Women In The Early 1940's

The early 1940’s were years full of unpleasant events. On December 7, 1941, Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. The next day Congress approved President Roosevelt’s petition to go to war with Japan. With the United States engaged in yet another great war, many men were required to avenge and protect their country. While President Roosevelt drafted men and shipped them overseas, women had a part of the war too.
Men were volunteering to serve their country left and right. Some left a mother and father behind, while others left a complete household of wife and children. Naturally, a woman was to stay home. People told them to wait and pray for their soldier that they should be proud of him. Some women agreed, but they wanted to do more than buy bonds.
One way that was easy and safe was being a poster model. Posters with pictures of Uncle Sam asking men to join could be seen everywhere, but women were asking too. Women were on posters asking fellow Americans to buy bonds and stamps, or other women to fill up spots men left behind. An iconic and memorable poster was Rosie the Riveter. The women working in factories were associated with Rosie. Rosie was the subject of a popular song about a girl waiting for her Marine to come home, as she worked away on a riveter
Crops Corps, as an Army Nurse, the Women’s Reserve, better known as Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES),for a Victory Job, and plenty other openings. A poster recruiting women for war jobs read, “Count on us! We won’t let you down!” Other propaganda read had slogans such as: “Women in the war: We can’t win without them.” The WMC (War Manpower Commission) and OWI (Office of War Information) released posters, which had various slogans such as: “Do the job he left behind: Apply U.S. Employment Service.” , “We soldiers of supply pledge that our fighting men will not want!” , “On the job we must all do our best, can’t you see; for our boys’ very lives rest with you and me…” , “There’s work to be done and a war to be won, now!”
Women directly involved with the soldiers overseas were their nurses. After Pearl Harbor, the Army Nurse Corps recruited more than ten thousand women in six months. At the time of Pearl Harbor, fewer than one thousand nurses were in the corps. With the help of the Red Cross, the corps recruited women between the age of twenty-one and forty. The age limit was later changed to forty-five. African American women served as well, but in small numbers. Without gender and color restrictions, plenty of more nurses would have enlisted. By June 1942, twelve thousand female nurses made up the Army Nurse