Mommy, what did you do in the war?: Republican mothers march off to war, 1940-1945

Abstract

War is an agent of social change. After World War I, American women came of age politically, challenging men’s control over the political arena. In the face of hostilities abroad, women began organizing to defend their communities in the face of the threat of war. Their response threatened the prevailing expectations regarding women’s proper place in society as homemakers. During the prewar period, government bureaus, including the Women’s Bureau and Children’s Bureau, recognized the need for women’s involvement in the war as newly established wartime commissions worked to put the nation on a wartime status. The integrity of two core values of American society, the Republican Mother and the Democratic Family were threatened as Selective Service found it necessary to draft ever more significant numbers of men, and the government instituted recruitment campaigns urging women to take war jobs outside the home and enter factories. A lively public debate took place as government bureaus utilized the full spectrum of media to galvanize public opinion while the opposition highlighted the deterioration of the Democratic Family. As large numbers of women entered the sexually charged work environment, fear increased over deteriorating standards of morality and the decline of the Democratic Family. The most serious threat was the welfare of the nation’s children. Concerns over latch-key children and juvenile delinquency increased as mothers marched off to work. The need to care for “Rosie’s” children and the federal government’s responsibility for childcare became paramount. Many working women became tired of juggling work and home responsibilities, so they quit industrial jobs. As the war wound down, government officials looked forward to returning women to their rightful place, the home, and rebuilding the Democratic Family. Women’s newly acquired freedom and individuality complicated the question of women’s proper place in post-war American society. At the end of the war, unmarried women, those widowed or with husbands disabled due to war, returned to lower-paying, traditionally gendered jobs. In contrast, the bulk of American women returned to their home duties, legends of their time.