Introduction
Emma Davis and G. Kurt Piehler
June 6, 2020
Original plans called for this exhibit to open at the Chipola Center for the Arts in April 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic intervened requiring the Institute on World War II and the Human Experience at Florida State University to shift to a virtual platform. Since 2018, the Institute has partnered with Chipola College in Marianna, Florida to organize annual exhibits highlighting the strengths of the Institute on World War II and the Human Experience at Florida State University. These exhibits strive to broaden the general public’s understanding of the history of World War II.
Founded in 1997, the Institute has strived since its inception to promote an understanding of the human dimension of World War II. For the United States and the allied powers that constituted the United Nations, this conflict is aptly characterized as a people’s war. Virtually every American contributed to the victory, culminating in the crushing defeat of fascist Italy, Nazi Germany, and Imperial Japan. In a war fought by armies numbering in the millions that led to a staggering loss of life, it is easy to lose sight of the individual lives engulfed in a world at war. World War II profoundly changed the lives of every American who lived through this conflict, whether as combatant or civilian. The Institute seeks to preserve the documents and objects of the World War II generation for use by scholars, students, journalists, and the general public.
It is vital to tell the story of those at the “tip of the spear”—soldiers, sailors, marines, and aviators—who served on the front lines. But it is equally important to highlight the crucial contributions of those engaged in the battle for production at home, as well as the servicemen and servicewomen supporting those on the front lines. Often overlooked is the vital role women played in transforming the United States into the “Arsenal of Democracy” during the war. Equally significant is the work of military women who supported GIs on the front lines. This exhibit seeks to tell the story of American women writ large while highlighting the individual experiences of women on the home front and overseas.
The Allies prevailed against the Axis Powers because they produced more tanks, artillery pieces, airplanes, naval vessels, and merchant ships. The war was fought as much on battlefields overseas as it was in factories at home. To give one example of winning the battle of production, the German army relied on horses as the main way to transport men and supplies, while the Anglo-American forces used trucks and jeeps. When American GIs and British Tommies were wounded, they stood an excellent chance of survival because of a well-staffed military medical system.
Total mobilization required an unprecedented intervention by the federal government in the economy to build the necessary weapons of war. Every household participated in a rationing system that limited access to a range of food and consumer products. The lack of new residential construction put a strain on families finding a place to live, especially in industrial centers. Even before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States instituted conscription that, along with defense orders, banished the lingering problem of unemployment that had bedeviled the country since the Stock Market Crash of 1929.
This demand for soldiers and workers had a far-reaching impact on the lives of American women. As the country mobilized for war, women were encouraged to take the place of men in the workplace and even volunteer for service themselves. During the Great Depression, federal policies discouraged women from working in the paid workforce. Discrimination on the basis of gender remained perfectly legal, and many businesses excluded women from a number of occupations and trades. Even when doing comparable work, women were generally paid less than men, and many companies refused to hire married women. Only a few professions offered significant opportunities for women: teaching, social work, journalism, librarianship, and nursing.
During World War I, women served in the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marines in uniform, and as civilian telephone operators with General John J. Pershing’s forces in France. Women were excluded from any role in the armed forces during the interwar years, except as nurses. However, as men entered the service in increasing numbers, especially after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, women were called upon to fill the breach in business and industry. Companies that once excluded women embraced them and ended many, but not all, gender barriers. Women welded at shipyards, manned assembly lines at tank factories, and assembled planes at aircraft factories. The federal government joined industry in encouraging married women, even those with children, to enter the workforce.
Women often shouldered the full burden of childrearing when their husbands went off to war. In many instances, GIs would be deployed overseas for years, and letters remained the primary means for them to remain in contact with their parents, spouses, and children at home. Women struggled to balance the expectations regarding motherhood and support for the war effort. From government officials and in women’s magazines, mothers and wives were called to write frequently to their loved ones in active service. However, their correspondence was to remain upbeat, not dwelling on troubles at home.
Working women employed in non-traditional occupations often saw their wages increase in the full-employment economy brought on by the war. Although the families of GIs were eligible for financial allotments from the federal government to help support them, women on the home front still had to grapple with rationing, and in many communities, severe housing shortages. Affordable childcare remained scarce and federal support for daycare centers was limited. Women on the home front remained the backbone of many charitable efforts during the war. Red Cross chapters across the country drew on women to raise funds and knit clothing, and the United Service Organization (USO) called upon women to help entertain GIs at the clubs throughout the United States.
Military service remained highly gendered and women were entirely exempt from the draft. But the demands for total war led all branches of the armed forces to establish women’s auxiliaries and reserves. In this regard, America followed a pattern established by many Allied nations. By the time the United States entered the war, America’s key allies had already incorporated women into their armed forces. All branches of the British and Canadian forces had women’s auxiliaries.
In many cases, women in uniform performed what were deemed "traditional” roles as nurses and secretaries. But some women took on wartime roles outside of those traditionally available to them. The Royal Air Force relied on a women’s auxiliary to ferry aircraft between bases. To defend against German bombers, British women served in army anti-aircraft batteries defending the United Kingdom. The Soviet Union conscripted women for military service and allowed them to serve in combat, as pilots, and even in the armored forces. Women sharpshooters earned prominence within the Soviet Union and abroad.
Despite the long history of women’s service as nurses in the army and navy, the decision to allow women to serve in the American armed forces proved controversial. In Congress, Edith Norse Rogers of Massachusetts introduced legislation to create Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (later reorganized as the Women’s Army Corps) even before the United States entered the conflict. Although the War Department initially opposed the measure, after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Army Chief of Staff George Marshal expressed his support for enlisting women and the WAAC was established in May 1942.
The WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) received congressional authorization on July 30, 1942. Even though women served as Marines in World War I, Marshall’s counterpart in the Marine Corps, Commandant Thomas Holcomb remained reluctant to include women in the ranks. However, he eventually changed his mind and welcomed them as volunteers. Congress authorized the establishment of a Women’s Reserve for the Coast Guard in November 1943. This auxiliary force received the official nickname “SPARs”, derived from the service’s motto “Semper Paratus – Always Ready.” Despite the fact that both Great Britain and the Soviet Union deployed women in combat arms, significant opposition to this idea existed within the U.S. Congress and in the general public. Women were prohibited from taking part in combat or carrying weapons.
Over 350,000 women served in the armed forces with the majority in the Women’s Army Corps. Women volunteers were often shunted into secretarial and custodial roles, specialties that conformed to traditional gender roles. However, there were important exceptions to this pattern. Some women undertook remarkable roles for the duration of the war. As cryptologists, some women deciphered German and Japanese messages. Other women, working as Link Trainers, helped train male aviators for the Army Air Forces. The military equivalent of Rosie the Riveter saw women mechanics performing maintenance on motor vehicles, aircraft, and other machinery. For example, Helen Walsh, a WAC from Iowa, worked first in radar communications and later as an artificer for the army, making minor repairs for the 8th Company in Algeria, Italy, and France. Significantly, one group of women were never given military status. The Women Air Force Service Pilots (WASP) ferried plans within the continental United States for the Army Air Force.
Racism severely circumscribed the opportunities available for women of color. Many black women, whether individually or with family, migrated to the North and Far West in search of better pay in defense industries. Although the wartime economy did broaden opportunities for black women in the civilian workforce beyond domestic service, black women faced a double barrier of race and gender and were frequently the last hired. Throughout the country, residential segregation remained pervasive, and most African American families were forced to pay exorbitant prices for substandard housing.
The United States armed forces remained segregated during the war, and women of color served in every branch of the U.S. armed forces in segregated units. Women like Gertrude Margaritte Ivory Bertram, who joined the Army Nurse Corps after graduating from nursing school, served in mostly segregated facilities during the war. Bertram was stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and later in West Africa with the 25th Station Hospital. The 25th was an integrated hospital, with both black and white doctors, corpsmen, and staff. The nurses stationed there, however, remained segregated; the thirty nurses working at the 25th Station Hospital were all black. Only the Coast Guard’s SPARs fully integrated its women’s reserves.
The United States never conscripted women during World War II. Women remained among the true volunteers who served in the armed forces. At the war’s end, most military women returned to civilian life, but a significant number remained in uniform. World War II changed the status of military women and through Congressional legislation, they became a permanent part of the armed forces.
Women’s contributions to the war effort left an ambitious legacy. Many women, especially from the middle class, were glad to return home from the paid workforce. But others resented the push by government, corporations, labor unions, and returning veterans to relinquish traditionally “male” occupations for lower-paid, traditionally “female” employment. Birthrates plummeted during the Great Depression, but from 1945 through 1964, the United States experienced a baby boom that wrought profound changes in the postwar era. Despite a societal push toward maternity and motherhood, the percentage of women in the paid workforce continued to accelerate in the postwar years. Rosie the Riveter became a national icon in the late 1960s and 1970s, as Second Wave Feminism flourished and practices of gender-based discrimination were challenged.
History can tell us a great deal about why change happens. It can offer understanding, even empathy, for the lives of individuals very different from ourselves. By the same token, while history never repeats itself, there can be remarkable continuity in the range of emotions and actions of individuals. We rightly remember the bravery and sacrifice that Americans made to defeat the forces of tyranny in World War II. What are the lessons of history? The current COVID-19 pandemic has cast a shadow on the entire country and left virtually no part of the globe untouched. While it is too soon to write a history of this pandemic, it is apparent that physicians, nurses, and first responders displayed bravery and sacrifice reminiscent of the Greatest Generation.
