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Some 350,000 women served in the U.S. Armed Forces in World War II, both at home and abroad. They included the Women's Airforce Service Pilots, who on March 10, 2010, were awarded the prestigious Congressional Gold Medal. Meanwhile, widespread male enlistment left gaping holes in the industrial labor force and defense industry. Women were critical to the war effort: Between 1940 and 1945, the age of "Rosie the Riveter," the female percentage of the U.S. workforce increased from 27 percent to nearly 37 percent, and by 1945, nearly one out of every four married women worked outside the home. World War II opened the door for women to work in more types of jobs than ever before, but with the return of male soldiers at war's end, women, especially married women, were once again pressured to return to a life at home, a prospect that, for thousands of American women, had shifted thanks to their wartime service.

Women in the Armed Forces in World War II

In addition to factory work and other home front jobs, approximately 350,000 women joined the Armed Services, serving at home and abroad. At the urging of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and women's groups, and impressed by the British use of women in service, General George Marshall supported the idea of introducing a women's service branch into the Army. In May 1942, Congress instituted the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps, later upgraded to the Women's Army Corps, which had full military status. Its members, known as WACs, worked in more than 200 non-combatant jobs stateside and in every theater of the war. By 1945, there were more than 100,000 WACs and 6,000 female officers. In the Navy, members of Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES) held the same status as naval reservists and provided support stateside. The Coast Guard and Marine Corps soon followed suit, though in smaller numbers.

Did you know? On March 10, 2010, nearly 70 years after they were disbanded, the Women Airforce Service Pilots received the Congressional Gold Medal.

One of the lesser-known roles women played in the war effort was provided by the Women's Airforce Service Pilots, or WASPs. These women, each of whom had already obtained their pilot's license prior to service, became the first women to fly American military aircraft. They ferried planes from factories to bases, transporting cargo and participating in simulation strafing and target missions, accumulating more than 60 million miles in flight distances and freeing thousands of male U.S. pilots for active duty in World War II. More than 1,000 WASPs served, and 38 of them lost their lives during the war. Considered civil service employees and without official military status, these fallen WASPs were granted no military honors or benefits, and it wasn't until 1977 that the WASPs received full military status. On March 10, 2010, at a ceremony in the Capitol, the WASPS received the Congressional Gold Medal, one of the highest civilian honors. More than 200 former pilots attended the event, many wearing their World War II-era uniforms.

"Rosie the Riveter"

Though women had been joining the work force in greater numbers since the hardships of The Great Depression, the entry of the United States into World War II completely transformed the types of jobs open to women. Before the war, most working women were in traditionally female fields like nursing and teaching. Post- Pearl Harbor, women worked in a variety of positions previously closed to them, though the aviation industry saw the greatest increase in female workers. More than 310,000 women worked in the U.S. aircraft industry in 1943, representing 65 percent of the industry's total workforce (compared to just 1 percent in the pre-war years). The munitions industry also heavily recruited women workers, as represented by the U.S. government's "Rosie the Riveter" propaganda campaign. Based in small part on a real-life munitions worker, but primarily a fictitious character, the strong, bandanna-clad Rosie became one of the most successful recruitment tools in American history, and the most iconic image of working women during World War II.

In movies, newspapers, posters, photographs, articles and even a Norman Rockwell-painted Saturday Evening Post cover, the Rosie the Riveter campaign stressed the patriotic need for women to enter the work force-and they did, in huge numbers. Though women were crucial to the war effort, their pay continued to lag far behind their male counterparts: Female workers rarely earned more than 50 percent of male wages.

Working Conditions For Women in World War II

With many fathers off fighting, mothers were faced with the burden of balancing childcare and work, and absenteeism became the symptom that caused factory owners-and the United States government-to finally acknowledge the issue. The Lanham Act or 1940 gave war-related government grants for childcare services in communities where defense production was a major industry. In 1942, Eleanor Roosevelt stepped in, encouraging her husband, Franklin D. Roosevelt, to pass the Community Facilities Act, which led to the creation of the first U.S. government-sponsored childcare center. Roosevelt also urged for reforms like staggered working hours at factories to allow working mothers to go to grocery stores-stores that were often either closed or out of stock by the time women clocked out of work.

Not all women were treated equally in the workplace. African American women found that white women were not always welcoming at work-if they were even granted the same job opportunities in the first place-and were paid less than their white peers. Japanese American women fared even worse, as they were sent off to Japanese Internment Camps under Executive Order 9066.

Though women, as a whole, had access to more jobs than ever before, they were paid far less than men (roughly half, in most cases), and most found themselves pressured to relinquish jobs to the male soldiers returning home at war's end. But something had permanently shifted: World War II empowered women to seek new opportunities and fight for equal pay in the decades to come.

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Some 350,000 women served in the U.S. Armed Forces in World War II, both at home and abroad. They included the Women's Airforce Service Pilots, who on March 10, 2010, were awarded the prestigious Congressional Gold Medal. Meanwhile, widespread male enlistment left gaping holes in the industrial labor force and defense industry.

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On June 29, 1943, the U.S. Senate passed the first, and thus far only, national childcare program, voting $20,000,000 to provide for public care of children whose mothers were employed for the duration of World War II.

During the war, the federal government offered grants for child care services to authorized community groups that could demonstrate a war-related need for the service. The program was justified as a war expedient necessary to allow mothers to enter the labor force and increase war production.

Funding authorization came through the 1941 Defense Public Works law (Title II of the 1940 National Defense Housing Act), popularly known as the Lanham Act. The law was designed to assist communities with water, sewer, housing, schools, and other local facilities' needs related to war and industry growth. This act was one of several Congress passed giving general defense mandates to the Federal Works Administration (FWA). The FWA, established in 1939, was created to oversee and coordinate the activities of five major New Deal alphabet agencies. With the outbreak of WWII in Europe in 1939, the FWA began to shift its mandate from these New Deal programs to defense mobilization, even before the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941.

Both during the pre-Pearl Harbor mobilization and during the nation's direct military involvement, the FWA was given three general defense mandates: (1) build and expand the system of strategic roads to better serve the needs of national defense, (2) construct sufficient defense worker housing, and (3) support the workers in such housing by providing public works assistance to cities that saw a large influx of workers which, in some cases, doubled or tripled the area's population. It was because of this mandate to provide public works assistance that the 1941 Lanham Act was passed. In total, 4,000 projects were approved under the Lanham Act during the war at a cost of $457 million, $351 million of which was federally funded with the remainder funded by the affected communities.

The newly created War Public Works (WPW) and War Public Services (WPS) had the primary responsibility to carry out these duties. The WPS's largest role, both in funds and number of projects, was providing day care for the children of women who took jobs in factories or worked in government offices to help the war effort. By the conclusion of the war, the WPS had created day care centers in 386 communities. Without this service, many of the six million women who participated in the war effort could not have done so.

The federal government granted $52 million for childcare under this Act from August 1943 through February 1946, which is equal to more than $1 billion today. Communities, mostly through user fees, contributed an additional $26 million. At its July 1944 peak, 3,102 federally subsidized child care centers, with 130,000 children enrolled, were located in all but one state and in D.C. By the end of the war, between 550,000 and 600,000 children are estimated to have received some care from Lanham Act programs.

An increase in female labor force participation was the primary impetus for World War II-era childcare funding. The employment upsurge coincided with the federal government's campaign (headlined by Rosie the Riveter) that urged women to aid in the war effort by joining the workforce. Initially, the federal government was reluctant to encourage the employment of mothers with young children, but demands for new workers, especially when issued by aircraft, ship, and bomber manufacturers, proved powerful. These employers also cited absenteeism among women workers as proof of the need for childcare and other household services.

Although the Lanham Act did not explicitly include childcare facilities, the FWA sought and obtained recognition of this service as a necessity of war. The FWA informed nursery school operators that if they could make a war-connected case for their services, they could apply for funds under the Lanham Act. Wartime childcare facilities were also encouraged through short-lived and relatively small grants to state welfare and education agencies. Congress eliminated this funding source in mid-1943 but, at the same time, appropriated new childcare funding under the Lanham Act. It was this funding that was appropriated on June 29, 1943.

Congressional approval of childcare funds explicitly tied these funds to wartime need, and the FWA repeatedly expressed its commitment to this limitation. Especially after the drop in war production needs following the spring 1945 Allied victory in Europe, the FWA granted fewer project approvals or renewals. In mid-August 1945, once victory in Japan was assured, the agency announced all Lanham Act funding of childcare centers would cease as soon as possible, but in no case later than the end of October 1945. Approximately 1 month after this announcement, the FWA reported it had received 1,155 letters, 318 wires, 794 postcards, and petitions signed by 3,647 individuals urging continuation of the program. Principle reasons given were the need of servicemen's wives to continue employment until their husbands returned, the ongoing need of mothers who were the sole support of the children, and inadequacy of other forms of care in the community.

The extensive national protest, a concern for families of servicemen still overseas, and lobbying by officials (especially from California where multiple major war manufacturing sites were based) prompted an extended federal commitment of approximately $7 million. The new funds allowed programs to continue operation with federal subsidy until the end of February 1946.

Many consider the Lanham programs to be of landmark importance. Historically, the U.S. government has supported childcare primarily either to promote poor children's education or to push poor women into the labor force. The Lanham program broke ground as the first and, to date, only time in American history when parents could send their children to federally-subsidized childcare, regardless of income, and do so affordably. By late 1944, a mother could send a child of two to five years of age to childcare for 50 cents per day (about $7 today). That included lunch and snacks in the morning and afternoon.

The Lanham-funded centers also changed public sentiment about child-rearing. Previously, daycare had been considered a pitiful provision for poor mothers. But, the centers served families across the socioeconomic spectrum and, thus, familiarized the public with sending young children away from the home for part of the day.

Additionally, these centers are seen as historically important because they sought to address the needs of both children and mothers. Rather than simply functioning as holding pens for children while their mothers were at work, the Lanham child care centers were found to have a strong and persistent positive effect on the well-being of children.
Originally Published: June 27, 2019 By: Thalia Ertman

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The Lanham Act and Universal Childcare During World War II - Friends of the National WWII Memorial

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On June 29, 1943, the U.S. Senate passed the first, and thus far only, national childcare program, voting $20,000,000 to provide for public care of children whose mothers were employed for the duration of World War II. During the war, the federal government offered grants for child care services to authorized community groups that could [...]

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Programs - Discovery Garden Montessori School