Transcripts For CSPAN3 Lectures In History Women During World War II 20240712

Space here. Today, we are going to talk about american women in world war ii. And this is, obviously, a huge talker. We could spend an entire semester just on this topic alone. We will try to break it down to three different spaces, and we will look at a lot of images to kind of fit into the other things that weve talked about. So, we are going to talk about american women in three ways. We are going to talk about women at home, okay . Women at work. And women at war. Do so, we are going to kind of organize our ideas this way. We are going to look at a lot of the propaganda weve been talking about propaganda throughout the semester, and watching videos and things like that. We will get a chance to talk about everybody found that to be okay . The all right. Its a good one on women at work during world war ii, you can find it on the National Archives of sight, right . But we will talk about that in this portion, and we will talk about these different parts of women during american women during world war ii. Again, we are just hitting the survey of this. There is so much we could talk about throughout the entire semester, and we do all of it and u. S. World war ii, so we can do all of it. We do our bits and pieces. Weve already talked about some of these things, so some of it will be familiar. Especially when we get to the room at work part but then we will go from there. Be sure to stop me if you have any questions and we will do our thing. So, women at home, all right . So, when we think about, as one of the biggest things i want you to do today, is think about this reality for the home front. Right . Which is minute what we are talking about today. And the reality of what life meant for women in the war. And one of the first things that we often think about is all of them and going away to war. The men are going off, that means whos left behind, the women. So a lot of the women are married, weve talked about there are all sorts of cookie weddings going on. People have been married for a while and this idea of how to get by, right . If you are a household with a husband and a wife in this time period its a partnership, and each has their role, and they are much more defined roles and world war ii than the, are say, today. This idea of how are you going to do both your job as the wife and often the mother, and the job of the husband . How do you do this . This is a very popular book, came out in 1942, so your husbands gone to war right . And this idea of what do you do . How do you get through it . You can see from the cover here, you know, tackling male chores, right . Because towards were defined by male and female, right . Whos going to do which job, and any single woman, any widow, any, you know, women like that, does everything. If you live on your own, you do your own thing, put your own light bulbs, and and you fix your own repairs. But this book give some guidance us guidebook to help women know how to do those little maintenance jobs that they needed to. This is my favorite part. The wolves in the french clothings, right . This idea of weve got wolves, right . That was the phrase of the day. You know that means, right . A wolf, right . You know. They pretend to be helpful, oh, i will come help you change a lightbulb. Let me help, let me help. But really, they are, you know, you know, not quite as nice as they say. How do you distinguish between the wolf and the real friend, right . And then theres this part up in the operate corner is something thats really important. Women had a lot of responsibility, not just to do their work and things like this, but this is the lost art of obliterating. And this idea that women were responsible for keeping up the morale of man, right . As we have seen that we have through this entire section, especially and the idea that women are responsible for making men, remember what they are fighting for, making men feel confident, making men feel that its okay for them to be away, but they are missed, and need to come home, right . So, this lost art of letter writing, ethel gorham writes this whole chapter about how to write letters to your man, and there is articles in womens magazines, theres articles and mainstream newspapers, all these editorials about how women should write their letters. So, what do you think you want to put in a letter if you are writing to johnny, whos away, and in europe, fighting against the germans . What do you want to put in your letter, as you are writing from home . What would you put in there . Dont worry about what things are going here right right, dont worry about how things are, focus on getting the job done go do your thing, were good here. Now youve got to realize that they want you to write multiple letters a week. If you can write daily thats best, because imagine your soldiers going and going to get mail every day. If theres nothing there how depressing that is. No ive got to go fight my war, and nobody at home cares about me right. Thats the guilt right. So the pressure is to write every day, three days a week, for five days a week at the minimum. So you write that ones, and then what do you right . What else you do . We miss you. We miss you, please come home, right . But you cant do too much of that, or it will make him feel to side. Kind of a cheerful story. Focus on the war. Write a fun story. So a piece of advice that gorman puts in her book make yourself interesting. So your letters are interesting. Do interesting things so your letters are interesting but dont be deep to interesting, because how think youre having fun while hes at war. You have to find that balance between being interesting and not being interesting. What if they dont have a sweetheart at home . Are there women getting together to write letters to strangers . To kind of help. Out exactly theres this whole series whole campaign through the red cross or different organizations, where soldiers would give their names and women would write letters to strangers. You have romances that grow out of that, this idea of writing letters, talking about whats going on at home. What is your roof gets a leak. Should you write johnny about that . No. I dont know right, this balance between maybe you wait until the leak is fixed and then you tell johnny hey the ruth had a lead, but we got it fixed. But you dont want to seem too efficient, because if the roof leaks and the plumbing breaks, and all these things and you just take care of it. Why does johnny need to come home . Its a lot of pressure on these women to write these letters, and these very specific ways, high volume positive. You can say you miss him, but you cant be to blue. Youve got to find this balance of being responsible and him not needing to worry, but still needing him to come home because youre just not good at it. You can get by, but hurry home. So its this balance, and this pressure on women that gets put again youve got whole books about it but in different forms and media about womens responsibility to write these letters. The men i read a lot of these letters coming back, you dont have as many letters of the women going overseas. These letters that the women wrote we dont see as many because the men did not keep them. Where the woman kept the letters that the men wrote from overseas. So we have more of those, we can figure out what the women were talking about by how the men respond to those letters. Thats one of the ways we can determine what went into those letters, you see a lot of anxiety from the men. Especially about the wolves. Theres a lot of ideas about the men who dont serve, who are not able to serve or have these different positions, domestically and that theyre going to try and steal the women. Thats actually a campaign that the germans in the japanese both use and leaflet campaigns, is that the men back home are stealing your girl. Dont you wish the war was over, and you could go home . Come on in common in. So this idea of their letter riding and things like this, and the fact that this is an incredibly popular book in 1940 twos says a lot i think. That women are working on this and going forward. Other responsibilities that the women had. Weve talked a little about the rationing, were going to talk about it more in another week. This idea of weve got all this rationing, because who is the United States responsible for feeding during the war . Pretty much everybody. Pretty much everybody, lets narrow that down a little. So who are responsible for feeding . Allies. Our allies right. The allies, we are going to give some food to the russians, the british and all of that entails. Who else do we need to feed . Our soldiers. Our people are soldiers right, the men and women who have gone abroad. We are responsible for feeding them, the british are not going to pull out fish and chips for soldiers that are out. We have to supply, and whos the third group that were responsible for . Feeding rescuing. People were rescuing yes. The home front. The people back home, need to eat as well. So weve got rationing so we can get all that manufacturing that weve talked about already. But then that reality of food and whos going to eat and who we are responsible for feeding. Those theres a lot of emphasis on women growing those victory gardens, ive got a slide of that right. Those victory gardens, grow vitamins on your credit kitchen door, theres a huge growth of the study of nutrition during this time period. You want to get as much nutrition in as little food as possible. This idea, of what are women going to do . Youve got to canned that, its one thing to grow a victory garden, but if its done by the end of the summer thats no good. So this idea of canning, you know i am i proud, i am fighting famine. I am counting at home. Look this is hard but im doing it. I love this one, with a little girl. We will have lots to eat this winter wont we mother very cute, as we go through these were going to see a lot of these posters and different images, i want you to be sure to note things like the race of these women that are being portrayed. The appearance of them, these are pretty Perfect Little girl is so cute you could pincher little she couldnt you. And this idea of who is being represented, which audience are these government poster government sponsored posters trying to reach. Another thing thats used so women get used in a number of different ways, we have this pressure to try and get women to take action, but weve also got the effort to use women as propaganda pieces to achieve other goals. What do you see in this image, what do you think of this . Sacrifice. Sacrifice right. Is she a perky clean cut gal . No. Well she might she used to be. What is she now . Shes scared, does she look very happy . No. No right, the babies laughing right. But the little girl is clinging to her, not quite knowing whats going on. But the woman looks kind of side and scared, because i gave a man remember we talked about the soviets, and how the americans are like, youve got to do more, and theyre like we gave blood you give money. Shes saying i give a man, my children dont have a father. Im alone and scared, can you at least give 10 of your pay to buy a war bond . That is the very least you can do, look at the sacrifice my family has made, this is the least you could do. So women being used to for guilt right, to make you feel this pressure to buy war bonds. Why do we need war, bones for review. What are war bonds for do you remember . Equipment and all the supplies. Right we needed, we talked about expensive the war is. War bonds are one way that we pay for it, basically loaning money to the government so that it could so that the government can afford the war. This is another way women are portrayed, information is important. Theres all sorts of campaigns out there dont talk about within joining sledders. Anybody could be listening, this idea of wanted for murder. What does she look like . If she was in a movie who would she be . What your character the villain . The fan fat, all the villain right. Or the neighbor right i cant just help themselves, . Right, right . Thats the impression thats given and so many of these images. And again ive have 20 of these that we could look at. This idea that women just cant help themselves gossiping, right . But her gossip cost lives, right . Maybe his life, right . Right . This idea that, you know, she looks perfect, but her careless top, right . Her thoughtlessness cost lives, right . So this idea of when we need to control themselves, right . To resist their natural urge to gossip. Right . Right. Women are used for sex, right . And this idea of women used is sexual, right . This whole famous series of prints that im sure you guys have seen before. You see, shes a wac, in the military, but not in this moment, shes not, right . But this is mainstream, right . This is mainstream. A picture that came out in life magazine, right . This is a mainstream image of the idea that women as the centralized being speak as youve got to think about why we are fighting. We are fighting so we can get home. We are fighting so we can get home and, because this is what all girls look like, apparently. Right . Right. Is it a reality, right . But they cant be, so women are supposed to be sexual, right . They are supposed to be pretty, there was three sexual, so the men will know what they are fighting for. But the cant be too sexual, right . Ill give you a minute to look at this. Right . You like this . What do you think, what do you think . Right . What do you see in these images. How are on being portrayed in these images. There are spreading disease. Theyre spreading disease, right . This is my alltime favorite. She may look clean, but right . There is a whole series of these images, these posters that are given to man at the different bases and overseas. You know, whole classes on venereal disease, but this idea that these good time girls, and pickups, these are a problem, right . So we want to give you posters like this to hang up, but dont touch, right . Because they are probably diseased. Right . , so this idea of women as all these different things, right . Women are mothers, women are, you know, raising the guardians, saving and feeding everyone, and women are sacrificing, women are writing letters, and be good for morale. Women are, you know, the sexual beings, and women are also diseased. Right . All these things, all at the same time, right . This idea of i just think this, is right . Right . Right . And again, there is this whole series of these that are out there, and they are promoted among all these men. Right . So, thats our women at home. Is that you guys have questions about that, or . Okay. All right, lets switch to our next topic here, this idea of women at work. One minute work. And we think of this a lot, right . When we think of women and world war ii, we often think of these working women, right . Right, and this is the point of the class, the section of the course, you know, my favorite thing is to be a myth buster, right . Thats what we do, thats what historians do, thats our job. So, this section, we are going to bust some myths and im sorry. But we are. Okay, so, when we think of women working in world war ii, one of the biggest things that is often talked about is the idea that women go to work. Right . Okay, all the women go to work, right . Now, do you guys remember your u. S. History class, your survey . Right . What did you learn about women working . Did women work before world war ii . No. Now . Not according to my survey class. Really . What about in the factories, at the turn of the century . What about those immigrant women . Yeah . Some, but it wasnt as widespread, and it wasnt mothers, or it was so, all of those factories that came out through the industrial revolution, and all of those children, right . That child labor. Did women outwork in those factories . Single women. Lots of young, single woman. Lots of young single women. Wasnt immigrant women, right . But about women of color . Do they work . You think so . Yeah . Teachers . Well, women of color did not get a lot of teaching jobs that, you know, coming up to here they didnt, right . Coming out of the progressive era, we get more women of color taking middle class jobs, red . But women, women have always work, right . Youve always had working class women, right . Working class women, immigrant women, women of color, unmarried women, right . They have always worked, right . So, which one are we really talking about when we say women began to work during world war ii . But across white women. Middle class white women. Right . We are talking about middle class white women, this expansion into this area that people did not work before, right . And then, a second group tied in there will be mothers. Right . More mothers are working in world war ii, than before, right . So the shift from working class women, immigrant women, women of color, working, right . To that expansion of middle class white women. So thats what we often see portrayed in these posters, right . I mean, look at these women, right . First of all, their teeth are perfect, right . Which does not happen in the 1940s, right . They all hook movie stars, they all have their eyebrows just, right the hair just right, right . They are beautiful, right . This is not what most people ever look, like little on in the forties. Right . Right. But this idea of who the target is, right . Who is the target for the working, because this is the group that we have in excess, that we can target to get to work. Right . So, thats an important distinction i want to make sure that we understand which when we are talking about when we say the work force expanded to women. Its a specific group of women that are going to be expanded, right . Now, one area that often does not get talked about in women working in world war ii is women agriculture, right . This idea of women agriculture. So, its important to realize that we have over 6 million agricultural laborers and farmers that lead the land during world war ii, right . Over 6 Million People who have been working the land, and they leave it during world war ii. And these are often going to be men who are going to work in the factories, because they are better paid. These are going to be men who are being drafted, or enlisting, right . The shortage of laborers, agricultural laborers gets about during the, war that by the middle and late 1942, it becomes a draft deferred position. Whats draft different position . Do you remember . Your job is more critical. Your job is war critical, c cannot be drafted. You cannot be drafted. If you leave that job, he may be eligible for the draft, but if you are in that position, you are draft deferred. Agricultural laborers, farmers, they become draft deferred because we need people so badly. That doesnt mean you cant and list. That doesnt mean you cant go work in a factory, right . Though, by late in the, war there are limits on that. If you get permission to do that. Right . So, at the same elements that we are expanding the agricultural needs, because we are feeding people at home, we are feeding people, americans abroad, and we are feeding all of our allies. Right . Helping feed our allies. At the same time, were doing that, the laborers are shrinking. So, there is a huge push to get american women involved in this,. Right, and weve seen this before, weve seen it in world war i. There is a volunteer Organization Called the womens planned army of america that was around we expand that and world war ii. There was a Womens Land Army ingrate britain, and we model a lot of what goes on in the United States after that. But there is this huge push to get american women as part of this. There were other organizations of the Bracero Program, if you guys read about that. So what was the Bracero Program . There is an agreement between u. S. And mexico to allow workers to come in and work in the fields. Right. This agreement between the United States and mexico to allow laborers to come to the states and work. And this program goes from 1942 to 1951. Right . This is a huge program, we will talk about it in other class. But they try that to the government tries to expand the number of labours. They also go to convict, spread, prison labor, which had been used some in the past, but gets expanded. They also use p. O. W. ,s right . We had p. O. W. Is here in texas and had some in oklahoma, and in different regions of the country. Where you know youd have german and italian p. O. W. s that would come to the United States and then put them in the farms right. Let them be laborers. So youve got all these different groups, and then this huge push lets get more women. Lets get more women to do this. Some basic numbers for you, we end up with Something Like three and a half million women working in the agricultural field. Three and a half million women, which is a much bigger number than you think of. We think of rosy, or the women pilots could you hear. Cause you have me as a professor right. Three and a half million women are recruited, theres some biased against them in the beginning. You can read a lot of documents about this idea of women are going to be able to do the job, we cant trust them. This idea of where urban women it specially, who wants a city girl to come work on their farm. Theyre going to break through heel and not be able to work, very quickly the woman prove themselves. Theyre able to do the work that needs to be done, and make a real difference. Some basic numbers, 1940 women made up 8 of all farmworkers, by 1945 it was 23 . So women went from 8 in agriculture to 23 in agriculture, just that quickly. Again this is all going to shrink back down after the war, just because we arent growing as much after the war, but thats a significant amount three and a half with million women working on farms. Theres a new costume idea for halloween. laughs dress up like a farmworker, Womens Land Army. Everybody does rosy. This idea of women in labor, so this is you cant talk about women at work without talking about this. Who do you guys see here . Rosy the river. So this is the part another part of the class that im gonna bust some nuts. A hint in the arm inaudible it started off with i guess supposed to make Something Like inaudible talking about how american women spend more on personal so that the u. S. Military did for their own supplies while german women were my baby producer is basically. Im curious how at the time the u. S. Thought about its women becoming part of the regular workforce. I dont think we really discuss that, how are american treated how are still working in the factories of that time inaudible . So this is a good question how the women that are working in the factories treated by the men, how did they interpret them or feel about them working. I have some numbers for you just to give you some big ideas, the female labor force grows by six and a half milling during this period. During world war ii, a shift from 25 of american women working in 1940, to 37 of all american women working in 1944. So this is going to be a huge shift, now to answer your idea about how are they seen . Because women did work but women are dominating a lot of these factories especially. The reality is, a lot of the men were put in charge. Theyre put in supervisory roles, if theyve been working in the factory have experience, then theyre gonna be put into these roles. And youre going to have all sorts of interpretations of them. Some other going to be happy to have them as laborers, some are going to not believe they can do the job, some will be a little sexist or harassers or whatever. It just upended on the time in the place, how they were doing it. Reality is, we couldnt have done the work we did during the war without them. Just by sheer numbers, as you brought up the film, that hidden army. I want to give you guys a chance to talk about, that this is a propaganda film that was done in 1944 before the end of the war before the war is over. And how does it begin . Hit learn a cell, writes i shouldnt have underestimated those american women. Its a strange setup, a prison guard coming down and hitler in his cell writing a memo or. Like he wrote mein kampf in prison, now hes going to write how i lost the war. This is before the war is over, so this is how were going to do it. How were going to put hitler in this position. The name of one of his chapters the name of one of his chapters is the hidden army, and its women right. So weve talk we watch the documentary, as a propaganda piece. Weve watched some of frank capper as why we fight films, try to put this hidden army film into that context of propaganda, and what pieces did you see that looked familiar or looked a bit different . That were focused on women a little bit more. I thought it was interesting that they did the interviews with him, why are you here and i was like some of that seems very fake. So the interview different women asking them why are you here in the factory, why are you enjoying what youre doing . Theyre definitely set up, this isnt some random lets walk up on the street to random worker and say this. Seems more like that guilt, of not working. The girl that wakes up in the morning it just goes back to sleep, because of that people are dying. This similar when they show like the dead people, you get more that attitude in this film. Yes definitely. There was also an entire sequence of women getting telegram saying by the way your son, husband, brother is dead. The woman in particular who just pulling yourself on the back crying. When your sons going mommy whats wrong . Just you guys are not being subtle at all, i can respect you for that but wow. Yeah theres no subtlety to this phone, it is definitely a propaganda piece, everybody watching it knows its a propaganda piece. Were so cynical today, you have to wonder, where they are cynical then as we are now . Did they watch this drama, but yeah the obvious lacquer that shuts her alarm off and goes back to sleep, and then johnny dies because she went to sleep instead of working in the factory. Its very dramatic, very on point. The telegrams saying, you lost a person the reality is people are dying. People are going missing an action, people are receiving those telegrams, and weve talked about this in the past when weve talked about manufacturing chapter and david kennedys book, this idea that american stuff our tanks, planes all those things have to join the war. So there really is a direct correlation between people not going to the factories, and people not having the supplies we need. But very dramatic, very done. Where there are other points in that film that you noticed . Wanted to make sure we talk about it. Its very short, its like seven minutes but its still kind of fine. Its one of those where you dont want to giggle, but its like oh my gosh its so over the top. Its something that was important, we talked a little bit when we talked about manufacturing, the idea that people were having strikes. When we talked last week about censorship, the idea that early in the war, the War Department censored photos. They wouldnt show man dead on the beach and things like that because it was just too hard. But by 1944, theyre letting those images out, theyre showing more of those images, showing more this drama of the families being affected. Theyre showing more the violence that was occurring to the soldiers and why were they doing that . Because people were starting to slack, they thought they had won the war already, so why go continue to go to the factories and work. Exactly, we werent being bombed. We werent with some exceptions in the northwest and pearl harbor, most americans werent being impacted as they were in england, or france or other places. So this idea of, i dont want to go to work today. Whats the consequence who cares. Theres also another moment in the film where they show bombed out cities, im not sure if its in italy or britain or anything like that basically says, all right if you dont go to work and do this thing, we could get bombed here please take this seriously. Yeah and weve looked at some of those images of the idea of we want to stop the fighting over there. We want to stop it in the pacific, before it comes here. Because were next thats the goal. Go to the factory, get the job done. Okay, so this idea of women working was important. Just to kind of drive home the point of which women are working, and how it changed, before there were only 13. 9 of american women who were married are working. And that number goes up to almost 24 during the war. So its still a pretty small number, if you think about. Thats a little warped by the fact that you have so many marriages during world war ii, those kind of quickly marriages that occur. Weve known each other for two weeks, but youre about to go overseas the so lets get married. Its important to realize, just a side note, that the divorce rate between 1945 and 1952 is astronomical. Its the highest divorce rate in American History, those seven year because everyone comes back for more and is like i dont really know you, maybe this isnt a good idea. But the idea of marriage the idea of married women working. So weve got this image, this we can do it image, which is so popular and of course so important. And the idea of rosy the rivet or comes from a song. This is a 1942 song, it is incredibly popular popular, well see im going to try and play it for you lets see if i can make this work its so fun. Wasnt that fun its going to be stuck in your head all day and its going to be my fault and thats okay laughs . I know its my fault im sorry thats my job is to get into your brains. So this is an incredibly popular song it gets covered by everybody it gets covered by everybody. For vagabonds makes a popular 1942 but then just about everyone who seeing music is such an important part of all of this during the war that. Its just so popular so this idea of rosie riveter also wendy the welder. This idea of growing and working in a factory so weve got this image and this is a myth busting portion of the class. This idea of rosy the river then im sorry but this woman was not called rosie riveter until the 19 eighties. She was a poster created by miller to requesting house pork corporation factories that hung up in their factories for two weeks in february in 1943 this was not a poster that inspired all of america. This was not an image that made people set up and go to work, im very sorry you can still love her you can so dress up like her for halloween, but she is definitely a worker, definitely fits its not dishonest to call her rosy. Look at the images from the cover, very similar. Well have images of real roses, but she wasnt called that during the war. This is rosie riveter, you guys recognize Norman Rockwell from his own paintings of himself. This is Norman Rockwell, this is mary okeefe, she was 19 years old she was his neighbor she was pretty blurry broke artists at the time. He paid her five dollars to come to his studio, he had a photographer take pictures of her different poses. He like to work off of photographs instead of live subjects. Then they had her come back a week later, put on a blue shirt and penny loafers, so work off of that photo she got five dollars for each season. She got five dollars to be rosie riveter. He wrote to her afterwards or called her afterwards and apologized for making her look so hefty. Rosy has these big strong arms and is a big strong girl and okeefe a slender 19yearold i just want you to know, im sorry about that. She was okay obviously the thing went really popular. But this is rosie, you can see her lung box lunch box as rosy on, it so this on had come out and came popular. And then he did this painting, and dubbed her rosie riveter this is just another i like a little trivia for you to see how this was inspired. Michelangelo isaiah has dropped his son which i think. laughs this idea how often does rockwell do this i dont know. I love how this is similarity between the two, its obviously what he did very popular. So this is the image that gets taken all over the country, this is the image that gets turned into posters. This is the image that people have hanging up and think about as rosy the river. Not are where we can do it girl. As much as we love her and you can still love her, but she is a creation. We talk about that a lot in here, the idea that people use the past four different things. And in the 19 eighties they used that image to inspire women. And called her rosy, again we bust myths in here. This is rosy, representing all those women. The real rosy never actually riveted anything. She was a telephone operator, she never riveted anything. But she post and we have this terrific image. Just one more image, this is her and she in 2015 with a copy of it. I just think shes great. She was just very nice, very nice happy lady. So weve got that this idea of promotion of women work in we talk about the fact that the federal government had all these different commissions, all these different ports to try and help organize the economy, control the economy. This idea of women doing different jobs, this is one of my favorite posters does not seem quite as often, its drawn in a different style this idea of look at all these different jobs women are doing. We often think of rosy the rivet or the wealth or, people working in aircraft factories with Naval Shipyards building the ships. Youll know this one has a waitress on there. Theres a whole series of advertisement saying being a waitress is a wardrobe. Because somebody needs to feed the workers, somebody needs to feed the people who are doing these other jobs. This type is just as important, we just need you to work, you dont have to be a mechanic you dont have to weld. But work. I wanted to point out to in this one, you see the one here in the middle has gray hair. So this is another targeted, women in their forties and fifties, to help them get into the workforce doing these different jobs. You can roll bandages, but we really need more people in the factories, more people doing these different jobs. And weve talked about the fact that women are working when theyre married and when their mothers, well who is going to care for their children if youre working a tenhour shift . At willow run, or down here at lockheed . Grandmothers so theres a huge push, Eleanor Roosevelt weve talked about her allow, about how she advocates for different groups. One of the things she advocates for, she advocates for government supported childcare. This idea of child care, if you want women to work, if you want women to be part of this war effort, then youve got of had somebody watching over the children. And we know that childcare is a problem for families today. Its not just womens problems its a family problem, affordable childcare is a problem. And in the 1940s, its an even bigger problem because theres even less infrastructure for childcare. Once, women once you have children you dont work you take care of the kids. You have working class women, immigrant women, and women of color always did and found ways. But Elena Roosevelt says lets have some childcare, so theyre all some childcare facilities set across the country, but there is small numbers that its just completely inadequate. So the people that are going to watch the children, are going to be family. Grandmothers, or this idea of support within the community. So that gets promoted as a war job, if you work as a child care giver, you are enabling someone else to go and work in the factory. If youve got arthritis in your elbow and cant read it, maybe you can feed a baby a bottle. And do your part, so this idea of all of these jobs help with the war effort. And make a difference to the whole thing. We often think of rose either rivet or the epitome of women working during the war. But the reality is more more women type than anything else, when we get to the woman at war, were not going to highlight that, i want to sneak it in now. Thats one of the biggest things women do in the military as well you had this sos women working for parts of the government for Civil Service women in the military to. Remember there are no computers, everybody has orders theyre all in triplicate, or call duplicate. Everything is typed, everything is typed. What are my favorite resources in my research is when i find transcripts of phone calls, because every Government Official depending on your level would have a stenographer that would listen. And take short hand, the ultimate secret language, takes shorthand of the phone conversation and then type out the phone conversation. So in the National Archives, we have transcripts of phone calls between generals between imports and people, making business decisions. Weve got transcripts of all those phone calls, theyre hard to find because theyre not labeled that way. So you have to look through a lot of boxes, but somebody types those, and thats going to be women that are typing those. This one of the things about a lot of these posters theyre sponsored by different companies, weve talked about that before i think. The idea that they want to promote their company by sponsoring the bonds, or whatever. Royal Typewriter Company sponsors this one. You go and serve your country but do it by typing, wouldnt you rather have a royal typewriter than any other. So its a quiet plug for their own company but supporting the war effort. This is another push, this idea she is holding his letter, and being all sad and lonely. Shes crying you see the tears, isnt that side. But her lipstick is perfect,. What is this essentially saying to this girl or any lonely girl. Dont cry about it get to work and up. Dont be a baby, go to something about it. This idea that only you can bring him home, only you can end this war by going to work. If youre going to sit at home and shut your alarm clock off and sit around and cry nothing is going to happen. You have to go to work, you have to get this job done. Again this similar type of thing, the men would rather be doing this work, the men are probably doing but somebody has to do it. Do the job he left behind, whats with the head wrap . Talk to me about that, we see that in the image of rosie riveter why why . Because women have curls and stuff. Are you going to wear your hair in curls to the factory . You dont want your hair getting caught in the machinery, you will get scalped. So this is a safety issue this is the idea that you have to keep your hair up and this is the simplest way. So you can do double duty, you can put your hair up and pin curls and wrap it up and then you dont kill yourself wrapping it around a drill press, and then you can go out and go dancing afterwards. Its killing those two kurds two birds with one stone. I want to point out the image that we have here of this woman. Does she look like she sweating . Shes perfect, shes beautiful. Shes got her makeup on, i dont know where those fake lashes are the real lashes . I dont know, and again the perfect lipstick. So this is the image thats being left of these women, these very perfect images. Now we talk about this and we look at all these different images, this is a various serious effort. This is a very serious effort, this is a group of women some of them just have harriott sensitive bandanas, but this is important work, these are the noses of bombers. Can you tell that can you see that, those are going to go on the nose of bombers. Its important, theres going to be a man sitting in here, if you dont do it right he could die. So this is important work, we have to get those numbers out there. Just to review, we talked about this idea of the manufacturing, remember when we talked about fdr in 1942. He said 60,000 new airplanes, we had like 9000 airplanes before we got involved in the war. We are going to build 60,000 new airplanes in 1942, and 125,000 airplanes in 1943. Think about that reality, how the heck are we going to do that. How is this even possible, that weve spools up so quickly in our factories in our manufacturing, and that we reach those goals. We bree build 300 airplanes over the coast of a war, we go from 9000 to over 300,000 in the war. Were supplying the soviets, were supplying the british and were supplying ourselves. We are completely overwhelming the germans and japanese, completely overwhelming them. Because we have women working in these factories. Women working in these factories. I want to show you some pictures of the real rosie riveter weve got this one again, lots of airplanes i know you love airplanes. This is another image of rosie riveter, i want to make the point that most of the post or images that we see are targeting those middle class white women, and this idea that you can still be attractive and feminine if youre working in the factory. The reality is, you have a lot of women of color who are going to be in these positions, and doing these different jobs. I love this this is one of my favorite ones, so much so that i have it twice for you. I like this one because of the reflection, you can see her ring and her reflection. And this idea that she is still feminine, shes got this beautiful ring, look at her nails. I dont know if she knew she was going to be photograph the next day, or she just kept her nails that pretty, it made her feel feminine while she was doing this work. This idea of women doing this work while still being feminine, but the target in a lot of the advertisement isnt women of color, but you see a lot of different women taking these jobs. Again this is why i say we can still call the we can do it woman rosy, she looks like a lot of these women. This idea that bandana is to hold the hair up, doing these different types of jobs. The shoes always of interest to me, the types of shoes. There were penny loafers, little loafers no work boots for this group of this generation. I like this one to, what you see up there in the corner of that . What do you see here . Men working together. The idea of men doing these different jobs, you could see one on the right is a sailor so that is the kind of place that we can do a poster with a phone. Just on the back wall of the factory kind of thing. Just to remind people why are there you are you are not just here doing a job. It gets romanticized a, lot doesnt it . This idea of, oh, you are building this plane and you are going to save a man, and hes going to fight and kill the germans, or hes going to kill the japanese, and we are going to win the, war and its going to be because you riveted that, right . Your robots saved the world, right . But its also boring, right . To do the same thing. Its dirty, its out, its mundane. So its how to fund that balance between making people realize you have to keep coming to work. Its important for you to keep coming to work, and getting through the boring this of doing the same thing every day, right . How to find that balance. How to find that balance. Right . Just another one. These are shipped fitters. You know, mike loss always show the airplane pictures, but its important to realize that we built tens of thousands of ships during world war ii. These are women working in one of the shipyards. Again, at this picture because its diverse. Right . Youve got an asian woman, probably asian american, an African American woman, white women, all working together. Youve got the guy in the back smiling. Nice guy, right . Im here to, right . , but you know, this, as much of the workers are integrated, right . This isnt where, while the military still integrating, saturated at this time, the workers were integrated, right . So i think thats important, right . So, youve got all different types of women working. You know, look at that sweater and shirt, right . Its like you are going to get dirty. Right . You are going to get dirty. They all have i. D. Badge us, right, with photo ideas. Right . With photo ideas. These are secure facilities, right . It depends where you, are what you are doing, how secure is going to be. But these are secure facilities, so youre going to need to have these photo ideas. Right . This idea of photo ideas. Right . There is a limited series of color photographs during the war, right color film was fairly new and was fairly expensive, so there is this whole series of color photographs which i think, is like, wait a minute, they are real. Right . It has a whole another level of things, but you, know you think of all the different jobs, this woman is literally painting on the plane, right . Shes painting the star on the plane. This is fabric, right, this is a fabric plane. Probably a trainer, but, so, artists had jobs, right . All sorts of different jobs, not just, you know, the factory rebutting, right . Why did it matter . That woman went to work, right . This is the willow run factory up in detroit, near detroit. Its in belleville, michigan, actually. This, of course, was fords factory, that got transitioned into this bomber factory. This is huge. This is one of my favorite photographs. Can you see the person here, sticking their head out . Right. Just to give you a scale of the plans that we are talking about. It will be 24 liberators. This is the model, obviously. This one factory at willow run, built 9000 of the 18,000 be 24 that are built during world war ii, right . Think about the scale of that. They were building one every 63 minutes. By 1944. One of those was coming off the Assembly Line every 63 minutes. Think about how complicated that machine, is right . This is a big four engine plane, and incredibly, incredibly important, right . And they go off to war, right . And again, we have talked about, previously, in this class, weve talked about the scale of the stuff, right . The tanks, the ships, the guns, the jeeps, all of these things, and how we just overwhelmed the enemy, and this is one example of it. When you think about, you know, women at work during the war, and whether they really needed to do it. This is the result, right . Its not because they are omen, right . Its because they are workers, right and theyre able to do the jobs that needed to be done and make a real difference in the war. Right . Okay. Just some other quick statistics for you. Remember, we are reaching our goals of feeding everyone, right, both ourselves here at home, our soldiers abroad, and our allies overseas. Right . , we build over 300,000 planes in the world, right . 300,000 planes. Now its good to everything from trainers, the bombers, and the p51, and all of them. Through 2000 planes over the course of the war were also supplying 60 of our allies munitions, 40 of the whole worlds arms. Thats enemies and hours. Right . We are giving conversant of the soviet unions total military needs, that means we get the soviet union 350,000 trucks. Right . 350,000 trucks. We give a 956,000 miles of telephone cable. Right . All of those Little Things that you think of, maybe dont think of that we had to give them, right . And all doing this while our population is healthy and better fed than weve been in a generation. Right . We had that study of nutrition, we had all the farming going on, right . So all of the things that they come together, right . It really did make a difference, and again, we look at all these images and this idea of it being kind of fun, and some of it sexist, and some of it kind of exist, and it all comes together, right . This idea of different people working, right . There is a lot of discussion about the jobs that women had before and after the war, and this idea of women working and what happens to him after, and i want to make one final point on this idea of network. Right . Everyone during world war ii is able to change their opportunities, right . The work that they do. Youve got women that are working at this level, right . Theyre working at this level during before the war. And men are working here, right . Well, as the men are able to move up into different positions, that women are able to move up into the positions that the men work. Right . So, after the war, as the men come back down in the types of positions and the pay of the positions that they have, the women are going to come back down as well. Right . They are always going to say a notch below when it comes to pay, when it comes to opportunity, its going to be the same for a man of color, especially, right . They are going to be below white women on the pay scale, but they are going to be higher than they were before. Right . Women as domestic laborers drops by over 15 during world war ii. The idea of how many women were working as domestic laborers, and thats going to be a lot of women of color that are doing those jobs. A lot of immigrant women that are gonna be doing those jobs during the war, are able to take better paying jobs and then after the war theyre going to get bumped back down. To which types of jobs. So questions about women at work . This idea of women working, okay will switch to our third topic. Our third focus and final focus, its going to be women at war. This idea of women at war one of the biggest things i want you to walk away with today is the idea that we have between 350 and 400,000 women are going to serve in the American Armed forces during old world war ii. Depends who you count and who you dont count that discrepancy. Between 350,000 and 400,000 are going to serve in the American Armed forces, the thing i want you to remember about them is that they were all volunteers. We talk about the millions of men that served in the armed forces during world war ii, the vast majority of those were drafted. Many of them volunteered, but every woman veteran from the beginning of time in the United States to today, every woman veteran you need is a volunteer. Thats a really important thing to remember about women in the military and women who are veterans. So in world war ii, you have that 350,000 to 400, 000, this is my little Public Service announcement if you will, have you guys been to Arlington National cemetery . Have you seen this . Have a new youve been there . This is the womens memorial, womans and military service for america its right at the doorstep when you pull up to Arlington National cemetary. Youll find it there, it says womens memorial, but its really a museum and an archive, they carol oral histories histories and documents of women. Its really just a terrific nonprofit organization, it was started by congress unfortunately not funded. Of course. So it gets a lot of donations and things like that, its a really terrific organization. Its the only place in the country thats just for women. Just for Women Veterans recognizing them. I think thats important kind of Public Service announcement for you there. One of the first groups that we think of when we think of women serving in the military, is of course nurses. This is a fairly idealized promotion, very pure very clean, whos putting the hat on her. Uncle sam. Uncle sam right, we dont even need to know. This is a very attractive young woman, very white, perfect to make up all of this. Very intelligent, uncle sam saying we need you. Become a nurse, your country needs you. There were women doctors as well, theres a very small group of women doctors, but all in all we get about 74,000 women who served in the army and Navy Nurse Corps during world war ii, 74,000. So this is a lot, we had only 7000 active duty army and navy nurses before pearl harbor. So obviously a huge increase, and again people still got sick in the United States, people still got sick on the home front, so finding that balance of adding all these additional nurses was important. I would like to contrast this image of the nurse being anointed there by uncle sam, with this reality of what it meant to be a nurse. In world war ii, these are group a u. S. Army nurses that landed at normandy on the day plus for, so we talked about the war in europe weve talked about the day, a lot of men were being injured of course. They would be taken out to the boats, to the ships that were waiting where navy nurses would be waiting for them. But then army nurses are finally landing on the beaches at normandy, the day plus for. You could see the beaches have been improved a little bit, but its still very much a war zone, throughout the war nurses get closer and closer to the front lines. And are always right in the thick of it, because thats where the injured soldiers are. Theres a group of american women that are captured as p. O. W. ,s were going to talk about this the second half of our semester were gonna cover the war in the pacific. And when the philippines falls in 1942, both manila and corridor, you have a group of american women navy and army nurses who are there, who get captured, theres about 79 women captured by the japanese. They are held as p. O. W. s for 37 months, this is just a couple of them that survived give eating chocolate but you could see houston they are. Especially the woman on the left, houston they are. Starvation rations all of that, so when were talking about whos and combat whos not. That line gets pretty blurred, especially when it comes to the nurses because theyre so close. Whos captured whos not what happens to women as p. O. W. ,s what happens to menace p. O. W. s right. I think thats important to recognize, these nurses of course. Women serve in a number different parts of the military, this one could you get more girl next door. Shes just so perfect, but shes a good soldier when you think of soldier do you think of this. Is that the image that pops into your head . Not really. Not typically thats good. This idea of women serving in the military, women being soldiers is something that you have to get the public used to. You have to get the public used to, so you have a lot of these images theres a huge Huge Campaign against. These women i dont know it was a campaign as much as this idea at being in the military was a mans job, right . So, if a woman wanted to serve in the military, they must just want to be around bed, right . In a sexual way, prostitutes, camp followers kind of thing. Or they must be lesbians, and want to be a man. Right . Thats the two choices. So theres a lot of pushback against the idea of women serving in the military that you would be with unsavory type of people if you served in the military, one of the biggest efforts that, especially the, whackamole meant army corps, one of their biggest pushes is to convince parents was a good idea for their daughters to serve in the military. Parents were the ones who are pushing back a lot. There is a really good book, lisa meier has a good book on women in the army, and the campaign against them, right . So you have all of these different branches of the military that have women in them, there is a fierce competition, right . They all have a quota of how many women theyre supposed to come part of their forces, and so this campaign to get women to join the navy and instead of the army, giving things like that, and they all promote different types of jobs, right . So this is a parachute rigger, right . What message are they trying to tell people, how are they trying to get women to join the need for this type of message . Challenging them . Going to try and challenge them. Kind of like anybody can join, but can you join the waves . Right. Right. This idea of, you know, youve got what it takes . You think youre good enough . If you push to challenge them . All right. Look comported this job, is right . A parachute rigger. Thats, you know, no one uses the parachute in world war ii for fun, right . Thats not a pleasure thing, right . Or entertainment. So this idea that this is incredibly important can you handle it, right . Its a challenge to women. Right . Then this idea of patriotism, right . To make men free, this idea of you will be part of the gratitude, right . We will be part people will be thanking you, youll be part of, it to people to say that you didnt, right . And the waves so, this is kind of a silly thing, the Womans Army Corps was first, right . First it was the womens Army Auxiliary corps, the w. Aca and got shortened to w. A. C. , when they first became part of the army. People made fun of their name. Really there acronym. W. A. C. , quack, right . This idea of what a silly name. So as the same brightest crew that womens organizations, they worked really hard to make better names. I know, right . But its about the names. You know, when you are competing, you are going to work on all levels, right . So, the waves, thats nice, right . Thats nice. Right . Its not gonna, its the navy, its water, but you know, are you away . Or are you a w. A. C. . So, you know, its one of those silly things. Their uniforms are important as well. One of human ive studied said she almost joined the navy because you had such cute hats. Right . It matters, you know, the army, look how brown that is. Right . Thats not pretty. Right . Thats kind of pretty, right . All right, heres the spars, the coast guard. Always ready is the English Version other motto. So spars, it is not clever . It sounds better than w. A. C. , right . And the marines they were just marines. Youve got to respect, that right . It meant marines were just marines, right . But it is free reign to fight. Its the whole thing but women serving in the military. Its the idea of freeman to go to something more important, right . You cant go to combat, plum and can. So, lets do it. Right . A lot of promotion of what types of jobs you are going to be doing. Theres a whole series of advertisements of the w. A. C. , the especially, have its 239 democrats of jobs for women. You are not just going to be a typist we can work in a laboratory. You can do all sorts of different things, right . Get work experience. Right . The navy promotes that you could be promoted, right . That you can get these different positions, right . And talks about the fact that you will get the same great and pay as men, so we are about quality here in the navy. Right . You have this opportunity. Right . Very patriotic. There is the man sized job for you in the navy, right . Right, hes going to go fight, you work here. Id . This is one of my very favorites, of course, we have the pioneer women statue on our campus here, so i love this image of, you know, the pioneer woman, out there, defending her wagon with her rifle, right . Are you as good as she is, right . Can you live up to this legacy . Right . And again, in the w. A. C. , you can work in a hospital, right . Not as a nurse, with separate, right . This, one i think its interesting. This is a lease at home journal ad for ivory soap, but how to win an engagement. This is a plan where, its right . Shes in the military, shes a w. A. C. , right . But its about the man, right . This is what you are fighting for. Right . And you can still get a man, even if you are in uniform. She doesnt access, it doesnt she . A little birthday, right . And this is competition as well. Youve got all these efforts to get women into the military, but we need women as ordinance workers. Right . So they have their spot, but you have yours as well. We are all equally important, right . So this competition to get women, to have women doing these different jobs, right . Theres a push for African American women as, well this was in, remember, it weve got a lot of prominent newspapers and African American communities, chicago, and other places, and they would hire artists to draw cartoons to try and promote women of color to be a part of the military as, well to serve as nurses, and they did, right. This was the postal director of a battalion that was in paris. And i did stay segregated. And a group of African American naval nurses were often working with African American soldiers and sailors, red . They kept them all segregated. The kept bloods separated, all of that. And you know my Favorite Group here, right . The Women Air Force Service Pilots of world war ii. The archives of here at the back corner here. But, these women work to pretreatment up, so that they could go fly in combat. We have 25,000 women apply for the training program. The training comes in houston, but you guys have been to houston, right . The idea that the weather is not great for flying, a lot of fog, a lot of rain. Seasonally. They moved out too sweet water, which is west of fort worth, of course. And they do their training there. 25,000 women applied. When i started my research, i thought that number was made up, because Jacqueline Cochrane had a bit mixed up sometimes. She does, she does. There in the National Archives, all of these letters you can find of women saying, please, i want to fly. 1830 were picked, 80 of women had at least two years of college, right . They could be very selective. This is a timely 4 of the american women had college degrees, so it was a very selective group. They did a wide variety of jobs. They started as very pilots with air transport command, flying the planes from place to place within the continental United States. They did not go overseas, they do not fly in combat. They just stayed within the continental United States. A little peek into canada a couple, times and a little peek in to the caribbean a few times, but for the most, part just within the continent. Then they move to different jobs. Can you see the target back there . Right . If youre going to send men overseas, get to teach them how to shoot, right . Shooting from the duck of a b17 against the plane is a little different dog cutting. If you give the men practice. If you get two fights before being sent overseas as gunners, we have women often flying these planes. This is a shadow of this woman flying a b17 violent sheets at the target of the other plane. This is live ammunition, of course, is no good to use fake. Live ammunition, colorcoded bullets. They did this with a wide variety of different planes. As women served as civilians, until the 1970s, when they started a Grassroots Campaign to be recognized as veterans. Thats an incredible, incredible campaign, and they finally were given Veterans Benefits in congress after they test fired. This is 1977, when president carter finally recognized them as veterans. In the United States. All other papers are here, if you guys want to serve as interns in the womens collection. We have that. And you could work for their papers directly but again we could have an entire semester on women in war, and this is just a quick and dirty version of it but if you will just when we walk away from close, as we conclude, think about the moment in three ways of working here in the United States, domestically, and abroad, and that will help you kind of organize your thoughts. Do you guys have any questions, or any final ideas, or thoughts about this . Okay. Well, thank you guys very much, and we will continue our conversation in our regular class on thursday. Good job, guys. Thank you. I appreciate it. Thank, you you too. Good job, guys, thanks. Youre watching American History tv. Every weekend on cspan three, explore our nations past. Cspan 3, created by americas Cable Television companies as a Public Service, and brought to you today by your television provider. Weeknights this month, we are featuring American History tv programs as a preview of whats available every weekend on cspan three. On friday, San Diego State University Professor lectures on the vietnam war. He looks out of the conflict from the u. S. Military escalation in 1965 to the fall of saigon ten years later. And the competing interests of the americans, chinese, and soviets in the region. Watch friday night beginning at eight eastern. Enjoy American History tv this week, and every weekend on cspan three. American history tv on cspan three, exploring the people and events that tell the american story every weekend. Coming up, this labor day weekend, saturday, at 6 pm eastern on the civil war, historians kevin love and hillary greenest gusts that we remember the civil war and whether to remove or contextualized confederate monuments. And on sunday, at 6 pm eastern, on american artifacts, we will preview photographs of native americans from the Smithsonian National museum of the American Indians collection, which includes more than a half million images. At 8 pm, on the presidency, a look at president ial retreats, including abraham lincoln, harvard hoover, at stories of the kennedys. Clintons, and obamas. And marthas vineyard. And monday night, at 8 pm eastern, august marked the 75th anniversary of the bombings of hiroshima and nagasaki. American history tv and washington turnout look back at the events that led to the bombing and their legacy with author in atoll, and president trumans grandson, Clifton Truman daniel. Exploring the american story, watch American History tv. This labor day weekend, on cspan three. On lectures in history, george mason University Professor lebovic teaches a class about u. S. Politics and economics in the early cold war period of the late 1940s and 50s. He argues that with extreme ideologies, such as fascism, and communism completely discredited, were out of favor. A consensus formed in the u. S. Around centrist political views to the point where the Political Parties were barely distinguishable. All right. So, the last couple of classes, weve been talking about the red scare, kind of the impact of the red scare in policing. The edges of american politics. Today, we will be looking at kind of the rest of the political landscape, beginning to look at what people now