobs women were called upon to perform — on assembly lines, in manufacturing plants and in heavy industry — was different," she said. "Women had never held jobs like this before."
A total of 6 million women went to work for the war effort, joining 14 million already in the work force, Scimeca said, and increasing the percentage of women in the work force from 25 to 36 percent.
"Two million women went into clerical jobs, at that point, still a traditionally male field," explained Scimeca. "Two million women took jobs in heavy industry like drilling, welding, working in automobile factories, shipyards, ‘Rosie’ work. An additional 3 million women volunteered for civil defense, the American Red Cross and the USO."
Who answered the call?
The first wave were women already in the work force – working-class women in low-paying, low-skilled, low-status jobs.
"They were enthusiastic about taking these jobs because they were higher paying. For the first time, they were making a lot of money," explained Scimeca, who was instrumental in establishing the Women’s Studies Option and the History Option at BCC.
Others were college students who quit school to take jobs and the wives of servicemen who felt there was a direct connection between their work and ending the war and bringing their husbands home, she explained.
"The composition of the work force really changes as a result of the war, as a result of the country’s need, and this changed the economy and the way women viewed themselves," Scimeca said. "When men went to war, somebody had to fix the cars, drive the buses. It really altered opportunities, and women stepped into those jobs."
Like Forman, many women whose husbands went to war moved back in with their parents, who took care of their children while they filled in as teachers, bankers, office workers and on the assembly line. In addition, Forman noted, the women couldn’t get by on military pay.
"I had quite a few girlfriends who were married and had children, and we went to work because you couldn’t get along on what our husbands sent home," Forman explained.
"During the war, across-the-board, women’s wages rose dramatically, and for the first time, the government supported equal wages for women," Scimeca noted. Also during this time, unions began to recruit women for the first time.
Women also replaced young men on farms, helping to grow and pick crops, raise poultry and run dairy farms.
"It was important to keep food production going," Scimeca explained, "so they recruited women, especially ethnic women, into the Women’s Land Army.
"Others filled professions traditionally held by men, like taxicab drivers, bus drivers, auto repair mechanics, musicians, athletes, teachers, doctors, journalists. A lot of women got in the door of these professions at this time," she said.
In addition to joining the work force, women enlisted in record numbers to support the war effort. During WWII, 350,000 women served in the armed forces."Others filled professions traditionally held by men, like taxicab drivers, bus drivers, auto repair mechanics, musicians, athletes, teachers, doctors, journalists. A lot of women got in the door of these professions at this time," she said.
In addition to joining the work force, women enlisted in record numbers to support the war effort. During WWII, 350,000 women served in the armed forces.
"This was a new public image for women," Scimeca noted. Women joined the military as WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service), WACs (Women’s Army Corps), Navy nurses, WASPs (Women Airforce Service Pilots), the Marine Corps’ Women’s Reserve, and Coast Guard SPARs (after the motto "Semper Paratus," meaning "Always Ready").
WAC enlistees took clerical jobs, freeing men for combat duty. Only a small percentage, mainly U.S. Navy nurses, saw duty overseas.
That doesn’t mean that the contribution of women was limited to office work and deciphering codes.
"One-third of Air Force pilots were women," she said. "They ferried planes where they were needed and tested new planes. The first U.S. jet fighter plane was tested by a WASP. Over 1,000 women flew over 12,000 planes. It was very dangerous work, and yet the men resented them."
For African-American women, the war removed a barrier.
"African-American women were restricted to domestic work and kept out of heavy industry where the pay was better," Scimeca explained. "So the war did open some doors, but black women were given the worst jobs; they were still on the bottom rung."
The experience of Japanese-American women was very different.
"In California, 110,000 Japanese-Americans were moved to internment camps in the Midwest for the duration of the war," she said.
Social ramifications were profound. The lack of privacy was dehumanizing and living communally eroded the strong nuclear family and parental authority typical of Japanese-American families, she said.
When the war was over, women were expected to give up their new jobs and the personal satisfaction and the wages derived from them.
"Some 800,000 women were fired two months after VJ Day," Scimeca said. "The overwhelming feeling was that women should leave these jobs because the men needed them.
"Within months, millions of women were fired," she continued. "Factories had to retool for postwar production. They shut down, and when they were back up, the men came back. For women, patriotism worked two ways — to encourage them to take the jobs and to get them back home."
The impact of WWII on women in America was complex and is not easily assessed, Scimeca said.
"Women’s experiences were very varied," she noted. "We can say some legal and cultural barriers to married women working were removed. The stigma was gone, and they continued to work in the ensuing decades."
An important result may have been come to fruition decades later, she speculated.
"The women’s movement, dead for decades, was reborn," Scimeca explained. "In the 1920s, women won the right to vote. Then, in the 1930s and 1940s, there was no women’s movement in America.
"During the 1960s, historians say, maybe these women who participated in the war translated their experiences to their daughters, and that may have led to the women’s movement. " ‘We can do it,’ " she pointed out referring to the WWII call for women to put aside housework and join the labor force, "could probably just as easily be a slogan in the 1960s."