One of the most dramatic developments during the war was the change in the role of women in the labor force. Some 200,000 women entered the military services. Mainly they served in the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) and Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Services (WAVES), with smaller numbers in the Marine Corps, Coast Guard, and the Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Service. Women also entered the civilian labor force in large numbers. Many entered jobs that women had filled before the war, but many others, as symbolized by “Rosie the Riveter,” entered jobs traditionally filled by men. Women became toolmakers, crane operators, lumberjacks, and stevedores. About 14 percent of the women who had been out of the paid labor force before Pearl Harbor went to work. High wages and a desire to serve their country encouraged women to take jobs. Government propaganda urged women to work in industry and to help supply the weapons needed to defeat the Axis (Rupp 1978). This propaganda also encouraged women to think of these jobs as temporary, to be turned back to returning soldiers after the war was over. Perhaps somewhat more surprisingly, 34 percent of the women who had been working before Pearl Harbor left the labor force. Increased wages earned by other family members, and a decline in the availability of household workers explain this phenomenon (Goldin 1991). But what was the effect of the wartime surge of women into the workforce on the long-run trend? This question, which more complicated than it might at first appear, is discussed in Perspective 25.1.
World History
