- “The principal battleground of the war is not the South Pacific. It is not the Middle East. It is not England, or Norway, or the Russian Steppes. It is American opinion."
- --Archibald MacLeish, Director of the Office of Facts and Figures, forerunner of the Office of War Administration
Background and Build UP
Women had jobs during the 1700’s around town (Heinemann). In 1850, women made up 13% of paid workers in the United States. In the early 1900’s, most employed women worked as office workers. Jobs in the office were primarily held by native-born white women (Heinemann). Women also had jobs as teachers, secretaries and nurses (Holmes).
In America, women had earned the right to vote a few years before the Great Depression (Heinemann) although, by law, married women could not get local government jobs during the Great Depression (Coleman). The war effectively ended the Great Depression of the 1930's (Holmes). The U.S. entered World War II because the Japanese launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. A day later, Great Britain and U.S. declared war on Japan (The U. S. Home Front).
The problem was that men left for the war and abandoned their factory jobs leaving no one to assemble the war materials; women secured these jobs that were strictly for men only. Women who took these jobs and toiled in the defense industry came to be known as "Rosie the Riveters” (The U. S. Home Front).