During World War II, the United States military drafted over 10 million men, leaving a shortage of workers. The War Manpower Commission recruited women to fill these vacant jobs. Over 6 million women joined the workforce, taking jobs in aircraft manufacturing, shipbuilding, welding, and other industries critical to the war effort. While this opened new opportunities for women, many faced harassment and the assumption that they would lose their jobs to returning veterans after the war.

2. Rosie the Riveter Song

3. The United States was involved in
World War Two from December
1941 to May 1945.

4. The Draft
• Selective Service Act of
1940 was the first peace
time draft requiring all
men ages 21 to 36 to
register with the selective
service system.
• The draft was done by
lottery of men from 21-
45.
• By the end of the war ten
million draftees were
inducted into the military.

5. The War Manpower Commission
• The War Manpower
Commission was the
board that regulated
the best use of labor in
the U.S. from 1942-
1945 (Dictionary.com,
2014)
• The commission create
a campaign to recruit
women into the work
force.

6. Clip- Safety Training Video

7. Campaigns

8. Recruiting
• Despite recruiting to war time jobs U.S.
employment services also deemed hotel,
restaurant, laundry and store jobs “essential
civilian industries.”
• Women workers were regarded as patriotic not
feminist; they were supporting the men at war,
not advancing their roles in the work place.
• The women joining the workforce consisted of
women who were both independent and
married, including: wives, widows, divorcees and
students.

9. Aircrafts
• Women accounted for
310,000 aircraft
workers.
• They were 65% of the
workforce in the
industry during the war,
before the war they
only made up 1%.

10. Aircrafts Continued
• Women who were
uncomfortable with the
labor of building planes
took jobs
manufacturing the
upholstery, and painting
radium on tiny
measurements so pilots
could read them at
night.

11. Glenn Martin, Martin
Marietta
“We have women helping
design our planes in the
engineering departments,
building them on
production lines and
operating almost every
single conceivable type of
machinery.”

12. Clip- Personal Stories

13. Other Industries
• Women worked in the auto, electronic,
defense, and textile factories as well.

14. Clip- Women Welding

15. Production
• Production doubled
between 1939 and
1945.
• This production
included 300,000
aircrafts, 86,000 ships,
64,000 landing craft,
and millions of artillery
and small weapons.

16. Prejudice
• It was assumed women could rivet
because its similar to sewing.
• Women were subjected to catcalling
and harassment in the work place.
• Their place in the workforce was
considered a temporary situation, it
was assumed they would be willing
to give jobs to veterans after the war.
• Some business were segregated by
gender.
• Some businesses refused to provide
special training.
• Some reclassified jobs to avoid the
“equal pay equal work” stipulation.

17. Non-factory Jobs
• Women also worked as telephone operators,
nurses, railroad workers, journalists, in
shipyards, in the military (400,000), for the
Red Cross, the USO, and the Office of Strategic
Services.

19. After the War
• Despite making up 20% of union membership,
unions did not provide proper representation to
keep women’s jobs.
• Some women agreed that it was their duty to
give their job to a vet.
• Between 1943 and 1945, polls indicated that 61
to 85 percent of women workers wanted to keep
their jobs after the war. (Hartmann, 1982)
• Between 1943 and 1945, polls indicated that 47
to 68 percent of married women workers wanted
to keep their jobs after the war. (Hartmann,1982)

20. Influence on the Work Place
• Women’s armed forces
integration Act of 1948
• “The act authorized
regular and reserve status
for women in the Army,
Navy, Air Force and
Marine Corps. Before
then, and except for
nurses, women could not
serve in the regular forces
in peacetime. ”
(Borlik,1998)

21. Works Cited
• Hartmann, Susan M. The Home Front and Beyond: American Women in the 1940s. Boston: Twayne Publishers,
1982.
• Hawkes, Sarah. "Who Was Rosie the Riveter?: The American Factory Women of World War II." US History Scene.
July 1, 2012. Accessed November 27, 2014. http://www.ushistoryscene.com/uncategorized/rosietheriveter/.
• Knutas, Keijo. "Added Some US World War II Propaganda Posters to Www.digitalpostercollection.com - Blog
DigitalPosterCollection." Blog DigitalPosterCollection. Accessed November 28, 2014.
http://blog.digitalpostercollection.com/added-some-us-world-war-ii-propaganda-posters-to-www-digitalpostercollection-
com/.
• Levine, Bruce C. "A Nation Transformed: The United States In World War II." In Who Built America?: Working
People and the Nation's Economy, Politics, Culture, and Society, 523-526. 3rd ed. Vol. 2. New York: Pantheon Books,
1989.
• "United States Department of Defense." Defense.gov News Article: DoD Marks 50th Year of Military Women's
Integration. June 17, 1998. Accessed November 22, 2014.
http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=41380.
•
• "WWII Women Pilots Awarded Congress’s Top Civilian Honor." HMH Current Events. Accessed November 28, 2014.
http://stg.hmhcurrentevents.com/wwii-women-pilots-awarded-congresss-top-civilian-honor/.
• "War Manpower Commission." Www.Dictionary.com. Accessed November 24, 2014.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/war manpower commission.
• "World War II: Photos of Women Factory Workers on the Home Front, 1943 | LIFE | TIME.com." LIFE. Accessed
November 26, 2014. http://life.time.com/history/women-of-steel-life-with-female-factory-workers-in-world-war-ii/#
10.