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“GIRLS ON THE LOOSE”? WOMEN’S WARTIME ADVENTURES IN THE

NATION’S CAPITAL, 1941-1945

Cynthia Gueli

Submitted to the

Faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences

of American University

in Partial Fulfillment of

the Requirements for the Degree of

Doctor of Philosophy

History

Chair:

Dr. Peter Kuzmc r Dr^Valene

Laura .n Kamoie

Dean of tlfe College

Date

2006 American University Washington, D.C. 20016 ri AMERICAN UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

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Cynthia Gueli

2006

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. “GIRLS ON THE LOOSE?”: WOMEN’S WARTIME ADVENTURES IN THE

NATION’S CAPITAL, 1941-1945

Cynthia Gueli

ABSTRACT

Washington, D.C. functioned as America’s central military and political

command post during World War II. Among the newcomers flooding into the city

to support the war effort were tens of thousands of women eager to become

Government Girls, Army WACs, Navy WAVES, Women Marines, and Coast

Guard SPARS. These members of the "army on the Potomac" enjoyed

newfound employment opportunities and social freedom but also faced an

incredible housing shortage, gender and racial prejudice, and an urban

infrastructure unfit to meet the demands of the city’s frenetically expanding

needs. This dissertation places women at the center of Washington, D.C.’s

World War II story and allows the reader to appreciate the little known efforts of

home front female government and military workers as well as to understand the

complex social, cultural, and gender interplay occurring in the “first city of the

world.” It explores the experiences that Government Girls and servicewomen

had, the opportunities presented to them, and the problems they encountered. It

examines how and why a community of women developed in Washington during

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. the war; it analyzes the social conflicts in which Government Girls were involved

and the social and economic pressures their presence created on others. It

explores how the women who relocated to Washington developed wartime

identities that distinguished them from peacetime workers and helped create a

vibrant, if short-lived, professional network of women.

iii

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The intellectual guidance and friendship of many individuals made the

research and writing of this dissertation possible. My greatest debt is to my

advisor Peter Kuznick. Peter read, commented on, and discussed several drafts

with great care. Another wealth of gratitude goes to my other committee

members, Valerie French and Laura Kamoie, who were patient, critical, and

encouraging. The advice and friendship of all three exceptional and generous

historians at every stage have been invaluable. It has been a true pleasure to

work with them.

Several archivists and librarians lent me their time and assistance.

Individuals at the Washingtoniana Room at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Library

and the Historical Society of Washington were especially helpful. John Taylor at

the National Archives and Records Administration was gracious with his

suggestions, referrals, and lunchtime chats. Kate Scott and Britta K. Granrud at

Women in Military Service of America graciously allowed me to use their

interview collections, files, and facilities. And the cooperation and candor of the

women and men of the “Greatest Generation,” who so willingly shared their

experiences with me, were essential to the writing of this dissertation.

My utmost thanks are reserved for my family. I could not have completed

this project without the enthusiasm and love of Alberta, Charlie, Charles, Lisa,

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Thomas, Tom, and Watson. They supported me unconditionally in this as well as

every endeavor I undertake.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT...... ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS...... iv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS...... vii

Chapter

1. INTRODUCTION...... 1

2. THE WAY THEY WERE: WASHINGTON, D.C. AT THE START OF THE W A R ...... 29

3. A WOMAN’S WORK IS NEVER DONE: WOMEN’S WARTIME EMPLOYMENT...... 53

4. THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOME: WARTIME HOUSING IN THE NATION’S CAPITAL...... 81

5. ALL WORK AND NO PLAY...: SOCIAL LIFE IN WARTIME WASHINGTON...... 116

6. GLAMOUR, ROMANCE, AND SUPERPOWERS: THE GOVERNMENT GIRL IN POPULAR CULTURE...... 154

7. GOVERNMENT GIRLS NO MORE: LIFE AFTER WORLD WAR II...... 182

8. CONCLUSION...... 207

BIBLIOGRAPHY...... 216

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

ARC American Red Cross Oral History Collection

GWU Gellman Library Special Collections, George Washington University,

HSW Historical Society of Washington

HU Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Howard University

MLK Martin Luther King, Jr. Library, Washingtoniana Division

MBCH National Archives of Black Women’s History- Mary McLeod Bethune Council House

NARA National Archives and Records Administration

WHA Washington Housing Association

WIMSA Women in Military Service of America World War II Oral History Collection

vii

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

“Apparently nothing much has been done to supervise the conduct in hours off duty of the thousands of young girls who have been removed from surveillance of parents and the restraints of family life and turned loose in the city.”1 “Girls on the Loose,” Washington Post, 1944

A World War II era Washington Post article titled “Girls on the

Loose” deplored the behavior of the capital city’s young, female war workers.

The reporter felt that the women, who had come from all over the country to work

in government service, were summarily “turned loose in a city swarming

with...temptations and dangers” too great for their highly suggestible, naive

natures to resist. They stayed out late, frequented clubs and bars, engaged in

promiscuous sex, spent their money on luxuries, and brought chaos to venerable

Washington. This “tragedy” stemmed both from parents who did not adequately

prepare their daughters for life in the big city and federal agencies that did not

properly warn prospective “Government Girls” about wartime conditions in

Washington. The article offered no solutions or hope for the “very ugly situation”

local officials now faced.2 Although the newspaper’s interpretation of female war

workers’ behavior was extreme, concerns regarding the influx of Government

1 “Girls on the Loose,” Washington Post, October 14, 1944, 4. 2 Ibid.

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Girls into the nation’s capital had begun at the onset of the war and grew over its

duration. Who were these women who generated such strong reactions? What

were they doing in Washington? And did their conduct truly warrant the label of

“loose?” If, as the article suggested, the city’s female war workers spiraled out of

control, did living independently in Washington result in the shattering of familial

and familiar prewar social norms?

During World War II, Washington, D.C. operated as America’s central

command post for far-flung military action and domestic war production and

mobilization. Decisions made in small, cramped city offices affected not only the

entire nation but the entire world. Government agencies, military personnel,

private businesses, and people from all classes and races worked towards a

common goal: wartime victory. Newcomers flooded into the city to support the

war effort. In 1943 alone over 1,000 people arrived in Washington every day.

Among the new arrivals were about 250,000 women eager to become

Government Girls, Army WACs3, Navy WAVES, Women Marines, and Coast

Guard SPARS. These members of the "army on the Potomac"4 enjoyed

newfound employment opportunities and social freedom but also faced an

incredible housing shortage, gender and racial prejudice, and an urban

infrastructure unfit to meet the demands of the city’s frenetically expanding

needs.

3 This dissertation follows the common usage of the uppercase WAC to refer to the organization and the lower cased Wac to refer to the individual servicewomen. Martha S. Putney, When the Nation was in Need: Blacks in the Women's Army Corps during World War II (Metuchen NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1992), 132. 4 Good Housekeeping (January, 1942): 32.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Government Girls developed a distinctive group identity and created a

vibrant, if short-lived, professional community of women that proved

professionally and personally adaptable within Washington’s dynamic geopolitical

atmosphere. This network of women depended on each other to help navigate

the complexities of new living environments, job responsibilities, and gender

expectations. They affected changes in the city’s demographics, workforce,

housing, social relations and activities, and cultural assumptions. Government

Girls’ success influenced the value and perception of working women in wartime

Washington.

Placing women at the center of Washington, D.C.’s World War II story

illuminates the little-known efforts of home front female government and military

workers as well as reveals the complex social, cultural, and gender interplay

occurring in the “first city of the world.”5 Studies on wartime Washington often

portray Government Girls as simply background participants to the more public

political figures and drama dominating the city during the war.6 On closer

inspection, however, more varied and interesting characters emerge: dedicated

office workers, adventurous risk takers, astute professionals, frazzled students,

and patriotic volunteers. By incorporating gender analysis into historical inquiry,

historians seek to transform and revitalize the traditional narrative of history and

5 W.M. Kiplinger, Washington is Like That, (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1942), 263, HSW. See James Reston, “L’Enfant’s Capital and Boomtown too,” New York Magazine, June 1, 1941. 6 For example, Scott Hart, Washington at War, 1941-1495 (Englewood Cliffs, N.J., Prentice-Hall 1970); David Brinkley, Washington Goes to War (Hew York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1988); and Constance McLaughlin Green's Washington: A History of the CapitalPrinceton, ( New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1962).

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. transmit a richer, more usable historical memory to future generations. “Girls on

the Loose” investigates the historical construction of gender relations and

women’s status over time by placing women’s lives in the context of the

economic structures, family relations, public policies, and cultural narratives that

shaped and interpreted their opportunities and choices. In addition, it explores

gender as a social relation constituted in interaction with other social inequalities

such as class and race. This study emphasizes the diversity and complexity of

women’s wartime experiences.

Government Girls helped make D.C. a unique wartime environment.

Three-quarters of all war workers entering Washington were women.7 Unlike in

most major cities, these women did not arrive to work for private, industrial

defense factories. Instead, they formed a clerical corps for Washington’s largest

employer, the rapidly growing federal government, whose responsibilities for its

employees went beyond the workplace into management of their living conditions

and recreational activities as well. The majority of Government Girls also differed

from their blue collar counterparts in that, because of their youth and single

status, they did not bring with them the difficulties of caring for children, older

parents, or other dependents. Some women did send financial support to family

back home, but most Government Girls lived independently from their immediate

relatives. And because Washington already had one of the largest urban

African-American populations in the nation, the arrival of black female

government workers did not upend the racial balance of the city. Although racial

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problems existed and were exacerbated by the wartime population boom, the

existing black community had systems in place with which to explore possible

solutions. Washington’s specialized workforce, demographic makeup, and

position as head of the federal government created distinctive wartime

circumstances.

The name “Government Girls” is used in this dissertation, as it was during

World War II, as an umbrella term to include both civilian and military federal

workers. These workers were mostly adults—women, not girls—who did

important, meaningful, and professional work. The use of the pejorative term by

the government, media, locals, and the workers themselves reflects cultural

assumptions regarding women’s place in the social order. It makes the women

seem like children who can be patted on the head and easily dismissed. It also

illustrates the confusing and often contradictory messages women received

during the war. Government recruiting campaigns encouraged female defense

workers to be strong, responsible, and mature, yet adopted diminutive

designations for these serious employees.

The stories of women in wartime Washington illuminate several larger

historical trends, including how a collective female identity develops, men and

women deal with changing gender dynamics, and the media helps shape public

perception. These are some of the issues that this dissertation addresses, but

there are more specific concerns as well. Where did the newcomers to

Washington come from? What work did they do? Where did they live? How did

7 Monthly Labor Review, Vol. 59, No. 5 (November 1944): 1054.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. they get along with local Washingtonians and each other? What did they do for

fun? How did they affect the city’s existing social problems? How did the war

workers’ gender, race, and age shape the culture of Washington’s war years?

What was the legacy of the war for the women and the city?

Answers to these questions are drawn from a cross section of evidence. In

order to gain insight into the World War II era, oral histories, memoirs, films, and

novels complement more traditional sources such as government, military, and

legal documents, records from social service agencies, police reports, trade

associations, and periodicals. Most of the evidence comes from archives and

manuscript collections in the Washington, D.C. area. Regional holdings in

libraries like the Washingtoniana Division of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Library,

Historical Society of Washington, and George Washington University proved as

important as institutional repositories, such as the Library of Congress, American

Red Cross, National Archives of Black Women’s History, Women in Military

Service of America, and the National Archives and Records Administration, in

providing documentation.

The nature of the available evidence pushed this dissertation into being

more descriptive than analytical. However, the information gathered does

support explanatory statements about subjects such as Government Girls’

political leanings and sexual mores. For example, we can infer from Government

Girls’ self-proclaimed lack of involvement in organized political activity and

absence of ideological discourse that most young women had not developed

strong political beliefs and affiliations, or engaged in political activism. And

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although little quantitative evidence exists to confirm women’s participation in

wartime sexual experimentation, interviews and historical studies of women’s

behavior nationwide suggest such activity occurred.8

“Girls on the Loose” relies heavily on oral history to offer insight into how

female war workers experienced their time in D.C., how the women viewed

themselves and their fellow Washingtonians, and how locals, employers, and the

rest of the nation viewed them. The use of oral history has been especially

helpful in developing the social history of World War II. Interviews uncover the

stories of individuals who lived below the radar of public attention.9 Despite

concerns over the accuracy of memory, selection of subjects, and influence of

nostalgia, oral histories provide an unparalleled source of first-hand information

not available elsewhere and give wartime women a powerful voice in shaping our

understanding of life in wartime America. Alessandro Portelli, a pioneer in the

field of oral history, explained that using personal interviews aids in “the search

for a connection between biography and history, between individual experience

and the transformations of society.”10 Women and men interviewed for this study

were found through local newspaper and internet ads, flyers passed out at World

War II commemoration ceremonies and reunions, churches, retirement

8 John D’Emillio and Estelle B. Freedman, Intimate Matters: A History of Sexuality in America (Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1997), 289. See Donald A. Ritchie, Doing Oral History (New York: Twayne Publishers, 1995); Paul Thompson, The Voice of the Past: Oral History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1977); and Roger Horowitz, "Oral History and the Story of America and World War II," Journal of American History (September 1995): 617-24 for further discussion of oral history and its uses. 10 Alessandro Portelli, The Battle of Valle Giulia: Oral History and the Art of Dialogue (Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1997), 6.

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communities, and word of mouth.11 The subjects’ remarkable recall of dates,

names, addresses, and events nearly six decades old signifies how important

these experiences were to the war workers and how much a part of their lives the

memories of that period remain.

Historians have generated an enormous amount of scholarship on World

War II. Military maneuvers, organizational strategies, and life on the home front

are covered by a multitude of articles, monographs, and comprehensive

overviews.12 Although many scholars have made a pointed effort to include

women in their studies since social history gained prominence in the 1980s, full-

length studies of women and gender constitute only a small percentage of this

massive body of work.

Several questions have dominated the historiographical inquiry regarding

American women and Word War II. First, how did gender roles and expectations

change during the upheaval of wartime? Second, what economic, social, and

psychological impact did war work have on women? And, third, did women’s

wartime experiences contribute to the emergence of the second wave of

feminism? This last question is tied into the central historiographical debate

11 All interviews conducted for this dissertation are currently held in the author’s private collection. 12 For a few of the well regarded WWII overviews, see Louis L. Snyder, The War: a Concise History, 1939-1945 (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1960); Bernard McNalty, War in the Pacific: Pearl Harbor to Tokyo Bay (New York: Mayflower, 1978); Gerhard L. Weinberg, A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994); John Keegan, The Second World W ar(New York: Viking, 1990); Michael Beschloss, The Conquerors: Roosevelt, Truman and the Destruction of Hitler's Germany, 1941-1945 (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2002); John Keegan, The Second World War (London: Hutchinson, 1989); Williamson Murray and Allan R. Millett, A War to be Won: Fighting the Second World War, 1937-1945 (Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2000).

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. among scholars regarding women and the war: whether or not World War II

signified a progressive watermark in women’s position in American society.

William Chafe argues affirmatively, presenting World War II as an

emancipating experience for American women. In both The American Woman:

Her Changing Social, Economic, and Political Roles, 1920-1970 (1972) and The

Paradox of Change: American Women in the 20th Century (1992),13 Chafe

contends that during the war many women discovered that they were competent

enough to succeed in men's jobs, earn a good salary, and handle much of the

work that men traditionally carried out in the family, such as home repairs and

financial planning. He also asserts that the extent to which women gained

independence and confidence during the war is reflected in the overzealous

campaign by the government and the media to restore women to their traditional

roles as wives and mothers after the war ended and labor demands diminished.

Yet, the psychological and work-place changes brought about by the war would

not be reversed. Even though de-mobilization forced many women out of their

jobs, there were more women in the American workforce after the war than

before the war. Chafe maintains that one reason for this is that, out of wartime

necessity, the female ideal changed from being ornamental and accommodating

to being useful and strong.

Sherna Berger Gluck also believes that the war had a far-reaching impact

on American women. Her Revisiting Rosie the Riveter (1987) uses oral histories

13 William Chafe, The American Woman: Her Changing Social, Economic, and Political Roles, 1920-1970 (New York, Oxford University Press, 1972), chapter 6 and William Chafe, The

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taken from female aircraft war workers in the Los Angeles area to examine how

women from various backgrounds - - rural, urban, straight, lesbian, white, black,

latina - - dealt with being thrown together for the first time. Gluck found that war

work expanded the perceptions and consciousness of those who participated,

regardless of how good or bad they considered the experience. They learned

how to get along with a diverse group of women and discovered that they could

master skills traditionally performed by men. This raised the workers’ self

esteem and expanded their notions of their own capabilities. Gluck argues that

the main impact the war had on these workers was on a personal level. The

women were not necessarily political activists or feminists, but their willingness to

participate in jobs that pushed the boundaries of acceptable female behavior and

their determination to succeed at it laid a foundation for future campaigns for

female equality.14

Chafe’s critics outnumber his supporters. Leila Rupp contends that the

full-scale revival of domestic ideology in the postwar era negated any social or

career advancement achieved during the war. In her book Mobilizing Women for

War (1978), Rupp examines images of women in both German and American

government propaganda directives and women's magazines to see how the war

affected traditional ideas about a woman's place in the home and society. She

identifies how American portrayals of war workers promoted the acceptance of

Paradox of Change: American Women in the 20th Century (New York, Oxford University Press, 1992), chapters 7-9. 14 Sherna Berger Gluck, ed., Rosie the Riveter Revisited: Women and the WWII Work Experience (Long Beach, Calif., 1983).

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. women in male jobs while encouraging them to preserve their feminine identities.

Rupp deduces that fundamental changes in attitudes towards women’s

opportunities and status did not occur as a result of the war.

Another study that provides a counterpoint to Chafe’s arguments is Karen

Anderson's Wartime Women (1981). Anderson explores the nature and degree

of wartime economic and community changes as they affected the status of

women and the development of family life and values to determine the

importance of war as a force for social change. She finds that wartime

disruptions marginalized the value of family life, intensifying the postwar pressure

on women to sublimate their personal ambitions for the good of the family. Thus

changes in women’s status rarely survived the war.

Lastly, Creating Rosie the Riveter byMaureen Honey (1984) shows how

the demands of the wartime economy necessitated a dramatic reassessment of

women's role in American life. Honey analyzes two magazines, the Saturday

Evening Post and True Story, to show the power of the media to reinforce

government propaganda aimed at mobilizing middle-class and working-class

women for the war effort. She found that the messages put out to women

emphasized the need for them to work outside the home and perform their

patriotic duty, but to still prize marriage, motherhood, and security as the ultimate

payoff, especially in the working-class targeted True Story. Honey concludes

that the models of womanhood that emerged from the magazines played a part

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in the war's failure to alter traditional ideas about female capabilities in the long

run.15

This study is part of a more recent trend that views World War II as a

mixed bag of opportunities and setbacks rather than a cut and dry social,

political, or economic advancement or defeat for American women.16 The

women who occupied Washington during World War II were both influenced by

and helped construct its wartime culture. Their stories counter such conflicting

notions that working women were little more than naive schoolgirls experiencing

a brief disruption in their predestined trajectory towards domestic servitude and

that World War II created psychological and emotional, if not physical, utopian

female communities that paved the way for the second wave of feminism. As

this study will show, the reality existed in a much more complex and finely

negotiated cultural space.

In terms of subject matter, World War II historians have generally placed

American women into three main categories: those in the military, those in the

factories, and those remaining at home. Although women made up only about

two percent of the armed forces, they eventually served in or as part of the

auxiliary to every branch of the military. The literature concerning these women

reflects this diversity. The United States military published several of the earliest

15 Leila Rupp, Mobilizing Women for War: German and American Propaganda, 1939-1945 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1978); Karen Anderson, Wartime Women: Sex Roles, Family Relations, and the Status of Women During World War (Westport, II CT: Greenwood Press, 1981); Maureen Honey, Creating Rosie the Riveter. Class, Gender, and Propaganda During World War //(Amherst, Massachusetts: University of Massachusetts Press, 1984).

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and most comprehensive studies on women in World War II. Mattie Treadwell’s

The Woman’s Army Corps (1954), detailing the history and accomplishments of

the WACs, is still considered the landmark work on the subject.17 And Pat Meid’s

Marine Corps Women's Reserve in World War (1964) II remains the only full-

length account of female marines during the war. More recently, Judith Bellafaire

wrote The Women's Army Corps: A Commemoration of World War II Service

(1993) for the U.S. Army Center of Military History; the Naval Historical Center

sponsored Susan H. Godson's research for Serving Proudly: A History of Women

in the U.S. Navy (2001), which has chapters detailing the history of the WAVES

and the Navy Nurse Corps in World War II; and the Coast Guard published Robin

J. Thompson’s The Coast Guard & The Women's Reserve in World War II

(1992).18 There has yet been no official study published on the Women's Air

force Service Pilots.

However, civilian academics have written the majority of studies on

women in uniform. Only a few of these volumes provide overviews of all

servicewomen. For example, Olivia Gruhzit-Hoyt’s They Also Served: American

16 See Nancy Felice Gabin, “Women Defense Workers in World War II: Views on Gender Equality in Indiana” in Kenneth Paul O’Brien and Lynn Hudson Parsons, eds., The Home-Front War (Westport and London: Greenwood Press, 1995). 7 This proposal follows the standard usage of WAC when referring to the organization as a whole and Wac when referring to the individual women serving in the corps. 18 Mattie E. Treadwell, The United States Army in World War II, Special Studies: The Women's Army Corps. (Washington, D.C.: Office of the Chief of Military History, Department of the Army), 1954; Pat Meid, Marine Corps Women's Reserve in World War (Washington, II D.C.: United States Marines Corps), 1964; Judith A. Bellafaire, The Women's Army Corps: A Commemoration of World War II Service (Carlisle, PA: Center for Military History), 1993; Susan H. Godson, Serving Proudly: A History of Women in the US Navy (Annapolis, MD.: Naval Institute Press), 2001; and Robin J. Thompson, The Coast Guard & The Women's Reserve in World War II (Washington: U.S. Coast Guard Historian's Office, 1992). Between 1991 and 1995 fact sheets on women in the war were published by the U.S. 50th Anniversary of World War II and each service published pamphlets detailing women's roles in their reserves.

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Women in World War II(1995) is an anthology of women’s experiences in the

various armed forces based upon interviews with forty veterans. And both A

Woman's War Too: U.S. Women in the Military in World War (1996) II edited by

Paula Nassen Poulos and We're in This War, Too: World War II Letters from

American Women in Uniform edited by Judy Barrett Litoff and Davis Smith

provide a broad look at women’s achievements and failures in both conventional

military "women's work," such as typists and stenographers, as well as so-called

untraditional jobs, such as parachute riggers and air tower controllers. These

studies include women who served stateside and those assigned to non-combat

positions overseas.19 While these summaries are helpful in understanding the

general conditions and collective experiences of servicewomen, it is the plethora

of in-depth studies of military branches and individual personal accounts that

offer the most insightful scholarship on military women in the Second World

War.20

19 Olga Gruhzit-Hoyt, They Also Served: American Women in World War (New II York: Birch Lane Press, 1996); Judy Barrett Litoff and Davis Smith, eds. "We're In This War, Too:" World War II Letters From American Women In Uniform (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994); Paula Nassen Poulos, ed., A Woman's War Too: U.S. Women in the Military in World War II (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1996). Additional overviews of women in the military include Nancy Goldman’s edited Female Soldiers (Westport, Connecticut, 1982), June A. Wilenz' Women Veterans: America's Forgotten Heroines (1983), and Susan Hartmann’s "Women in the Military Service" in Mabel E. Deutrich and Virginia Purdy, eds., Clio was a Women (Washington, D.C.: Howard University Press, 1976). 20 A few of the many good monographs on women’s wartime experiences are Lucia M. Pitts' One Negro WAC's Story (Los Angeles, CA: The Author, 1968); Rose Rosenthal's Not all Soldiers Wore Pants: A Witty World War II WAC Tells All (New Jersey: Ryzell Books, 1993); and Josette Dermody Wingo, Mother Was a Gunner's Mate: World War II in the Waves (Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1994); Diane Burke Fessler, No Time For Fear: Voices of American Military Nurses in World War II(East Lansing, Ml: Michigan State University Press, 1996); and Molly Merryman, Clipped Wings: the Rise and Fall of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) of World War II (New York: New York University Press, 1998). Although now a decade old, Vicki L. Friedl’s Women in the United States Military, 1901-1995: A Research Guide and Annotated Bibliography (CT: Greenwood Press, 1996) provides a vast and useful list of other such works.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. One notable work in this category is Leisa D. Meyer’s Creating Gl Jane:

Sexuality and Power in the Women's Army Corps during World War (1996). II

Meyer examines the complex ways in which race and gender interacted with

sexual politics in the creation and running of the Women’s Army Corps. Meyer

asserts that the public had difficulty accepting women in the military because of

the traditional association of the military with unfettered masculinity. She also

examines the institutional anxiety over the effect women would have on the

military and vice versa. According to Meyer, WAC director Colonel Oveta Culp

Hobby insisted on strict sexual regulations to counter rumors that women in

uniform were serving as sexual partners for male soldiers. Meyer also

documents the slander campaign in 1943 and early 1944 when rumors spread

that the government provided military women with condoms and other

contraceptive devices, used the women as prostitutes to service men in uniform,

and did nothing to stop the rampant homosexuality among the various female

corps. The fear of both actual and perceived lesbian activity among the enlisted

women prompted the Army to enforce strict rules regarding feminine behavior

and appearance for Wacs and nurses. This book also argues that a connection

exists between activism against racism by African-American Wacs who faced

prejudice, specifically four women who were court-martialed rather than submit to

segregated policies and inferior assignments, and a post-war commitment to civil

rights. Meyer’s argument that a group consciousness developed among Wacs

serves as one guide for this dissertation. “Girls on the Loose” determines that

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female war workers became aware of themselves as a separate group and finds

that this mindset affected their experiences during and after the war.21

Another valuable monograph on women in the military is Martha Putney’s

When the Nation was in Need: Blacks in the Women's Army Corps during World

War II (1992). Putney looks at segregation and discrimination in the women’s

corps on a policy level (under the aegis of separate but equal), on a functional

level, and through individual experiences. Putney studies enlisted women as well

as government, military, and civic leaders to evaluate how conflicting

personalities and agendas influenced the Army’s treatment of black women.

Putney finds that the restrictions and difficulties African-American Wacs faced

during the war prevented them from making gains commensurate with their

abilities and ambitions.22 While many of the primary and secondary studies on

women in the military mention work done in metropolitan Washington, no single

study focuses specifically on the women stationed there. “Girls on the Loose”

seeks to help remedy this neglect.

21 Leisa D. Meyer, Creating Gl Jane: Sexuality and Power in the Women's Army Corps during World War II (New York: Columbia University Press, 2002). Allan Berube’s Coming Out Under Fire: The History of Gay Men and Women in World War Two(New York: Free Press, 1990) includes material on women and sexuality in the various service branches. Berube traces the military’s anti-gay policies and the resistance it inspired. 22 Other literature on African-American women in the military includes Charity Adams Earley's One Woman's Army(College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1989), Janet Sims-Wood’s article, "We Served America Too!: Black Women In The Women's Army Corps During World War II" in Journal of The Afro-American Historical And Genealogical Society, Volume 13, Number 3 & 4 (1994): 165-175, and Lucia M. Pitts' One Negro WAC's Story (Los Angeles: The Author, 1968), which all cover the subject of the black female experience in the Army; Brenda Moore’s For My Country, For My Race: The Story of the Only African American WACs Stationed Overseas during World War II (New York: New York University Press, 1996) which examines the 6888th Central Postal Battalion, the only black females in the military (excluding nurses) to serve overseas during the war; and Regina T. Akers’ master's thesis 'The Integration of Afro-Americans into the WAVES, 1942-1945," (Washington, D.C.: Howard University, 1993).

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Working women constitute the second general category of historical

inquiry on American women and World War II. “Rosie the Riveter” became one

of America’s most celebrated female icons and her continuing popularity is

reflected in the large amount of scholarly literature regarding women and World

War II. Standouts in this category include Sherna Berger Gluck’s previously

mentioned Revisiting Rosie the Riveter and D'Ann Campbell's Women at War

With America: Private Lives in a Patriotic Era (1984). Campbell details the strain

caused by wartime employment challenges to the distinct gender roles assumed

by Americans in the 1940s. Campbell asserts that women brought in to fill

traditionally female jobs such as typists and stenographers had an easier time

than women taking over traditionally male positions in factories and in the

military. Because of their perceived threat to masculine norms, the latter faced

significantly greater amounts of hostility and discrimination from co-workers and

strangers alike.23

Another influential book in this category is Ruth Milkman's Gender at

Work: The Dynamics of Job Segregation by Sex during World War (Urbana: II

University of Illinois Press, 1987), which details precisely why and how certain

jobs became placed under the heading of “women's work." Milkman analyzes

the electrical and the automobile manufacturing industries during the war with

particular emphasis on employment statistics, economic considerations in hiring

women, the types and difficulties of assignments relegated to each sex, and the

23 D’Ann Campbell, Women at War With America: Private Lives in a Patriotic Era (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1984).

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degree of male resistance to women working in the industries at all. Milkman’s

meticulous study offers details of the wartime creation of gendered job

segregation.24

Many historians contend that African-American women gained the most

substantive benefits from increased wartime employment opportunities when

over 400,000 black women left domestic service for higher paying factory or

government jobs. However, Karen Tucker Anderson's "Last Hired, First Fired:

Black Women Workers during World War II" (1982) challenges previous

historians’ assertions that black women made substantial long-term economic

improvement.25 She considers the 600,000 black women who entered the

paying workforce during the war years and finds limited postwar advances. Job

retention in industrial work was low, and some black women lost service, sales,

and clerical jobs to white women forced out of their own wartime positions. Many

African-American women maintained their lower level jobs (especially in the

apparel and operatives industries), however domestic service remained black

women’s primary postwar occupation. Anderson argues that black women who

made the transition from rural southern poverty to employment in the urban,

industrial North gained the most from the war. Anderson’s article is the only in-

depth evaluation of black women’s work on the home front.

24 Ruth Milkman, Gender at Work: The Dynamics of Job Segregation by Sex during World War II (Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 1987). 5 Karen Tucker Anderson's "Last Hired, First Fired: Black Women Workers during World War II" in The Journal of American History, Volume 69, Issue 1 (June, 1982), 82-97. The historians Anderson’s findings challenge include Dale L. Heistand, Economic Growth and Employment Opportunities for Minorities (New York: Columbia University Press, 1964) and Chafe, The American Woman: Her Changing Social, Economic, and Political Roles, 1920-1970.

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Scholars have also written little about the white-collar women who worked

in government or private offices during the war. One of the only monographs to

cover this arena is Elizabeth McIntosh's Sisterhood of Spies. McIntosh highlights

women’s contributions to the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the precursor to

the CIA. McIntosh, who herself worked for the OSS both during and after the

war, details the exploits of various female agents in the home and field offices.

However, while useful for its individual case studies, the book serves more as a

history of the agency and less an evaluation of women’s role within the agency

and the difficulties and/or prejudices they encountered.26

The third general historical category that includes wartime women focuses

on home life. One of the best sources on the subject is the previously discussed

Women at War with America by D’Ann Campbell. Another prominent study is

Susan Hartmann’s The Home Front and Beyond: American Women in the 1940s

(1982). Hartmann takes elements of race, class, age, education, and marital

status into account in assessing how women experienced the war years. She

finds that women’s mass entrance into the public realm represents the most

substantial change of the decade. For instance, women made inroads into local

politics by replacing absent party officials and workers and serving on juries for

the first time in several states. Even educational institutions opened their doors

26 Elizabeth P. McIntosh, Sisterhood of Spies: the Women of the OSS (Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1998). McIntosh also wrote of her own wartime experiences in Undercover Girl (1947). The Secrets War edited by George C. Chalou examines the development, operations and records of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), but makes only brief mention of women who worked in the offices, their professional frustrations and the sexual harassment they faced. Just one sentence covers Margaret Griggs, who was in charge of hiring the "right type" of women for William Donovan at the COI (Coordinator of Information, the predecessor to the OSS).

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to women in traditionally male fields of math and science, although most college

curricula during the war still emphasized homemaking skills for women.

Hartmann also shows that wartime childcare programs and policies were brief

and limited, and social hygiene programs designed to protect men and women

against disease ended up imposing moral standards that punished unruly women

with confinement or behavior modification programs. Though communities

varied, prewar values and behavior patterns persisted. Hartmann agrees with

D’Ann Campbell, Karen Anderson, and Leila Rupp that World War II did not

redefine women’s roles so much as temporarily tolerate their nontraditional

behavior.27

Maureen Honey's edited volume Bitter Fruit: African American Women in

World War II (1999) is the only major work to address civilian black women’s

wartime experience in America. This anthology of wartime photos, essays,

fiction, and poetry written by and about black women is culled from four

contemporary periodicals: Negro Digest, The Crisis, Opportunity, and Negro

Story. The documents depict black women in roles other than that of the

27 Susan Hartmann, The Home Front and Beyond; American Women in the Nineteen Forties (Boston: Twayne, 1982). A few of the rich body of national and regional studies on the American wartime home front are: Richard R. Lingeman, Don’t You Know There’s a War Going On? The American Home Front, 1941-1945 (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1970); James L. Abrahamson, The American Home Front (Washington, D.C.: National Defense University Press, 1983); Jonathon Harris, Franklin D. Mitchell, and Steven J. Schechter, eds., The Homefront: American during World War II(New York: Putnam’s, 1984); Doris Weatherford, American Women and World War II (New York: Facts on File, Inc., 1990); Judy Barrett Litoff and David C. Smith, eds., “Since You Went Away”: World War II Letters from American Women on the Home Front (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991); Susan Sinnott's Doing Our Part: American Women on the Home Front During World War (New II York, Franklin Watts, 1991); Nan Heacock's Battle Stations!: The Homefront World War (Ames: II Iowa State University Press, 1992); and Kenneth Paul O’Brien and Lynn Hudson Parsons, eds., The Home-Front War: World War II and American Society (Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1995).

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stereotypical domestic servant seen in mass media and give voice to the

bitterness many women felt over issues and incidents of discrimination. Honey

finds that African-American women felt empowered enough during the war to

resist previous social limits through their writings. While the circumstances and

voices of the material differ, the underlying theme of the collection is

dissatisfaction with race relations, policies, and treatment, and the importance of

the collection is that it comes from women in the pre-civil rights era.28

Barbara Orbach and Nicholas Natanson’s “The Mirror Image: Black

Washington in World War 11-Era Federal Photography” (Washington History,

Spring/Summer 1992) uses photographs taken for the Office of War Information

(OWI) to evaluate contrasting visions of black life in Washington. The article

examines a series of photos taken in 1942 by John Collier, Marjory Collins, and

Gordon Parks detailing the lives of three black women: a librarian at the Library

of Congress, a teacher, and a government charwoman. Jewel Mazique, the

librarian, reveals a middle-class lifestyle including a husband who worked as an

intern at Howard University Hospital, two daughters, a three-story home, and war

relief volunteer work. Collins’s series on the schoolteacher shows her working in

a spacious, well-supplied, orderly classroom. She returns to an upscale home in

the suburbs and a family in which her husband is a doctor and her children

28 While several books have been written about the African-American experience on the home front (Neil A. Wynn’s The Afro-American and the Second World War (New York: Holmes & Meier Publishers, 1975), A. Russell Buchanan’s Black Americans in World War II (Santa Barbara, California: Clio Books, 1977), and Nat Brandt’s Harlem at War: The Black Experience inWWII (Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press, 1996)), few works have directly addressed the topic from a gendered perspective. Most of these exceptions are the aforementioned works that focus on the military.

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attend college. Orbach and Natanson conclude that these two collections of

photos convey a somewhat exaggerated message that middle-class African-

Americans need not be limited by their race. Orbach and Natanson attribute the

much smaller distribution of Parks’ photographs portraying Ella Watson, the

charwoman, including his famous photograph of Watson holding a mop and

broom against a backdrop of the American flag, to the OWI’s desire to avoid

drawing attention to the discrepancies between American democratic ideals and

practice of racial discrimination.29

With national focus on the development of human and material resources

for wartime use, Washington, D.C. assumed new importance. However, the

existing full-length literature on the city during World War II is slim. Scott Hart's

Washington at War, 1941-1945 (1970) and David Brinkley's Washington Goes to

War (1988) are the only two full-length treatments of the subject.30 The books

are similar in approach, scope, and conclusions. Scott Hart spent the war years

covering Washington as a reporter, and he approaches Washington at War as if

relating news headlines from the period. The material is loosely organized

around a chronology of major political and military events such as Pearl Harbor,

the Doolittle raid, the 1942 trial of eight German saboteurs, the 1944 Democratic

Convention, and VE Day. Hart uses these events as a framework from which to

describe the activities of Washington’s power players and, to a lesser extent, how

the city itself transitioned into wartime mode. Hart includes Government Girls in

29 Barbara Orbach and Nicholas Natanson, “The Mirror Image: Black Washington in World War II- Era Federal Photography” Washington History, Volume 4, Number 1 (Spring/Summer 1992), 4- 25.

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sections on the turmoil of overcrowding and gossip over the promiscuous

behavior of newcomers. He devotes one chapter titled “Women Go to War” to

discuss women’s involvement in the war. Yet, Hart limits the discussion to the

development of the WAC and Oveta Culp Hobby’s role as commander. The

WAVES receive a brief summary paragraph, and Marines and SPARS are not

mentioned at all.

David Brinkley’s Washington Goes to War follows a similar structure. It

details how federal officials, politicians, newspapers, socialites, and newcomers

dealt with World War II. He uses anecdotal stories, first person accounts, and

archival sources to create a vivid portrait of the city and its people. Brinkley

provides a bureaucratic and political overview to emphasize Washington’s

transition from a small southern city to a wartime metropolis. In the chapter

called “Boomtown,” Brinkley outlines the city’s overcrowded conditions and

chaotic pace of living. Another chapter groups Government Girls with other

newcomers to discuss the strain that in-migrants caused on Washington’s

housing supply and race relations--the increasingly crowded city made the lack of

services and opportunities available to African Americans due to segregation

even more pronounced. Brinkley declares at the outset that the book is less a

strict history of the time than a personal reminiscence and reflection. Hart and

Brinkley’s journalistic approaches leave room for research more grounded in

historical techniques.

30 Hart, Washington at War (1970); Brinkley, Washington Goes to War (1988).

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Brief chapters on wartime Washington appear in Constance McLaughlin

Green's Washington: A History of the Capital (1962), Stewart Alsop's The Center,

People and Power in Political Washington (1968), Keith Melder's City of

Magnificent Intentions (1989), and Carl Abbott’s Political Terrain: Washington,

D.C., from Tidewater Town to Global Metropolis (1999). However, none of these

works delve deeply into the war’s effect on the people, infrastructure, or culture of

the city. Two articles that do focus exclusively on wartime Washington

concentrate on the city’s boarding houses. The first, Roselyn Dresbold

Silverman’s “World War II in Washington: Life at Dissin’s” ( The Record 22, 1996-

997), details the author’s experiences living in Dissin’s Guest House, a

Washington boarding house that catered to young, single Jewish renters.

Silverman likens her time at the boarding house to being away at college, except

instead of studying the women all worked. The men and women at Dissin’s

socialized as well as lived together. Like many other women, the author married

and moved out of the boarding house, but returned when her husband was called

up for service. Silverman purports that the bonds created during wartime were

long-lasting. Those former residents who remained in the area stayed in touch

with each other as well as with Mrs. Dissin, a mother figure who looked forward

to her ex-boarders bringing their babies by the boarding house for visits.31

The second article, Leslie T. Davol’s “Shifting Mores: Ester Bubley’s World

War II Boarding House Photos” ( Washington History, Fall/Winter 1998-99),

31 Roselyn Dresbold Silverman, “World War II in Washington: Life at Dissin’s” The Record 22 [Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington] (1997), 41-48.

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examines thirty-seven of Bubley’s photographs taken of daily life in D.C. boarding

houses for the OWI in 1943. Bubley was one of several photographers hired by

the government to document American life for possible use as positive domestic

and foreign propaganda. The photographs, however, revealed traditional

concepts of home being challenged as both women and men experimented with

nontraditional gender roles. The author argues that D.C.’s boarding houses

provided an environment in which women could try on new identities in the

private sphere to go along with the new identities they were forging in their public

careers. The homosocial and heterosocial interactions that Bubley captured on

film was more intimate and relaxed than pictures taken by other photojournalists,

who typically showed men and women socializing in the public rooms. According

to Davol, Bubley’s pictures capture the extraordinary wartime expansion of

women’s sense of self.32

This dissertation builds upon the existing material about women in wartime

Washington, but attempts to create a more comprehensive portrait of war

workers. Shifting women to the forefront of the story allows this study to evaluate

Washington from the perspective of newcomers experiencing the city for the first

time as well as from workers involved the bureaucratic production of war

firsthand.

32 Leslie T. Davol, “Shifting Mores: Ester Bubley’s World War II Boarding House Photos” in Washington History, Volume 10, Number 2 (Fall/Winter 1998-99), 44-62. Two additional publications, Howard Gillette, Jr., “The Wartime Washington of Henry Gichner” Washington History, Volume 7, Number 2 (Fall/Winter 1995-96): 36-53 and Paul K. Williams, Washington, D.C.: The World War II Years (Charleston: Arcadia, 2004) provide various photographic coverage of daily life in the city.

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This study is organized thematically. Following this introduction, Chapter

2, “They Way They Were: Washington, D.C. at the Start of the War,” describes

the state of the nation’s capital at the outbreak of America’s involvement in World

War II. This chapter presents an overview of the population explosion,

government build-up, strains on transportation and housing, and the social and

cultural climate that the female war workers entered upon arriving in Washington.

This shows the city’s rapid pace of change into which Government Girls became

one more wartime phenomenon. Chapter 3, “A Woman’s Work is Never Done:

Women’s Wartime Employment,” examines how female war workers found work,

the duties they performed, their treatment by employers and other employees

(both male and female), how race factored into their experiences, and women’s

attitudes towards their work. It asserts that women struggled through sometimes

adverse conditions to provide the government with the labor necessary to run the

war. Chapter 4, “There’s No Place Like Home: Women’s Wartime Housing in the

Nation’s Capital,” addresses how Government Girls impacted the housing crisis

in Washington, local and institutional responses to the problem, what it was like

to live in boarding houses, government housing, and military barracks, the

relationships that developed between workers living together, and how both the

co-ed and same-sex housing situation challenged accepted notions of female

behavior and domesticity. The women’s age, marital status, and occupational

attachment to the federal government created a unique housing situation in

Washington. Chapter 5, “All Work and No Play...: Social Life in Wartime

Washington,” details what Government Girls did during the hours they were not

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. working. It explores the social and cultural activities available in the city, who

participated in them, how these activities differed according to race and class,

and how the city accommodated the needs of its newcomers. Washington

provided women with the opportunity and accessibility to experiment with new

roles and identities. Chapter 6, “Glamour, Romance, and Superpowers: The

Government Girl in Popular Culture,” evaluates how the media portrayed

Government Girls and helped create their defining image. Popular culture

shaped the public perception of what Government Girls looked like, how they

lived, and how they fit into the context of the war effort. Debating images of war

workers—Government Girls, servicewomen, and industrial workers— helped

Americans come to terms with women’s shifting social responsibilities and

provided Washington audiences with a contemporary stereotype to which they

could relate. The study ends with Chapter 7, “Government Girls No More: Life

after World War II,” which investigates how living in the nation’s capital allowed

most Government Girls to find postwar employment and demonstrates the

demographic, social, and political changes to which the women contributed.

In 1943 a frustrated taxi driver anointed Washington, D.C. "the greatest

goddam [sic] insane asylum of the universe."33 The wartime boom created rapid

economic, demographic, social, and cultural changes that challenged locals and

newcomers in their attempts to keep pace with the transitions. The story of

Washington’s female war workers— who they were, how they managed on their

33 Man at the Microphone, "Washington Broadcast" in Katharine Graham, Katharine Graham's Washington (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2002), 292.

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interesting interlude in the twentieth-century history of American women. Many

women took advantage of this wartime opportunity to step out of their traditional

roles and responsibilities. But did this lead to a city filled with literal and figurative

“girls on the loose?” Through their work, living, and social activities, Government

Girls helped stretch the boundaries governing women’s proper social behavior

and position in wartime Washington.

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THE WAY WE WERE: WASHINGTON, D.C.

AT THE START OF THE WAR

“Its streets are a moving panorama of color, alive with the thousands of men and women in the uniform of our own country and those of our allies. It is now possible to see at midnight on its down-town thoroughfares more people than there were during the height of its noon pre-war days.”1 Jessie Fant Evans, “War Time Washington, New Wonder of the Western World,” 1945

December 7, 1941 began like any other Sunday in Washington.

Locals enjoyed a temperate winter morning attending church services, visiting

family and friends, catching their beloved Redskins play the last football game of

the season against the Philadelphia Eagles, and generally preparing for the week

ahead. Washington Times-Herald editor Frank Waldrop relaxed at home with his

wife and children when a nagging hunch drew him into the office. That

newsman’s instinct is how Waldrop came to be watching the wire services when,

just after 2:30 p.m., reports of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor started

coming through. The editor rushed to locate his reporters and get them on the

story. Minutes later Griffith Stadium’s public address system broke through the

cheering crowd with a series of urgent pages for top military and government

1 Jessie Fant Evans, "War Time Washington, New Wonder of the Western World." in Confidential from Washington (Washington, D.C.: The George Washington Victory Council, August 1945), 1.

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officials, journalists, and foreign ambassadors. Redskins owner George Preston

Marshall refused to disturb the game with a news update, yet the 27,000

spectators watching the game that infamous day were some of the first

Washingtonians aware of a great change taking place. Although the events that

day affected the entire country, they catapulted Washington into the center of a

worldwide military campaign.2

Washington became the “first city of the world” during World War II. The

federal government functions as the District’s principal employer, its chief

industry, and the city’s existence and growth are inexorably tied to political

developments, both domestic and international. The magnitude of the Second

World War spurred Washington’s greatest and fastest expansion to date. As

existing federal agencies swelled and new ones formed overnight, staff

requirements skyrocketed. At the height of the war, newcomers, over three-

quarters of whom were women, streamed into the city at a rate of 5,000 a day.3

The numbers and needs of these Government Girls shaped wartime Washington

in numerous and lasting ways, exacerbating Washington’s overcrowding,

housing shortage, transportation difficulties, and social tensions. Government

Girls and servicewomen entered a city already in transition towards becoming a

wartime boomtown, which created a climate accepting of rapid change and

2 Lyle C. Wilson, “World War II” in Phillips, Cabell, ed. Dateline: Washington, The Story of National Affairs Journalism in the Life and Times of the National Press (GardenClub City, New York: Doubleday & Company, 1949), 183-4; Ralph G. Martin, Cissy (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1979), 417. 3 Monthly Labor Review, Vol. 59, No. 5 (November 1944): 1054.

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unconventional situations. Such an atmosphere opened up the cultural space for

women to try on new wartime identities.

When Japanese bombers attacked Pearl Harbor, Washington was already

in the midst of a decade-long federal administrative build-up. Between 1933 and

1937 the Roosevelt administration had created a series of “New Deal” programs

to provide economic relief and recovery from the country’s Great Depression.

This shifted much legislative and political power to Washington and brought in

New Deal agency heads and expert consultants from cities and towns all over

the U.S. In general, this group of well-educated, highly paid men (women made

up only a small percentage of appointments) moved to Washington for relatively

short periods, often leaving their families back home. Military and diplomatic

personnel receiving assignments to the area for short, fixed terms and support

staff hired to assist in these efforts also added to the growing populace. Between

1930 and 1940 Washington grew by a little over 176,000, reaching a total of

663,091 residents.4

An even more significant jump in population occurred after World War II

broke out in Europe. Congress passed the Lend-Lease Act in March 1941

authorizing the United States to provide its allies with equipment and supplies,

and a new string of government agencies formed to coordinate these efforts and

control the wartime economy. This created staffing needs that became even

more urgent and extensive with America’s full-scale military involvement in the

4 “Historical Census Statistics On Population Totals By Race, 1790 to 1990, and By Hispanic Origin, 1970 to 1990, For Large Cities And Other Urban Places In The United States,” found at http://www.census.gov/population/documentation/twps0056/tab23.pdf.

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war after Pearl Harbor. Over 231,000 people moved to the metropolitan area

between April 1940 and May 1942, making it the second fastest growing

community in the nation behind Detroit.5 Growth was so swift that one local

observer quipped, “No one can say with exactitude how many persons are

attached to the Federal Government pay roll at any one time in wartime

Washington, as the number changes daily.”6

In contrast to the New Deal era, the majority of wartime newcomers who

flooded into the city to work for the government were women. By 1942 women

constituted six out of every ten workers coming into D.C.7 The media called them

“Government Girls,” a term initially used to describe World War I female clerical

workers, and followed the work habits of both civilian and military women with

interest.8 A Good Housekeeping magazine article poetically noted: “Every

morning [Government Girls] flow, like bright rivers, into the maws of the great

buildings."9 These female workers helped assuage wartime Washington’s ever

present need for clerical labor, but the women’s presence also added to the

problems of an already crowded city. As the war progressed, fewer women

5 “Capital Area’s Population Soars Past the Million Mark,” Washington Times-Herald, December 2, 1942, Statistics Vertical Files, Statistics, Comparative Folder 1800-1959 #1, MLK. 6 Man at the Microphone, "Washington Broadcast" in Katharine Graham, Katharine Graham's Washington (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2002), 295. 7 Luther Huston, "Uncle Sam's Seminary for Girls" New York Times Magazine, December 6, 1942, 7. 8 In a scenario similar in action but much smaller in scope and duration to World War II, female workers came from all over the country to work in D.C. as federal employees during the First World War. Between 1917 and 1918, Washington’s population increased by about 130,000 as war agencies and related businesses mobilized personnel. See Margaret Thomas Buchholz, “Josephine: The Washington Diary Of a War Worker, 1918-1919,” in Washington History, Vol. 10, No.2 (Fall/Winter 1998-99): 4-23 and Susan Zeiger, In Uncle Sam’s Service: Women Workers With The American Expeditionary Force, 1917-1919 (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1999).

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worked in “great buildings” and more of them reported for work at makeshift

offices in unconventional settings around the capital.

Washington’s burgeoning federal bureaucracy spread into every available

office space and, after that ran out, took over District-owned buildings such as

skating rinks, basketball arenas, theaters, auditoriums, concert halls, stables, old

homes, and new apartment buildings. Military needs came before all others.

Surveyors showed up unannounced at the twenty-acre campus of Mount Vernon

Seminary, a girls' school located in Northwest Washington. The Navy liked what

it saw and took over the school without notice or discussion. It offered $800,000

for the property worth over $5 million, finally agreeing to a $1.1 million purchase

price. When students returned from the Christmas holidays, they resumed

studies in a makeshift classroom created on the second floor of a recently built

Garfinkel's department store. Housing for the girls was arranged with private

residences throughout the adjacent neighborhood. The Navy set up a

communications center on the newly acquired property.10

Government agencies even encroached upon the National Mall, one of

Washington’s most celebrated landmarks. President Roosevelt personally

approved designs for temporary office buildings, or “tempos," built on the flat,

open expanse in the heart of the city. Roosevelt purposely ordered architects to

construct flimsy, ugly structures to last no longer than ten years in order to

ensure their eventual removal from the landscaped parkland. Because of the

9 Good Housekeeping (January, 1942): 32-37. 10 David Brinkley, Washington Goes to War (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1988), 109, 116-7; Barbara deFranceaux interview with author, August 6, 2003.

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wartime dearth of construction materials, the buildings, which stretched about

half a city block, generally consisted of a concrete foundation and cemento-

asbestos board walls. The tempos were connected by a maze of wooden ramps

and overpasses crisscrossing the Mall. Even the Reflecting Pool sported two

bridges connecting the complexes on either side of i t . They eventually served

as office space for 30,000 government employees. By the end of the war, the

box-like tempos completely filled the open space between the Washington

Monument and the Lincoln Memorial.11

Such rapid and widespread expansion of new agencies overloaded local

utilities. Gas, transportation, power, telecommunication, and electricity

companies such as Washington Gas Light and Potomac Electric Power

Company (PEPCO) strained to keep up with the increasing demands placed

upon them by the latest offices and their accompanying workforce. Throughout

the duration of the war, PEPCO sales rose by an average of 16 million kilowatt

hours per year. Postal receipts set new records in the capital, rising up to

88percent above pre-war totals. Before usage restrictions were imposed,

gasoline consumption rose about 5.5 million gallons per month. And

Chesapeake and Potomac's area telephone system nearly collapsed. By

December 1942 the company handled almost 1.6 million business and residential

phone calls per day. The company ran ads asking people to use the phones only

when absolutely necessary in order to lighten the load on its infrastructure. This

11 Williams, Washington, D.C., 100; James E. Goode, Capital Losses: A Cultural History of Washington’s Destroyed Buildings (Washington and London: Smithsonian Books, 2003), 485; Brinkley, Washington Goes to War, 120.

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the top three cities in the world for per capita use of telephones.12

In addition to dealing with the expansion difficulties of federal agencies,

the city braced itself for wartime defense. Local officials began preparations to

protect Washington from possible enemy invasion. Military personnel stationed

around the city guarded important structures and well-known landmarks such as

the Washington Aqueduct and Lincoln Memorial. Security barricaded the

sidewalk in front of the White House, closed its surrounding streets to

unauthorized traffic, and turned away tourists. Before the war pedestrians could

stroll across the White House grounds, leave their calling or business cards for

the President, and enjoy the gardens.13 The Works Progress Authority erected

miles of metal fence to protect water lines at Cabin John, a suburb just northwest

of the District. In order to protect the city from air raids, 40mm anti-aircraft guns

were mounted on dozens of rooftop locations such as the Government Printing

Office and Interior Building and in front of the Smithsonian’s Arts and Industries

Building. However, not all of the safeguards made Washingtonians feel more

secure. One day in 1942 a rooftop gun on the Mall accidentally went off and hit

12 John F. Gerrity, “Utility Firms Do Herculean Job for Wartime Washington,” Washington Post, August 26, 1945, B3; “District Business Barometers,” Washington Star, July 24, 1944, Statistics Vertical Files, Statistics, Comparative Folder 1800-1959 #2, MLK; Brinkley, Washington Goes to War, 119-120; “Factual Survey of Washington,” Real Estate Board News, March 1945, 8, Statistics Vertical Files, Statistics, Comparative Folder 1800-1959 #1, MLK; “Washington Facts and Figures,” 1943, Statistics Vertical Files, Statistics, Comparative Folder 1800-1959 #1, MLK; “Facts Abut Washington,” Evening Star, April 1941, 3, Vertical File, MLK. 13 William Seale, The President’s House, Volume II (Washington, D.C.: The White House Historical Association, 1986), 977.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. the top of the Lincoln Memorial. Luckily, the venerable structure suffered no

major damage.14

D.C. officials also rushed to protect local historical and artistic treasures.

Under heavy guard, the Declaration of Independence, Constitution of the United

States, Gutenberg Bible, and Magna Carta traveled from the Library of Congress

to a secure vault at Fort Knox in Kentucky.15 The Mellon Art Gallery (later the

National Gallery of Art), which President Roosevelt ceremoniously opened in

March 1941, sent its most important masterpieces to George Vanderbilt’s remote

Biltmore estate in Asheville, North Carolina for the duration of the war. The

extensive pre-Colombian art collection at Dumbarton Oaks in Georgetown was

placed in storage when the museum was turned over to a government agency.

And the police chief ordered additional foot patrols along the Tidal Basin after

vandals expressed their anger over Pearl Harbor by cutting down several cherry

trees.16

As part of the city’s defense preparations, Washington instituted blackout

restrictions for the duration of the war. Coordinating such efforts often required

political finesse. For instance, the Office of Civilian Defense (OCD) ordered the

National Park Service to extinguish the Washington Monument’s floodlights

immediately after Pearl Harbor. A few minutes later the Civil Aeronautical

14 David L. Lewis, A History of the District of Columbia, Unit IV, Washington, D.C.: “The Fight for Freedom at Home and Abroad, 1940-1953” (Washington, D.C.: Associates for Renewal in Education, Inc., 1980), 5; Luther Houston, “Washington- a Summer Portrait,” New York Times, July 25, 1943, SM12; Paul K. Williams, Washington, D.C.: The World War it Years (Charleston, SC: Arcadia, 2004), 6, 17, 21, 42, 44, 56. 15 Milton Mayer, “Washington Goes to War,” Life (January 2, 1942): 63.

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Authority (CAA) commanded the Park Service to turn the lights back on. The

Park Service played tag team with both agencies until they finally demanded that

the OCD talk directly with the CAA, and both agreed to leave the lights on until

every commercial and military pilot in the country had been warned of the

blackout.17 Other city-wide adjustments included shutting off the lights on the

Capitol dome, installing emergency cut-off switches on downtown streetlights,

and fitting commercial buildings, such as Hecht’s department store, for window

blackout screens.18

Once every three months sirens rang out to test Washingtonians’ blackout

preparedness. The Civil Service Commission recruited air raid wardens for every

neighborhood. Residents made their own blackout curtains with which to cover

their windows when the sirens sounded. If any light escaped from a house or

apartment, the warden knocked on the door to demand compliance with the drill.

Occasionally, a warden would take his or her responsibilities too far. College

student and Government Girl Hope Ribbeck lived with her father in a house right

next to a heavily used bus stop. Hope’s father had several run-ins with the air

raid warden over the latter’s insistence that the Ribbecks designate their

basement a shelter for nearby bus passengers. The warden also conducted

frequent surprise inspections for required blackout items such as buckets of sand

16 Constance McLaughlin Green, Washington: A History of the Capital (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1977), 482-3. 17 Mayer, “Washington Goes to War,” 62. 18 W.M. Kiplinger, “Tourists See the Sights,” from Washington Is Like That reprinted in Graham, Katharine Graham’s Washington, 359.

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for use on incendiary bombs.19 Air raid shelters built around the city, rather than

people’s homes, served as emergency hideouts for pedestrians caught out in the

open during a drill or raid. But because the practice drills occurred on pre

arranged Sundays, Government Girls and servicewomen had little use for them.

However, civilian women did help guard against air attacks. Volunteers

memorized the silhouettes of enemy airplanes and took turns standing on

specially built towers scouting the horizon for potential threats.20

In addition to increased security measures, Government Girls and

servicewomen found a higher cost of living in their adopted city. D.C. continually

ranked among the nation’s most expensive cities, but the wartime economy

raised D.C.’s cost of goods by as much as four percent per month. Incoming

workers discovered that rents in the D.C. area tripled, the price of lunch in a

casual restaurant doubled in the course of a year, laundries charged double and

triple for their services, and food staples such as bread and milk rose by 25

percent. The average yearly spending per person in Washington ($1485) was

just shy of the average spending per family in the rest of the country ($1562).21

At a time when movie tickets averaged $.25, the best seat at a Broadway show

cost $3, and a four-room apartment on the upper West Side of Manhattan rented

for $105 per month, Washington’s women paid $.39 cents for a movie, $2-3 for a

back row seat at National Theater, and about $100 per month for one room with

19 Hope Ribbeck Nussbaum interview with author, August 8, 2004. 20 Dorothy Dennison interview with author, July 19, 2004; Joanne Lichty interview with author, July 29, 2004. 21 “Sales Index of Department Stores,” Statistics Vertical Files, Statistics, Comparative Folder 1800-1959 #2, MLK; Brinkley,Washington Goes to War, 119-120.

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breakfast at a private, high-end boarding house.22 D.C. salaries increased about

40 percent during this time, but many residents still had a hard time keeping up

with inflation. As more and more war workers arrived in the city, demand for

goods and services drove prices even higher.23

In order to regulate the increasingly expensive and scarce housing

market, Congress passed a 1941 Rent Control Act for Washington. The

legislation established maximum rent ceilings and stabilized rents at the level

prevailing on January 1 of that year. The Act also froze hotel rates as listed on

that same date. The measure provided some relief from price gouging, but did

not help with the shortage of available living space.24 Virginia Durr’s experience

epitomized the housing crunch. She moved to Washington from Alabama when

her husband was called to work for the government. The Durrs had such

difficulty finding a place to live that, once they were settled, they offered to help

others in similar predicaments. By the end of the war, the Durrs’ ever-increasing

household included fourteen people: Durr, her husband, their five children, Durr’s

mother, English refugee Decca Romilly (Winston Churchill’s niece by marriage)

22 Monthly Labor Review, Volume 54, Number 1 (January 1942): 144; ‘Washington in Wartime: It is Terrible Place to Live”, Life (January 4, 1943): 47-50; Monthly Labor Review, Volume 59, Number 5 (November 1944): 1070; “Buying Power in D.C. Again Leads Nation,” The Washington Post, April 12, 1942, Statistics Vertical Files, Statistics, Comparative Folder 1800-1959 #1, MLK; James B. Reston, “L’Enfant’s Capital and Boomtown, Too,” New York Times, June 1, 1941, SM7, Thomas F. Troy, ed., Wartime Washington: The Secret OSS Journal of James Grafton Rogers 1942-1943 (Frederick, Maryland: University Publications of America, 1987), 49; Harold Rabinowitz, A Sentimental Journey: America in the '40s. Pleasantville (New York and Montreal: The Reader's Digest Association, Inc. 1998), 107-108. 23 Monthly Labor Review, Volume 59, Number 5 (November 1944): 1050. 24 Monthly Labor Review, Volume 54, Number 1 (January 1942): 145; Charles Mercer, “How Rent Control Bill Will Affect Landlord and Tenant; Law Becomes Effective Januray 1,” Washington Post, December 3, 1941, 4; “D.C. Newcomers Told to Study Rent Contol,” Washington Post, February 20, 1942, 27; “End Rent Control, "Washington Post, September 7, 1945, 8.

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and her baby, and Mr. Yamasaki and his family. (Yamasaki lost his job as a

butler with a member of the President’s staff because of his ethnicity.)25

Washington’s wartime hotel room scarcity was immortalized in the plot of the

1942 hit Broadway play Janie. The show included a character who went to D.C.

on business and returned in a rant shouting, “Where d’you suppose I slept that

night? In that damned town! Sitting up in a chair in the lobby of the Mayflower

Hotel.” The city’s overcrowded wartime situation became the basis for national

jokes.26

Yet, daily struggles in the cramped city generated no laughs from its

aggravated residents. Complaints about waiting in lines for necessities

resounded throughout D.C. Emily Towe arrived in wartime Washington to work

as a journalist and recorded her first impressions of the city as “a blur of lines and

lines, waiting impatiently or resignedly” at each store, restaurant, and

entertainment spot she passed.27 A publication called Confidential from

Washington revealed the often unnerving impact of continual wartime delays:

Lines form for every sort of things, from buses, groceries and meat, to notions in the department stores, and picnic tables in Rock Creek Park. The other day, a little boy, who had been repatriated from a three-year stay in a Japanese prison camp, and who had been promised that when he was free, he would never have to stand in line again, suddenly called out in one of Washington's prominent cafeterias, 'Oh mother, we aren't in prison again, are we? There is a line forming behind me.'28

25 Studs Terkel, “The Good War,” An Oral History of World War (NewII York: The New Press, 1984), 334. 26 Josephine Bentham and Herschel Williams, Janie: A Comedy in Three Acts (New York: Samuel French, 1943), 13. 27 Emily Towe, “Washington Newcomer,” Washington Post, June 20, 1943, B1. 28 Evans, 'War Time Washington, New Wonder of the Western World,” 1.

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One Government Girl told the Washington Post that she was giving up on the

capital and heading home to the Midwest because:

I have to stand in line in the morning to clean my teeth, stand in line to get my breakfast, stand in line to get the bus, stand in line for lunch, stand in line for the movies, stand in line to be helped in the stores and stand in line to get a bus or trolley home.29

Frustrations ran high as carrying out even the most basic tasks became difficult

and time-consuming.

Even before rationing began, essential supplies ran low. Once mandatory

restrictions took effect, shoppers spent hours searching for desired items, more

often than not walking away empty-handed. OSS worker James Grafton Rogers

recorded the dearth of supplies in a journal entry: "...stores are getting bare like

Mother Hubbard's shelves.”30 One Government Girl was so protective of her

butter ration that she took it to work with her and kept it on the windowsill to keep

it cold. Rationing applied to transplanted Government Girls as well as the

general D.C. population. Every man, woman, and child received a ration book.31

The Office of Price Administration eventually rationed twenty different products,

but some Washingtonians found ways to supplement their rations or work around

the restrictions. Families with relatives living on farms in nearby states stocked

up on meat and canned vegetables on visits.32 Heiress and socialite Marjorie

Merriweather Post shipped in extra milk, meat, and vegetables from her dairy

29 Ann Cottrell, "Government Girls Wait in Line: All Services Slow in Capital," Washington Post, April 9, 1943, 3B. 30 Troy, Wartime Washington, 61. 31 Mary Herring Wright, Far from Home: Memories of World War II and Afterward (Washington, D.C.: Gallaudet University Press, 2005), 107. 32 Lucille Davis interview with the author, March 23, 2003.

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farm and extensive victory gardens on her Long Island estate.33 Most residents

managed on only two gallons of gas per week depending upon how essential

their job was deemed to community welfare. For example, doctors and ministers

received greater rations than government workers or janitors. City governments

lowered speed limits in the area to 35 miles per hour or “Victory Speed” in order

to foster further gas saving.34 However, teenage boys often got around the

rationing by siphoning fuel from cars in the middle of the night in order to have

enough for weekend dates.35 The military usurped silk supplies ordinarily used

for stockings to manufacture parachutes, so women wore substitutions made

from uncomfortable heavy rayon, fishnet, or cotton. In the hot, humid

Washington summers, some women went without stockings altogether.

Cosmetic companies marketed leg make-up to create “birthday stockings," but

the brown liquid was messy, runny, and rubbed off on clothes and furniture. A

more popular choice for women was to tan their legs in the sun using a mixture of

baby oil and iodine.36 With each additional wartime challenge or restriction,

Washingtonians adjusted their patterns of living and found creative solutions to

diminishing resources.

Stockings were not the only casualties of Washington’s notoriously

oppressive summers. Newcomers complained that the physical discomfort

created mental anguish. James Rogers wrote in his journal: “Last night was the

33 Nancy Rubin, American Empress: The Life and Times of Marjorie Merriweather (NewPost York: Villard Books, 1995), 286. 34 Williams, Washington, D.C., 65. 35 Lichty interview, July 29, 2004.

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most contemptible weather I ever saw in this Pandora box of unlivable days...I

use a dozen handkerchiefs a day. Only a few air cooled rooms in War

Department are livable. I soak if I walk a block. A miserable place for a capital.”37

Government Girl Shirley Weinberger had the bad luck to be pregnant during the

height of summer. The slow-moving fans in her rented apartment offered little

relief. Out of desperation, Weinberger considered getting on a train back to New

York. Her husband Teddy convinced her to stay by finagling a room for the

weekend in the newly opened Statler Hotel in downtown. Weinberger recalled,

“All our friends came to visit us to feel the air conditioning.”38 Such escapes from

the heat were rarely available to the majority of women living in Washington.

Most viewed it as one more obstacle to overcome in the pursuit of their work or

patriotic duty.

One of the toughest challenges locals faced during World War II was

simply moving around the city. The transportation system faltered under the new

burdens placed upon it by the increased population and greater reliance on

public transportation due to rationing. Capital Transit Company operated ten

street car lines and 35 bus lines around Washington. The city lacked a subway

system, and its archaic trolleys could only handle about a third of the government

workers attempting to get to their offices each day. Buses were similarly

overtaxed. The bus schedules rarely matched the posted times and the crowds

at the bus stops outnumbered available seats on the vehicles that finally arrived.

36 Nussbaum interview, August 8, 2004; Elizabeth Delean Cozad interview with author, June 14, 2004. 37 Troy, Wartime Washington: 9,12.

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Driving to work downtown was one option, but parking spaces were almost

impossible to find. Gas rationing cut down, but did not eliminate, automobile

travel. Traffic moved at a snail's pace at nearly every hour of the day, and during

rush hours it was often completely paralyzed. In order to avoid the congestion in

the city, Government Girl Lucille Davis roller skated to work in good weather.

“Capitol Hill was too steep,” Davis remembered, “so I would stop, take off my

skates, walk down the hill and put the skates back on until I reached the office.”39

Life magazine quoted a cab driver’s perspective on the transportation mess:

“traffic everywhere is jammed; lines of passenger cars, Army trucks and jeeps

are stalled at the narrow approaches to the bridges. ‘Nazis couldn’t invade this

town,’ says the cabby, ‘not in the Rush Hour.’”40

With a wartime population topping one million, only 5,000 cabs operated

along Washington’s busy streets. In spring 1942 D.C. adopted a group riding

system for taxis. The first person in the cab set the destination. The driver then

picked up passengers heading in the same general area. The ride took more

time for the passengers, but the drivers made more money and saved gas. On

the zone system of pricing, a single person paid $.50 per zone but a group of

riders only paid $.30 each per zone. Because cabs were so scarce, government

workers took to using their own cars as taxis during off-hours.

38 Shirley Weinberger interview with author, March 13, 2003. 39 Davis interview, March 23, 2003. 40 “Factual Survey of Washington,” Real Estate Board News, March 1945, 8, Statistics Vertical Files, Statistics, Comparative Folder 1800-1959 #1, MLK; Man at the Microphone, "Washington Broadcast," 294-5; Mayer, “Washington Goes to War,” 57.

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Government Girls and other war workers rarely arrived in Washington with

their own vehicles. They relied on public transportation or walked to wherever

they needed to go. As housing got more difficult to find and workers ended up

farther and farther from their downtown offices, commuting times of an hour or

more were not uncommon, even within the city limits.41

Although National Airport opened in 1941, Washington’s principal point of

entry and departure for service men and women, Government Girls, and locals

was Union Station. Passengers fought through crowds that made the station’s

enormous concourse nearly impassable at all times. The terminal added an

extra window to each ticket bay and built "Coach Only" and "Pullman Only"

booths to disperse long lines. Conductors added train cars to increase rider

capacity and lengthened platforms to manage passenger flow. Information clerks

answered approximately 80,000 questions a day from the 100,000 travelers

passing through Union Station each 24-hour period at the height of the war.

During Christmastime 1942 crowds at the station became unmanageable.

Servicemen jumped gates in their rush to get trains heading home, incoming

passengers couldn't open train doors against the crush of people, and for parts of

two days management actually closed and locked the depot. Red Cap Doc

Carter remembered, "People used to bribe me to put them in wheelchairs so they

could get to the trains in front of the crowds." Army Sgt. George Timko, already

wounded after a tour of duty in Germany, suffered a broken leg when he was

41 “How Many in a Cab?” New York Times, February 18, 1945, SM27; Brinkley, Washington Goes to War, 107.

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trampled by the holiday crowd. Haynes Johnson's 1980 novel The Landing

describes how World War II transformed Union Station into "a pulsing nerve

center...something more than a railroad station; now it, and the people who

streamed through it, were part of an endless procession linked, inextricably,

somehow, to the great release of raw energy that had been set in motion across

the American continent."42 Union Station, like the city that it served, strained

under wartime chaos but also provided an arena for people from varied

backgrounds to interact.

However, not all interplay was harmonious. Tensions rising from the

capital's stringent race policies added to its atmosphere of wartime

pandemonium. Writer Alden Stevens’s 1941 magazine article entitled

“Washington: Blight on Democracy” observed, “Negroes who have lived in many

parts of the country say that nowhere else in America is there such bitter mutual

race hatred.”43 District laws dating from 1872 and 1873 outlawed segregation in

public places such as restaurants, soda fountains, barber shops, and hotels. The

laws were dropped from the D.C. Code in 1901 but never formally repealed.

However, wartime Washington was a segregated city. Black and white residents

lived, shopped, ate, watched movies, attended theater, participated in sports,

convalesced in hospitals, and, for the most part, worked apart in separate

sections of the city. There was not a single place in D.C.’s main commercial

district where a black person could sit down for a bite to eat. During the war,

42 Carol M. Highsmith and Ted Landphair, Union Station (Washington, D.C.: Chelsea Publishing, Inc., 1988), 39.

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acclaimed African-American author Richard Wright came to Washington to meet

with Orson Welles who was directing a stage version of Wright’s novel Native

Son at National Theater. When Wright and several people involved with the

production, all of whom were white, walked into a restaurant near the theater on

Pennsylvania Avenue, waiters refused to serve Wright. The restaurant’s

management suggested Wright remain in a parked car and food would be

brought out to him. Wright rejected the offer.44

The proportion of blacks in the city’s population steadily increased after

the mass migration following the end of the Civil War. In 1930 African Americans

represented 27percent of the District’s population, a higher percentage than New

York, Detroit, Pittsburgh, or Philadelphia. Ten years later Washington’s African-

American community added 187,000 people to its numbers, a 41 percent

increase. While many blacks worked in professional occupations, they also filled

the majority of the manual and service jobs. The presence of Howard University,

the preeminent black institution of higher learning, ensured that the area

attracted some of the smartest and most influential African Americans in the

country. It also helped Washington develop strong middle and upper class black

communities. All socio-economic levels were represented in Washington’s black

population.45

43 Alden Stevens, “Washington: Blight on Democracy,” Harper’s Magazine (December 1941): 50- 51. 44 Constance McLaughlin Green, The Secret City: A History of Race Relations in the Nation’s Capital (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1967), 256. 45 Spencer R. Crew, “Melding the Old and the New: The Modern African American Community, 1930-1960,” in Francine Curro Cary, ed., Urban Odyssey: A Multicultural History of Washington, D.C. (Washington and London: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1996), 214.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. By World War II organized resistance against Washington’s discriminatory

race policies had begun. The Daughters of the American Revolution’s 1939

refusal to allow singer Marian Anderson to perform at Constitution Hall brought

activists in the black community together to fight the injustice and marked the

beginning of protests that made racial contention a public issue. A. Philip

Randolph’s planned March on Washington to protest unfair hiring practices in the

war industries stirred awareness of far-reaching employment problems and

focused attention on unfair local practices. Capital Transit, the privately owned

company that operated D.C.’s bus and trolley system, came under particular

attack. Even though the transportation company had to cancel routes due to

labor shortages, it refused to hire African Americans as anything but support

staff. Hearings in front of the Fair Employment Practices Committee resulted in a

compromise, but, in practice, no changes were made. Housing activists

protested the failed relocation of 225 African-American families displaced by the

construction of the Pentagon. Over a year after their eviction, the majority of

families still lived in temporary shelters. Mary McLeod Bethune, president of the

National Council of Negro Women and advisor to several federal agencies,

helped organize picketing of a local drugstore chain that would sell goods to

African Americans, but not allow them to eat at the lunch counters. And in 1944

students from Howard University staged a successful sit-in at the white-only

Thompson’s Restaurant (the same eatery later targeted by civil rights activists

and involved in the landmark 1953 Supreme Court case, "District of Columbia v.

John R. Thompson Co." that upheld Washington’s nineteenth-century anti

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discrimination laws). Management eventually served the students the day of the

protest, but the cafeteria returned to its segregated practices that same week.

Washington’s black community faced many more years in the fight for racial

equality, but several first steps were taken during World War II.46

These protest activities created an atmosphere charged with tension that

newcomers not only picked up on, but in which they often ended up in the

middle. For example, the Army chose two local representatives for a 1943

program, “Salute to Women's Services,” at Constitution Hall, one white and one

black. The concert hall refused to admit the black female officer, even though

she had the proper papers and signatures to appear in the program. The white

servicewoman, Elna Grahn, refused to participate without her colleague, so the

WACs were conspicuously absent among the military branches on the stage that

night. Grahn and her colleague both felt humiliated and angry over the

incident.47 Another mix-up caused by the area’s often confusing racial practices

involved a black Government Girl who lived in Washington but worked in

Northern Virginia. One night she boarded a bus in Virginia for her ride home and

took a seat at the front of the vehicle. After she refused the driver’s request to

move to a back seat, he had her arrested. The woman originated from up north

and did not know that while African Americans could sit where they pleased while

riding in Washington, they had to move to the back of the bus once the vehicle

46 Agnes Ernst Meyer, "The Alleys of Washington" in Journey Through Chaos (New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1944), 318; Green, The Secret City, 254-255; Pauli Murray, Song in a Weary Throat (New York: Harper & Row, 1987), 220-231. 47 Elna Hilliard Grahn, In the Company of Wacs (Manhattan, Kansas: Sunflower University Press, 1993), 78.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. crossed into Virginia. The opposite situation could also cause problems. A white

Government Girl from the Midwest boarded a bus in Virginia and sat in a seat

towards the back. Her driver told her to switch seats. When she protested, she

was informed that, if she did not move forward, black passengers would have to

stand crammed in behind her because no black person could legally sit in front of

a white person in Virginia.48 Many newcomers to the city arrived unaccustomed

to legal segregation. Washington’s racial tensions were the product of long-term

social and economic inequities. As the war instigated rapid changes, many of

which brought black and white residents into close, prolonged contact for the first

time, an increased awareness and complexity developed in D.C.’s race

relations.49

Conflicts over proper gender roles and behavior simmered in Washington

as well. The changes occurring in the nation’s capital, such as the rising

population, overcrowded housing and transportation, skyrocketing prices, and

increasing racial tensions created a sense of anxiety among residents about how

such changes could jeopardize their established, accepted way of life. Mary

Douglass’s research in symbolic anthropology suggests that when the social

order is threatened, people attempt to redefine and reinforce traditional

boundaries.50 The thousands of incoming female war workers symbolized the

wartime threat to Washington’s, and indeed America’s, prewar social order. Most

Americans expected single women in the 1940s to maintain their morality, remain

48 Wright, Far From Flome, 92-3. 49 “A Social Survey,” 1946, Series 5, Box 32, Folder 9, MBCH. 50 See Mary Douglas, Natural Symbols: Explorations in Cosmology (New York: Pantheon, 1970).

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celibate until married, abstain from alcohol and cigarettes, and live as close to

home as possible under the protection of family. The new breed of single,

independent, working women slowly emerging in Washington did not fit this ideal.

They therefore became what one contemporary reporter called, “a major

problem.”51 Men and women attempted to negotiate the boundaries of their new

relationships throughout the war. One incident epitomizes how differently people

viewed the extent of those boundaries. Charlotte Katz, another Government Girl,

and a man stood at a bus stop one night after work. A crowded bus pulled up

and opened its doors. The man pushed forward and left little room for the

woman to squeeze in behind him. The male driver noticed the situation and

loudly proclaimed, “Just remember, sir, ladies first. Even when they work, they’re

still ladies, and they come first.”52

World War II was the largest international event of the twentieth century

and one of the major turning points in U.S. history. During the war the

Washington metropolitan area became the second fastest growing city in the

nation. Thousands of women from across the country headed for D.C. to work in

support of the war effort. These women, as well as those who already lived in

the nation’s capital, became part of a significant historical process: sanctioned

female participation in wartime America. But that participation took place in a city

rife with tensions resulting from wartime growing pains. Newcomers joked that

Washington combined the charm of the North with all the efficiency of the

51 Luther Huston, “Uncle Sam's Seminary for Girls,” New York Times Magazine, December 6, 1942, 7. 52 “Crowds are Fun,” Washington Post, August 1, 1943, L1.

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South.53 A radio journalist labeled wartime Washington, “a bewildering bedlam.”

Life Magazine noted: “Washington, as this war gets going, is confused and

chaotic beyond description.”54 A local resident quipped, “If the war lasts much

longer, Washington is going to bust right out of its pants.”55 And in the summer

of 1943, Ringling Brothers-Barnum and Bailey's Circus extended its Washington

booking by four days, claiming it took that long for the troupe to make its

presence known amidst so much pandemonium.56 The population, especially

that of women, exploded; government agencies took over every available space;

the infrastructure struggled to handle the additional burdens; cost of living tested

the paychecks and patience of residents; racial problems escalated; and gender

relationships entered new territory. Government Girls and military women added

to and sometimes caused these difficulties. Yet, even within this unsettled

environment, government agencies, businesses, and people from all classes and

races worked towards a common goal: wartime victory.

Brinkley, Washington Goes to War, 107. 54 Mayer, “Washington Goes to War,” 65. 55 ‘Washington in Wartime: It is Terrible Place to Live,” 47. 56 Man at the Microphone, "Washington Broadcast," 292.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER 3

A WOMAN’S WORK IS NEVER DONE:

WOMEN’S WARTIME EMPLOYMENT

"There's a new Army on the Potomac- the bright-eyed, fresh-faced young Americans who have poured into Washington from remote farms, sleepy little towns, and the confusion of cities, to work for the government in a time of national emergency."1 Good Housekeeping, January 1942

Government Girl and future Navy WAVE (Women Accepted for Volunteer

Emergency Service) Marjory Updegraff hated rainy days. The bus she took on

her daily commute to the newly opened but only partly finished Pentagon

dropped her off about a quarter of a mile from the building’s entrance. On rain-

soaked days, wet umbrellas left their imprint against Updegraff’s freshly pressed

suit as she squeezed in among the other 14,000 workers using Capital Transit to

get to the Virginia complex. But even worse than damp clothing was the ankle-

deep mud clogging the unpaved roads surrounding what would eventually

become the largest office building in the world. Updegraff and other wartime

Government Girls and servicewomen ruined countless pairs of shoes walking

that quarter mile from the bus stop to the Pentagon.

Circumstances did not greatly improve once workers got inside.

' | Good Housekeeping (January, 1942): 32. 53

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Updegraff, an Army ordinance clerk, discovered that her assigned office had

desks but no walls. In fact, the entire floor lacked dividers of any kind. In order

to avoid losing women to the cavernous and confusing maze of hallways every

time they ventured to the bathroom, Updegraff and her co-workers decided to

create a breadcrumb trail of sorts. They tied a rope around their desks, ran it

down the hall to the restroom, and attached it to the sinks. Women followed the

line back and forth until construction crews completed the interiors of the

building. The Pentagon eventually accommodated 40,000 workers who could

shop, bank, eat, get a haircut, or seek medical attention from shops and services

lining a massive underground concourse.2

Updegraff worked alongside thousands of other Government Girls and

servicewomen, but the Pentagon represented only one of the diverse possible

work venues in which women might find themselves. Washington’s female

employees worked in private industry, government agencies, and military posts.

Newly commissioned government workers arrived in Washington with no

indication of what they would find. The work environment, hours, co-workers,

and expectations varied from office to office and woman to woman. They were

thrown into rigorous, often confusing, and sometimes hazardous work situations

in which they were not always welcomed or appreciated. Women’s wartime work

in Washington offered progressive employment opportunities because of the

number and type of available jobs; however, the day-to-day workplace difficulties,

2 Margery Updegraff interview with Wanda Driver and Ardith Kramer, November 19, 2003, WIMSA.

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potential dangers, and stress diminished the positive experience for many

workers.3 Yet, Government Girls perservered and provided the federal

government with the only feasible solution to its severe wartime labor shortage.

Regardless of the hurdles working or volunteering presented, women still

welcomed the new opportunities available in Washington. Government Girls

broke a long tradition that reserved federal jobs for men only. Less than a

century earlier, the U.S. government employed no women. During World War II,

the federal agencies simply could not function without them. As a young

Washington stenographer bragged to the New York Times, “Men may have

made this war but the women are running it.”4

Opportunities for female employment exploded in wartime Washington.

Women made up six out of every ten war workers who relocated to the nation’s

capital. Mobilization demanded a greater local labor pool to fill not only the

vacancies left by men who served in the military but also new jobs created by

wartime exigencies.5 The federal government had sought out female clerical

3 Paul K. Williams, Washington, D.C.: The World War II Years (Charleston, S.C.: Arcadia, 2004), 33-4. 4 Sally Reston, “Girls’ Town - Washington,” New York Times Magazine, November 23, 1941, SM8, 9. 5 The first widespread attempt to mobilize women for war work occurred nearly a quarter century before the attack on Pearl Harbor. A “ringing call to every intelligent woman” went out soon after America entered World War I. Women had held a small percentage of lower level government positions since the mid-nineteenth century, but it took a national emergency for agencies to seek out what women’s rights advocate Harriot Stanton Blatch termed “woman-power.” Approximately 50,000 women served their country primarily as nurses, filing clerks, stenographers, telegraphers, typists, and telephone operators for both military and civilian operations. About half of these women worked overseas, and the rest were concentrated in Washington. Female workers came from all over the country to earn $1,000 to $1,200 per year as federal employees. See Margaret Thomas Buchholz, “Josephine: The Washington Diary Of a War Worker, 1918-1919,” in Washington History, Vol. 10, No.2 (Fall/Winter 1998-99), 4-23; Susan Zeiger, In Uncle Sam’s Service: Women Workers With The American Expeditionary Force, 1917-1919 (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1999), 81-2; Cindy Sondik Aron, Ladies and Gentlemen of the

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. help for the defense build-up starting in the late 1930s. By June 1941 almost

78,000 women worked in the District.6 However, once the United States entered

the war, the demand for clerks, stenographers, typists, and other office workers

grew faster than positions could be filled. The total number of female, white

collar federal employees soared from less than 200,000 in 1939 to more than 1

million in 1944 with Washington agencies hiring the bulk of the workers.7

Approximately 3,000 women tunneled into the city every month during the height

of the war.8

The Civil Service Commission maintained central command for recruiting

civilian personnel to fill all of these job openings. Teams of agents combed the

country, concentrating mostly on rural areas, to encourage young women to take

jobs in Washington. Representatives contacted employment agencies, placed

ads in newspapers, magazines, and on the radio, and held public recruitment

drives in town squares, post offices, and movie theaters.9 Paulene Menes first

thought about applying for government work after agents spoke to her class at

Hunter College in New York. Even before she completed the first semester of

her last year of school, she made arrangements to head to Washington

Civil Service: Middle-Class Workers in Victorian America (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987); and Harriot Stanton Blatch, Mobilizing Woman-Power (New York: The Woman’s Press, 1918), 11. 6 “Government Girl Assails Job Gripers,” The Federal Diary, Washington Post, August 29, 1943, M10. 7 “Women in Industry,” Monthly Labor Review, Volume 59, Number 5 (November 1944): 1029. 8 Frances T. Cahn, Federal Employees in War and Peace; Selection, Placement, and Removal (Washington, D.C.: The Brookings Institute, 1949), 3; “Girl in a Mob,” American Magazine 134 (October 1942): 33. Cahn, Federal Employees in War and Peace, 33, 35.

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immediately after graduation.10 Recruiters enticed women like Menes with

promises of a bustling, exciting wartime city and a starting government salary

that seemed a fortune to women accustomed to Depression-era pay. Women

sought work to fulfill their patriotic duty, find adventure, obtain personal

advancement, and most often, gain economic opportunity. In the town of Alma,

Arkansas (population 776), not only did a quarter of the girls in the 1944 high

school graduating class sign up to leave for Washington, but several teachers left

their lower paying jobs to go with them.11 Women’s exodus from teaching for

defense work became so serious that states were forced to issue emergency

certificates to people, mostly housewives, who would not normally qualify to

teach. Nearly 97,000 certificates were issued in 1943.12

War work’s higher wages appealed to women looking to maximize their

earning potential. During the war, a waitress in Alabama could earn $725 a year;

a beautician in New York might pull in $1040 a year, a government clerk in

Washington, D.C. started at $1440 a year; a female Navy ensign began at $1800

a year; and an airplane factory worker in California could make $2028 a year.13

Almost half of all female war workers spent the duration in privately owned

factories converted to war plants making aircraft, ships, jeeps, artillery, munitions,

uniforms, and other wartime supplies. These “Rosie the Riveters,” who became

10 Paulene Menes interview with author, May 11, 2006. 11 David Brinkley, Washington Goes to War (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1988), 243. 12 “OWI Report Franklin-2994,” 1944, 14, Records of Natalie Davisen, Program Manager for Homefront Campaigns, 1943-5, RG208, Box 7, NARA. 13 Women’s Bureau Bulletin No. 209 (Washington, D.C.: United States Department of Labor, 1946), 44, NARA; Women’s Bureau Bulletin No. 225 (Washington, D.C.: United States Department of Labor, 1946), 5, NARA; Susan H. Godson, Serving Proudly: A History of Women

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the stars of the government propaganda campaign to coax women into the

workforce and persuade employers to hire them, developed into a patriotic

symbol for all working women.14 Although clerical positions paid less than

industrial jobs, many women chose them to avoid the physical demands and

danger inherent in factory work. Over 210,000 female factory workers suffered

permanent disabilities during the war and at least 37,000 lost their lives.15

Women anxious to take advantage of federal opportunities could do so

even before they finished high school. The Civil Service Commission lowered

the federal eligibility age from eighteen to sixteen for the duration, and women

needed only two years of high school to apply for entry-level clerical

appointments. This helped to fill vacancies because very few wartime

government positions required a college education. Out of 1,674,922

placements the Civil Service Commission made between January 1 and August

31,1943, only 4,455 required any college coursework. Even at the height of the

war, less than one percent of civilian office jobs necessitated higher education.16

Instead of schooling, determination of a woman’s suitability for federal work

depended upon successful passage of an entrance exam. The test took several

hours to complete and each applicant answered questions targeted towards the

in the U.S. Navy (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2001), 121; “Changes in Women’s Employment During the War,” Monthly Labor Review (November 1944): 1029. 14 Sherna Berger Gluck, Rosie the Riveter Revisited: Women, The War, and Social Change (Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1987), 7, 21. 5 Doris Weatherford, History of Women in America: American Women and Word War (New II York and Oxford: Facts On File, Inc., 1990), 117. See Gluck, Penny Colman, Rosie the Riveter: Women Working on the Home Front in World War (NY: II Crown Publishers, 1995), and Maureen Honey, Creating Rosie the Riveter: Class, Gender, and Propaganda During World War II (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1984) for further discussion of female industrial workers during World War II.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. specific job they sought (stenographer, typist, clerk, cartographer, etc.). The

pressure of the day-long process and performing against the clock under the

watchful eyes of a proctor proved nerve-wracking for many novice candidates.

Applicant Mary Wright remembered that “My hands were shaking, and my mind

was a total blank.” The local North Carolina examiner gave Wright the test for

keypunch operators, a position she had never even heard of before being

handed the test papers. Her results arrived in the mail a few days later.

Although Wright scored well, no war agencies needed additional keypunch

operators. The Commission suggested that she return and take the exam for

junior clerks. After another arduous round of testing and waiting for results, the

Navy sent Wright a telegram giving her the standard forty-eight hours notice to

report to Washington for work.17

As the labor crunch in Washington became more severe in late 1942 and

early 1943, the Civil Service Commission began to relax some of its more

stringent regulations. Before the war federal officials insisted on considering

three applicants for every available job. But as filling empty positions held

greater importance than bureaucratic formalities, many wartime applicants

received job offers sight unseen.18 Testing standards also became more flexible

as the war progressed. The Commission set aside its prewar requirement of

making a woman wait six months before retaking a failed test. All potential

16 Cahn, Federal Employees in War and Peace, 67-8. 17 Mary Herring Wright, Far from Flome: Memories of World War II and Afterward (Washington, D.C.: Gallaudet University Press, 2005), 205.

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Government Girls still needed to take an exam, but they did not necessarily have

to pass it. For instance, Margaret Crook barely arrived home in D.C. for her

summertime college break when her good friend called. The friend worked at the

Department of Economic Warfare and they desperately needed a typist. Crook

knew she could not type and felt no desire to embarrass herself, but her friend

persisted until Crook gave in and took the Civil Service exam. Crook watched as

the proctor graded her test and marked the top of the paper “ineligible." Without

missing a beat, the examiner turned to Crook and asked her to start work

immediately.19 Government clerk Hope Nusbaum experienced a similar lax in

rules when the Commission gave a typing test to her class at George

Washington University. Nusbaum failed the exam but found that “if you could

identify a spare tire from a typewriter, you were classified as a typist.” She began

work at the War Production Board after school let out for the summer.20 The

federal government’s ongoing need for labor and loosening of employment

restrictions enabled women young and old, near and far, skilled and unskilled to

enter a new work environment, earn a competitive salary, possibly try a new

profession, and contribute to the nation’s war effort.

Women, however, did not always have the support of their families to take

advantage of these increased opportunities. Some women, like Charlotte Millan,

received encouragement from her mother and siblings because, as farmers in

18 Cahn, Federal Employees in War and Peace, 33, 35; “Government Girl Assails Job Gripers,” M10; Doris Weatherford, History of Women in America: American Women and Word War (New II York and Oxford: Facts On File, Inc., 1990), 117; Brinkley, Washington Goes to War, 243. 19 Margaret and Jim Crook interview with author, May 27, 2005. 20 Hope Ribbeck Nusbaum interview with author, August 8, 2004.

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the Midwest, they had experienced the economic deprivation of the Depression

and viewed any chance for work as positive.21 But every time a hometown friend

would stop by to see how New Englander Betty Splaine’s federal application was

coming along, her brother would shake his head and mumble, “Goddamn fool,

goddamn fool” in response.22 And while Mary Herring Wright had full backing

from her mother to leave rural North Carolina for Washington, when her father

found out about her plans, he remarked, “She’s got no more business there than

a pig has with a Bible.”23 It took courage for women to go against the wishes of

their families and accept a job in Washington. Both Splaine and Wright

eventually received familial respect for their work, but they started their

government service in the wake of doubt and disapproval.

Not every woman who came to wartime Washington worked as a civilian.

On May 28, 1941, Congresswoman Edith Nourse Rogers from Massachusetts

introduced legislation to establish the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC).

Army officials accepted the idea as a way to release men from noncombatant

work. Women, they decided, could take over certain jobs such as switchboard

operators, clerks, dieticians, and laundry operators with little disruption to the

Army’s normal routine. Securing their work as servicewomen rather than civilian

employees would allow the Army to prevent women from resigning at will. After

much debate, the House and Senate finally approved the creation of the

Women's Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC) in May 1942. The Navy introduced a

21 Wayne Millan interview with author, September 22, 2006. 22 Elizabeth F. Splaine interview with Kate Scott, April 16, 2004, WIMSA. 23 Wright, Far From Flome, 18.

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similar plan two months later. For reasons of discipline, security, and

convenience, Navy officials chose to make their women's corps, the WAVES, a

full-fledged part of the Navy instead of an auxiliary branch.24 Women’s

advocates supported this move as evidence of a woman's right to all the

responsibilities of citizenship. However, the reluctance of Congress to hinder the

military in a time of national crisis carried the legislation through in November of

that year. After experiencing legal and practical difficulties in administering the

corps as an auxiliary program, the War Department decided to grant its female

recruits full Army status. To signify this change the WAAC became the WAC

(Women's Army Corps) in June 1943.25 The Coast Guard admitted SPARS

(constructed from their motto Semper Paratus- always ready) in November 1942

and the Marine Corps accepted female reservists in February 1943.26 Roughly

143,000 WACs, 100,000 WAVES, 13,000 SPARS, and 23,000 Women Marines

(WRM) served in World War II 27 Both the Army and Navy also operated a

Hospital Corps during the war. At its peak, 14,178 nurses worked for the Navy

24 Vicki Friedl, Women in the United States Military, 1901-1995: A Research Guide and Annotated Bibliography (Westport, Connecticut and London: Greenwood Press, 1996), 5-6. 25 Penny Colman, Rosie the Riveter: Women Working on the Home Front in World War 19; II, Godson, Serving Proudly, 125. 26 When asked why the female marines did not have an acronym, General Holocomb responded, “They are Marines. They don’t have a nickname and they don’t need one.” See “Women Marines,” Life (March 27, 1944): 81. 27 Mabel E. Deutrich and Virginia C. Purdy, eds., Clio was a Woman: Studies in the History of American Women (Washington, D.C.: Howard University Press, 1976), 196-197; Rosalyn Baxandall, Linda Gordon, and Susan Reverby, eds., America’s Working Women (New York: Vintage Books, 1976), 280.

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and 57,000 for the Army.28 The military stationed these servicewomen on bases

around the country as well as in the Atlantic and Pacific theaters.29

About 24,000 uniformed women served in Washington during the w ar-

20,000 WAVES, 2,100 WACs, 1,000 Marines, and 900 SPARS.30 Servicewomen

performed a wide range of office work depending on their education, training, and

rank. Military enlistment guidelines required only two years of high school for

female recruits, but insisted on a college degree for officer candidates (with the

exception of female pilots who needed at least a high school diploma to enlist).31

Women with previous work experience or professional degrees generally

received assignments in their specialized fields, such as law, physics,

engineering, meteorology, graphic design, or photography.32 However, the

majority of servicewomen provided clerical support to the various war

departments operating under the military. A few hundred British WRNS

(Women’s Royal Naval Service), Canadian CWACs (Canadian Women’s Army

Corps), and French women enlisted with the American WACs also served their

respective countries in Washington. A 1942 article in the Washington Post tried

28 Kathi Jackson, They Called Them Angels: American Military Nurses of World War (Westport, II CT and London: Praeger, 2000), 166. 29 Four thousand Women's Air Force Service Pilots (WASPS) operated under the Army Air Corps but never received full military status. No WASPS served in Washington during the war. Friedl, Women in the United States Military, 1901-1995, 12. 30 The higher percentage of female civilian workers reflected military hiring quotas of women and a greater willingness of women to chose work that was less regimented and in which they could remain civilians and therefore not feel they were making a long-term commitment. “Women in the War...for the Final Push to Victory,” (Washington, D.C.: OWI, 1944), 4-5, Davisen Records, Box 7, NARA; Jerry Klutz, “Uniformed Girls in D.C. To Disappear Shortly,” Washington Post, November 2, 1945, 12. 31 Martha S. Putney, When the Nation was in Need: Blacks in the Women's Army Corps during WorldWar II (Metuchen NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1992), 28; D’Ann Campbell, “Women in Uniform: The World War II Experiment,” Military Affairs, Volume 51, Issue 3 (July 1987): 138.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. to help locals master the “awesome alphabetical code” of servicewomen taking

over the city’s streets by identifying differences between the military branches’

uniforms.33

Government Girls who arrived in the nation’s capital eager to fulfill their

patriotic duties often found their clerical work tedious and repetitive. Women’s

assignments could include typing twenty copies of a single report or filling out

thirty forms for each of a hundred production requests. War workers performed

all of this written detail by hand. Carbon paper and mimeograph machines served

as the high tech office equipment of the time.34 Some female clerks spent their

days at the Treasury Department recording millions of individual savings bond

serial numbers into enormous leather-bound ledgers. In 1944 alone the

Department sold 27 million of the popular Series E bonds.35 Navy Department

employees could clock ten hours a day carefully comparing the names on

monthly muster rolls.36 Wartime office workers labored away shuffling piles upon

piles of paperwork. Even at the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the precursor

to the Central Intelligence Agency, which hired the greatest number of college-

educated women of any government agency, most Government Girls spent their

32 “Training Received by WAVES Prepares Them for Postwar Life,” Washington Post, January 14, 1944, B4. 33 Patricia Grady, “A Few Pointers on Knowing Who is Which About These Women in Uniform,” Washington Post, May 31, 1942, 14; Commandant M.H. Fletcher CBE, The WRNS: A History of the Women’s Royal Naval Service (Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1989), 41. 34 Weatherford, History of Women in America, 193. 35 Williams, Washington, D.C., 93. 36 Wright, Far From Home, 137.

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time analyzing and cataloging reams of incoming intelligence material and

forwarding them to the proper desks.37

The wartime decline of the private secretary and the invention of a

“secretarial pool” created a new division of labor. The system lauded workers for

their speed and consistency in completing the same task for numerous superiors

instead of successfully accomplishing a variety of tasks for a single boss. This

development turned secretarial work into an assembly line operation for the very

first time. A few agencies attempted to relieve the tediousness of clerks’

assignments by alternating one week of typing with one week of work on other

machines. While the secretarial pools may have been efficient, they were not

universally appreciated by the women.38 Claire Shrivener felt that her work in a

Navy Department secretarial pool was a “comedown” from her job as a private

secretary in Wisconsin. She contemplated returning home, but stayed when she

found a more challenging job with a D.C. engineering firm. Shrivener joined

thousands of women in Washington who worked in stores, hotels, restaurants,

and private businesses rather than for the government.39 As the city’s

population grew, so did the need for these additional support services. Much of

the extra labor came from the regional population. For example, local young

women not yet experienced enough to work in government agencies supplied

37 Elizabeth P. McIntosh, Sisterhood of Spies: The Women of The OSS (Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1998), 43. 38 Sally Reston, “Girls’ Town - Washington,” New York Times, November 23, 1941, SM22. 39 Claire Shrivener interview with author, June 4, 2004.

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much of the seasonal help required in stores.40 Private industry offered one

alternative for Government Girls seeking relief from monotonous clerical work.

While some women groused about having too much tedious work, others

waited bored and disappointed due to a lack of responsibilities. When war

agencies hired women in anticipation of growing workloads, Government Girls

often found themselves without enough work to do. Local resident Elizabeth

Delean Cozad filled out order forms in the supply office for the federal court

system. On most days Cozad finished her undemanding tasks early, so she

sought additional assignments. When the supervisor, usually lacking

suggestions, would not allow her to leave before the shift ended, Cozad would

whip out a newspaper and read. This annoyed her boss, who, wanting Cozad to

look busy, tried to convince her to spend the extra time counting paper clips 41

Government inefficiency left Hope Nussbaum and her fellow clerks at the War

Production Board wanting to work but without resources. They arrived at the

office one Monday morning to find that over the weekend someone had stolen all

of the typewriters from Tempo Building 4. The department boss quickly

reassigned the workers to another unit, but the women sat around for three days

waiting for new orders. On the third full day of doing nothing, a supervisor

walked into the room and informed Nussbaum and her shocked colleagues that

the department needed them to stay and work overtime 42 Other Government

Girls sat idle because of a lack of training or necessary skills to complete their

40 Sibyl Smith interview with author, July 8, 2004. 41 Elizabeth Delean Cozad interview with author, June 14, 2004. 42 Nussbaum interview, August 8, 2004.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. jobs. This occurred in situations when women given stenographer duties had no

knowledge of shorthand or women assigned to engineering departments had no

idea what an engineer did 43 They had little choice but to wait for tasks that they

knew how to complete or to be transferred to another department. Tales spread

of employees who made complete wedding trousseaux during unused office time

and Government Girls who left Washington after two weeks because they felt

underutilized in their jobs 44

Employee turnover emerged as a serious issue for government agencies.

In July 1942 the Civil Service Commission made 23,000 placements to

departmental service but netted an increase of only 5600 employees. Officials

estimated that two out of every three workers filled vacancies rather than new

positions.45 Life magazine ran a feature story about why Government Girls quit.

It found that twenty-year-old clerk Miriam Glassman got tired of commuting from

Baltimore because she could not afford the rent in Washington; twenty-seven-

year-old stenographer Adrianne Young felt the government offices were poorly

managed; twenty-two-year-old junior clerk Helen Tucker was discouraged by the

scarcity of boyfriends and afraid the government would freeze her in her entry-

level job for the duration; clerk-typist Carol Todd went to a Seattle war plant for

more money; and twenty-year-old Darlene Lindley found D.C. so expensive she

43 Dorothy Dennison interview with author, July 19, 2004; Peter A. Soderbergh, Women Marines: The World War II Era (Westport, CT: Praeger, 1992), 65. 44 Selden Menefee, Assignment U.S.A. (New York: Reynal & Hitchcock, Inc., 1943), 34-5. 45 Jerry Klutz, “CSC Hopes to Stop Mass Resignations,” The Federal Diary, Washington Post, September 16, 1942, B1.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ended up having to work nights in a drugstore just to make ends meet.46 By the

beginning of 1943, approximately 1,000 women per month chose to leave their

jobs. A few agencies hired counselors to conduct what they termed “exit

interviews” to determine how they could keep women from leaving. Employees

had the chance to air grievances such as putting up with superiors who unfairly

threatened to fire them with prejudice or penalize them by putting them on night

shifts in out of the way places. Counselors solved many cases through transfers

to other departments 47 However, female resignations remained high throughout

the war and even affected recruiting. Independent Woman magazine reported

that, because of the city’s reputation as a difficult working environment, “50

percent of the eligible stenographers are refusing appointment to Washington.”48

Government Girls who stuck it out in Washington received job

assignments that dictated more than just the daily activities they performed. It

determined their working conditions. Because government agencies often

operated out of cramped, improvised, or hastily constructed sites, physical

circumstances varied widely. Stenographers for the National Advisory

Committee on Aeronautics sat at rows of well-equipped desks lined up in the

former ballroom of the elaborate Beaux Arts Leiter mansion on Dupont Circle 49

Government and military workers stationed at the four-story Navy Annex in

Northern Virginia passed through two well-armed Marines, barbed wire fencing,

46 “Washington in Wartime: It is Terrible Place to Live,” Life (January 4, 1943): 47-50. 47 Zenas L. Potter, “Government Employe [sic] Turnover,” Letters To The Editor, Washington Post, September 27, 1942. 48 Marjorie Barstow Greerbie, Women Work With Uncle Sam,” Independent Woman (March 1942): 74.

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and roof-mounted guns on their way to drab but secure offices.50 Female

clandestine agent trainees at the OSS attended lectures and practiced throwing

fake grenades on the golf course at the swank Congressional Country Club and

“shadowing” people along Peacock Alley at the famed Willard Hotel.51 Army

cryptologists and operational personnel worked out of quarters at Arlington Hall

Station, a picturesque former women’s junior college.52 Government Girls

assigned to un-air conditioned, concrete tempos constructed along the Mall

sweated so profusely throughout the summer that supervisors placed salt tablets

near the water fountains to prevent fainting spells.53 And one typist who had

been evicted from her Dupont Circle apartment so the building could be turned

over to a war agency ended up working at that agency in an office constructed

from what used to be her bathroom. Wartime women adapted to unusual and

often disruptive workplace situations.54

In addition to environmental comfort or discomfort, a female war worker’s

detail could consist of dangers great and small. Navy nurse Janina Smiertka’s

post at the Navy Yard Dispensary consisted of occasional off-site duty at the

Accostia Ammunition Plant in Maryland. Just as Smiertka entered the plant for a

night shift in July 1942, an explosion rocked the building. Careless handling of

Tetryl powder killed one male worker instantly and a female worker the following

49 Williams, Washington, D.C., 101. 50 Wright, Far From Home, 42-43. 51 Betty McIntosh interview in Government Girls of Wold War (The II History Project, 2004); McIntosh, Sisterhood of Spies, 53. 52 James L. Gilbert and John P. Finnegan, eds., U.S. Army Signals Intelligence in World War II: A Documentary History (Washington, D.C.: Center of Military History United States Army, 1993). 53 Margaret Crook interview, May 27, 2005.

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day. Smiertka got away unscathed but dreaded each return trip to Accostia.55

Lesser hazards for Government Girls included at least two occasions of mass

food poisoning from the Pentagon cafeteria, battling dive-bombing bats and

insects that flew in through unscreened office windows, and the possibility of

catching the flu, tuberculosis or other communicable diseases from poorly

constructed and ventilated offices.56 On the lighter side, some perils merely

posed threats to a woman’s reputation. While stationed in Quantico, Virginia,

Marine Virginia Lupfer worked and received her mail in the “Reproduction

Department.” Lupfer suffered relentless ribbing and fielded many embarrassing

questions during her tenure there.57

Racism created another kind of hazard afflicting Washington’s working

women. The growth in the number of female government workers did not

necessarily mean greater career opportunity for African-American women. While

black female federal clerical workers increased from 60,000 in 1940 to 200,000 in

1944, the majority of black workers remained barred from higher level jobs.58

Some joked that there were more African Americans with law degrees working as

mail handlers, truck drivers, and letter carriers in the D.C. post office than there

were practicing black lawyers in the entire country.59 Although Executive Order

54 Bob Levey and Jane Freundel Levey, Washington Album: A Pictorial History of the Nation’s Capital (Washington, D.C.: Washington Post Books, 2000), 107. 55 Jackson, They Called Them Angels, 101. 56 Wright, Far From Home, 42-43; Carlisle Bargeron, “Washington Gets Soiled,” The American Mercury, Volume LVII, Number 239 (November 1943): 596; “Health Front,” Washington Post, October 2, 1942, 10. 57 Soderbergh, Women Marines, 152. 58 Putney, When the Nation was in Need, 3. 59 Doris Kearns Goodwin, No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994), 540.

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8802 banned racial discrimination in defense industries and civil service jobs in

June 1941, the policy was never stringently enforced and African-American

employment opportunities were hindered in part because of employers’ and co

workers’ racist attitudes.60 Martha Settle Putney, an African-American woman

with a master's degree in history from Howard University who worked as a

statistical clerk for the War Manpower Commission, struggled with such

prejudice. Putney, who felt ostracized by her white co-workers and passed over

for choice assignments even with top-notch performance reviews, was told to

harbor no expectations for advancement within the agency. She resigned out of

frustration and enlisted in the WACs, where she hoped to find greater career

prospects.61

The Army offered African-American women the greatest wartime military

opportunities. Forty black women ranked among the first 440 WAAC trainees in

July 1942. Congress mandated the Army to enroll enough black women to equal

up to 10.6 percent of the auxiliary’s strength, which roughly equaled the

proportion of African Americans in the total U.S. population.62 The women

trained and, for the most part, worked in separate, all-black units. The 6,500

black women who joined the Army during World War II dealt with incidents of

segregation, racism, and sub-standard or “dirty work” assignments. Yet, they

60 Karen Tucker Anderson, "Last Hired, First Fired: Black Women Workers during World War ll" in The Journal of American History. Volume 69, Issue 1 (June 1982), 84-86; Maureen Honey, ed., Bitter Fruit: African American Women in World War (Columbia II and London: University of Missouri Press, 1999), 36-7. 61 Martha Putney interview with Kate Scott, March 26, 2004, WIMSA; Tom Brokaw, The Greatest Generation (New York: Random House, 1998), 187.

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excelled when given the chance. Of the first 436 women to become officers in

the WAC, 36 were African-American.63 Of the other military branches, the Nurse

Corps accepted African-American women into their ranks in 1941, but the

WAVES and SPARS would not enlist black women until late 1944 and the Marine

Corps not until September 1949. No black female military units worked in the

D.C. area, but individual servicewomen did work in integrated departments.64

For instance, Wac Margaret E. Barnes worked at the Pentagon in the Army’s

public relations office.

However, whether black women worked in government offices as

servicewomen or civilians, they still dealt with incidents of racism. White female

government workers sometimes objected to working closely with black women or

sharing facilities with them because they claimed that African Americans never

bathed or carried diseases.65 For example, Marine Lieutenant Bernice Berry

counseled an enlisted WRM bitterly crying after her first day of work. The woman

came to Berry in hysterics because she had been assigned to an African-

American supervisor. The civilian black woman did nothing to upset the Marine

and, in fact, helped her navigate through the day’s procedures, but the idea of

working for a black person offended the southern-born WRM.66 The restrooms at

Mary Wright’s job with the Navy also became a source of racial contention.

62 Bulletin No. 205, Negro Women War Workers (Washington, D.C.: Women's Bureau of the Department of Labor, 1943), 14-15, NARA. 63 Putney, When the Nation was in Need, 1; Brenda L. Moore, To Serve My Country, To Serve My Race: The Story of the Only African American Wacs Stationed Overseas during World War II (New York and London: New York University Press, 1996), 2-3, 26. 4 Godson, Serving Proudly, 116; Jackson, They Called Them Angels, 166. 65 Anderson, "Last Hired, First Fired: Black Women Workers during World War II," 85.

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White women in the department claimed the largest and nicest lounge as the

meeting spot for their breaks. When Mary and the other black women attempted

to use the bathroom, they received scathing looks and directions to the less

desirable restrooms further down the hall. Mary and others ignored the women’s

comments and officials eventually posted signs stating that facilities must be

shared by all federal employees regardless of race, color, or creed.67

Workplace racism ran so deeply in Washington’s federal agencies that

white women could also be subject to discrimination by association. When

Loretta Pattison, who worked downtown at the Commerce Department, enjoyed

lunch in the building’s cafeteria with three of her African-American co-workers,

they all received nasty looks and comments from Pattison’s white colleagues.68

In a similar instance, Army Ordinance clerk Pauline Menes received urgent,

hushed warnings from white co-workers after she began carpooling with three

African-American women who worked in her building. It seemed other white

women assumed that, even though she had a light complexion, Menes must be

black because she rode in a vehicle with black women. Although her concerned

co-workers felt such a misunderstanding subjected her to social and professional

harm, Menes came from a racially diverse neighborhood in New York City and

dismissed their suggestions to find another ride to work.69

Just because Washington’s female government workers pulled together

for the war effort did not mean that prewar racial boundaries disappeared. The

66 Soderbergh, Women Marines, 73. 67 Wright, Far From Flome, 63-4. 68 Loretta Pattison interview with author, June 25, 2004.

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workplace became a space for women to negotiate understanding of each other

and determine the measure of animosity or acceptance that would make up the

office culture. A poem titled “Civil Service” published in the National Association

of Colored People’s magazine The Crisis expressed black women’s frustration

with their treatment in Washington’s federal offices:

My desk sits facing yours across the floor, Yet your fair head is stiffly held aloof From my own darker one, though ‘neath our roof With one accord we do a job. For war Flas linked us as no pleading could before. Yet, seemingly, you wait for further proof That we are spun the same...the warp and woof Of new, strong fabric, draped at Freedom’s door... For you are still reluctant to obey The impulse that would bring you to my side; You send your memos on a metal tray, And coldly kill each overture I’ve tried. Why hope to rid charred continents of gloom Till we have learned to smile across a room?70

But, even with these frustrations, many African-American women looked forward

to the opportunity to work, contribute to the war effort, and receive a paycheck. “I

was happy and life was good," Mary Wright recalled. “I’d never had that much

money at one time in my life.” 71

In addition to conflicts over race, female workers dealt with tensions in the

government workplace over gender relations and assumptions. Many

servicewomen faced hostile male reactions starting in basic training. SPAR Betty

Splaine’s boot camp drill instructor Danny served as a marine at Guadalcanal

69 Paulene Menes interview with author, May 11, 2006. 70 Constance C. Nichols, “Civil Service,” The Crisis (April 1945) reprinted in Honey, ed., Bitter Fruit, 79. 71 Wright, Far From Flome, 31.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. and felt degraded at having to work stateside with women because of an injury.

As Splaine’s unit marched in formation, instead of the traditional chorus of “left,

left, left right left,” Danny shouted out, “Rape, rape, allow rape rape.”72 Such

resentment by male peers often followed servicewomen into the office.

Lieutenant Helen Gunter, who worked for the Navy's Photographic Laboratory in

Anacostia, observed:

Many of the men officers accepted women officers as supervisors of WAVE barracks and enlisted personnel, but it seemed as if they didn't want us to acquire their photographic skills because they didn't want to be relieved for sea duty. They preferred the younger enlisted girls who served them humbly in routine tasks and had a worshipful attitude toward gold braid.73

WAVE Captain Louise Wilde found the male naval personnel in D.C. “very

resentful” of her and other female employees. She felt the need to prove

continually how seriously she took her job.74 Betty Splaine’s first boss took his

disdain so far as to rearrange the desks in their office so that he would not have

to look at her. And when another newly commissioned SPAR reported for work

to her male commanding officer, he exclaimed, “Good God, first horses, then

dogs, now women!75

Civilian female employees also met with sexism in the workplace. A forty-

two-year-old lawyer completed Civil Service exams for various government jobs

that required knowledge of the law, including deputy U.S. marshal. She passed

all the tests, but, when she called to set up her job interviews, an agent told her

they wanted only men for those positions. The lawyer recalled being told “if I

72 Splaine interview, April 16, 2004. 73 Gunter, Navy Wave: Memories of World War II,51. 74 Louise K. Wilde interview with John T. Mason, Jr., December 2, 1969, WIMSA.

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were still in my 20s and a good stenographer I could be used, but that no

employer wanted an ‘old woman past thirty.’”76 In the OSS many women with

doctorates, high level administrative experience, and tenured professorial

backgrounds ended up working for much younger, inexperienced men who

lacked advanced degrees. Only about 18 percent of the college-educated

women in the department held jobs other than filing clerk, librarian, or

secretary.77 Male recruiters turned away another successful career woman,

Priscilla Crane, a saleswoman used to earning upwards of $5,000 per year. The

men told her that employers “do not want women who are used to large

salaries.”78 And rumors spread among Government Girls about a personnel

officer with the War Production Board who pressured young women to sleep with

him in order to keep jobs they desperately needed.79

Some men such as Navy photographer Stephen Kanyusik did regard

female co-workers as dependable colleagues. Kanyusik admired the women’s

work ethic and felt that other men “became aware that [women] were not lesser-

even if you didn’t admit it publicly. You knew they were competent.”80 And some

Wacs found soldiers eager to create a collegial bond. Even though

servicewomen were not assigned or allowed to operate guns, enlisted men on

duty with Wacs at the Arboretum showed the women how to field strip a machine

75 Splaine interview, April 16, 2004. 76 Weatherford, American Women and World War II, 180-181. 77 Robin W. Winks, “Getting the Right Stuff: FDR, Donovan, and the Quest for Professional Intelligence” in George Chalou, ed. The Secrets War2A\ Nusbaum interview, August 2, 2004. 78 Weatherford, American Women and World War II, 181. 79 Nusbaum interview, August 8, 2004. 80 Stephen Kanyusik interview with author, August 3, 2004.

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gun and put it back together during lulls in their schedules.81 However, most

female workers hit up against gender-based roadblocks. None of the twenty-

three women who passed the 1941 D.C. bar felt optimistic about attaining

successful government careers. One new lawyer summed up the government’s

endemic gender bias, “The Federal Government has very little use for women

with brains. Women in the Federal service are not classified by training. If they

advance, likely as not it is because they have looks, not brains. It’s the price they

pay for being women.”82

Difficult working conditions and professional frustrations added to wartime

stress and proved overwhelming for some female workers. Dr. Winfred

Overholser, superintendent of St. Elizabeths mental hospital, complained that

“many girls coming to Washington have become unstable, discontented and

have gone off on a tangent” because of work-related strain.83 Eleanor Roosevelt

blamed parents who allowed their daughters to come to D.C. “unprepared” for

the fast-paced circumstances and the dangers they would find.84 Suggestions by

government officials for remedies such as swimming to “take the kinks out of

taught nerves” did not necessarily help ease Government Girls’ pressures.85

Some women depended upon more experienced, older female workers to

help them manage professional anxieties. For example, Joanne Lichty, a

81 Elna Hilliard Grahn, In the Company of Wacs (Manhattan, Kansas: Sunflower University Press, 1993), 35. 82 “Uncle Sam Favors Beauty Over Brains, They Charge,” Washington Post, February 27, 1941, 17. 83 “’Nervous Girls’ Are Advised Not to Come to Washington,” Washington Post, May 9, 1942, 1. 84 “Girls on the Loose,” Washington Post, October 14, 1944, 4.

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teenage Government Girl in the Treasury Department, found mentors in a group

of longtime local clerical workers. “I was this young kid and they treated me so

nicely. There was a feeling of camaraderie,” Lichty remembered.86 Shirley

Weinberger also relied on a more practiced female colleague to navigate through

the difficult government bureaucracy. The two bonded over being the only

female lawyers in the ad hoc division for foreign funds control.87

For women without social or professional support systems, wartime stress

could have serious consequences. For example, Wac Cecilia Campbell wrote a

postcard home to her parents detailing the intense and competitive environment

she worked in at the Pentagon. Not everyone could handle the pressure, she

told them, as “one of the girls went off the beam last night at work. Nervous

breakdown, technically, and she was sent to North Post [at Fort Myer in Virginia]

to the hospital.”88 Another Government Girl who felt overwhelmed by her

circumstances in Washington was Kathleen Huff, a 23-year-old from Wyoming.

Huff jumped to her death from her fourth-floor apartment. Friends and family

revealed her recent complaint that working in Washington strained her nerves to

the breaking point. Huff left two half-written notes. One included admonitions to

herself to “Concentrate on your copy being typed. You simply cannot

85 Genevieve Reynolds, “Swimming Advised for ‘War’ Nerves,” Washington Post, January 14, 1942, X11. 86 Joanne Lichty interview with author, July 29, 2004. 87 Shirley Weinberger interview with author, March 13, 2003. 88 Cecilia Campbell interview with Wanda C. Driver and Fran Richardson, November 7, 2003, WIMSA.

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concentrate if you allow your thoughts to go wool gathering.”89 Huff’s reaction

represents the extreme minority, but Washington’s wartime suicide rate among

women hit only ten fewer than the all-time high during the Depression. D.C.’s

coroner, Dr. A. Magruder MacDonald, attributed the deaths to “war fatigue.” 90

Government Girls generally worked six days a week and as many as ten hours a

day. No amount of training or experience prepared women for the intense

wartime schedule and demands. For some, the emotional and intellectual

pressures of working in Washington overshadowed any positive professional or

personal opportunities.

A local reporter sardonically observed that “Washington is the biggest

‘company town’ in the world. All of its’ people either work for Uncle Sam or work

for someone who works for Uncle Sam.”91 The “company” that drove

Washington, the federal government, could not have functioned without the

wartime labor of Government Girls. When their numbers hit a peak of 1,086,397

in July 1944, women constituted 40 percent of all federal employees.92 Incoming

female war workers were grouped under the umbrella term Government Girls,

which distinguished them as new, inexperienced, and temporary. Opportunities

for women to grow professionally and personally existed in both civilian and

military work. Prewar age, experience, race, and geographic barriers blocking

89 “Government Girl Suicide Laid to Strain of Life in D.C.,” Washington Post, September 19, 1942, B11. 90 “District Suicides Rose 28% in 1945, Coroner’s Report Says," Washington Post, March 10, 1946, Statistics Vertical Files, Statistics, Comparative Folder 1800-1959 #2, MLK. 91 “Girl in a Mob,” American Magazine 134 (October 1942): 33; Menefee, Assignment USA, 38. 92 “Women in Federal Defense Activities,” Monthly Labor Review, Volume 54, Number 3 (March 1942): 640.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. entry into federal service loosened because of wartime work demands. Wartime

women changed the demographic makeup of Washington’s government workers

and challenged prewar gender and race notions of their professional capabilities.

However, because of government mismanagement, disparate workloads,

uncomfortable or hostile working environments, and office stressors, Government

Girls often labored in less than ideal circumstances. These conditions provided

Regardless of the difficulties, economic necessity drove most women into the

wartime workforce and kept them there for the duration.

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THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOME:

WOMEN’S WARTIME HOUSING

IN THE NATION’S CAPITAL

"Housing is a colossal headache."1 The Man at the Microphone, Washington Broadcast, 1944

An apocryphal story elicited understanding nods as it made its way around

Washington’s cocktail party circuit during World War II. The tale involved a

passerby who happened upon a drowning man calling out for help. Sensing

opportunity in the precarious situation, the would-be rescuer offered assistance in

return for the man’s address. The sinking man complied, but instead of providing

the promised aid, the passerby raced off in search of the apartment. He hunted

down the landlady only to be told that the drowning man’s apartment was already

rented. “To whom?” he asked incredulously. “To the man who pushed him in,”

she replied.2 While it can be safely assumed that this story is based on wartime

frustrations and not actual events, its popularity illustrates the widespread

desperation to find reasonable housing in the nation’s capital.

1 The Man at the Microphone, "The Main Gate,” Washington Broadcast reprinted in Katharine Graham, Katharine Graham’s Washington (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2002), 294. 2 Ray Mackland, “Washington Hospitality???” Life (September 27, 1943): 12.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Housing shortages developed across the United States near every major

center of war production. Because supplies were needed for wartime

armaments and provisions, there were no materials available to defuse the

housing problem. These centers therefore utilized every conceivable existing

space and attempted to fulfill labor needs as locally as possible. Yet, over the

course of the war, four million workers and their families relocated nationwide in

order to take advantage of the new job opportunities. Within a 35-mile radius of

even large-scale production centers such as Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco,

and Seattle, housing units filled to over-capacity. A countrywide survey revealed

that more than 90 percent of Americans identified housing shortages in their

communities.3 The nation’s capital was not alone in dealing with a housing crisis

brought on by the wartime defense build-up. However, because the majority of

workers flooding into Washington worked for the federal government and not

private industries, they generated greater, although not necessarily more

effective, institutional attention to the problem. The fact that the labor force was

predominantly young, single, and female and held positions as federal

employees created a distinctive housing situation in wartime Washington.

Housing was a divisive political issue in Washington long before the

passage of the Lend-Lease Act and the bombing of Pearl Harbor accelerated the

migration of workers to staff newly formed or expanded government agencies.

During and after the Civil War, tens of thousands of people poured into the city in

3 D'Ann Campbell, Women at War with America: Private Lives in a Patriotic Era (Boston: Harvard University Press, 1984), 169.

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search of new work and social opportunities. The city’s Jim Crow mindset and

lack of available housing forced the rapidly expanding black population of

Washington to find lodging in hastily built and overcrowded alley dwellings. This

temporary fix ended up becoming a permanent solution for low-income families.

Congress established The Alley Dwelling Authority (ADA) on June 12, 1934 to

reclaim these depressed areas. But, because of political power struggles, as late

as 1940 Washington still had close to twenty thousand people, 95 percent of

whom were African American, living in alleys.4 The roadblocks and in-fighting in

the attempts to resolve Washington’s substandard housing issues mirrored the

city’s larger problems with racial integration, health care for low-income families,

zoning and development rights, and congressional control over D.C. policy,

legislative, and administrative matters.

However, from the onset of World War II, creating additional housing for

defense workers and, later, for war workers, took priority over clearing

dilapidated living quarters.5 Washington’s limited accommodations developed

into one of area war agencies’ topmost concerns. Potential Government Girls

could not be convinced to leave their homes and accept positions in Washington

if they believed there was no place for them to live. And those potential living

4 For a detailed study of Washington’s alley dwellings, see James Borchet, Alley Life in Washington: Family, Community, Religion, and Folklife in the City, 1850-1970 (Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 1980) and Barbara Gale Howick Fant, “Slum Reclamation and Housing Reform in the Nation’s Capital, 1890-1940,” Ph.D. Dissertation (Washington, D.C.: The George Washington University, 1982). 5 In 1942 the government required the ADA to shift its attention to constructing temporary war dwellings. However, housing advocates continued to fight for improved conditions throughout the war. “Our Housing Crisis,” Washington Post, January 22, 1942, 10; Howard Gillette, Jr., Between Justice and Beauty: Race, Planning, and the Failure of Urban Policy in Washington, D.C. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995), 146.

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quarters became harder to find every day. A Civil Service Commission officer

complained to the House Select Committee Investigating National Defense

Migration (also known as the Tolan Committee) that “Recently, an effort was

made to lure twelve stenographers to the city with the promise of a house near

the Capitol, where they could live together. But it was soon realized that this was

an impossibility-- there are no empty houses for rent.” In another 1942 Tolan

Committee hearing, a War Department official testified that of “3,346 applications

sent out to try to get employees to come to Washington to work in the War

Department, 1,227 accepted. Of those 1227, 70 percent came to Washington

and stayed an average of 2 days and then left [due to lack of housing.]”6

Immediate solutions included taking over recently or partially completed ADA

projects and finding Government Girls rooms to rent in private homes or hotels

throughout the area. However, the Tolan Committee, D.C. housing coordinator

C.F. Palmer, and other local authorities recognized that they needed more

permanent answers.7 The federal government tried to provide them. Utilizing

funds allocated by the Lanham Act (created to provide aid to communities with

large, war-related populations), the government erected close to 400,000 units of

temporary housing and 180,000 units of permanent housing over the course of

the war for its Washington-area male and female war workers.8 Dormitories

6 “Statement of the Washington Housing Association to The Tolan Committee- January 13, 1942,” 5-6, Washington Housing Association Records, Container 2, Folder 13, HSW. 7 “Our Housing Crisis,” 10. 8 Harry S. Truman, “Statement by the President Upon Issuing Order Delaying the Disposal of World War II Housing, September 1, 1951.” The American Presidency Project, Public Papers of the Presidents, Harry S. Truman on line, available from http://www.presidencv.ucsb.edu/site/docs. accessed March 3, 2004.

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arose for both military and civilian women.9 This building program successfully

billeted thousands of female workers; however because it began in mid-1942 and

never kept up pace with new arrivals, it did not solve the housing crisis.

Women’s wartime living experiences varied greatly, depending upon when they

arrived, who they worked for, and how much money they could afford to spend.

Women in uniform had better housing options than civilian government

workers. The military’s “duration residences” provided adequate sleeping, living,

and recreation space for female recruits. However, many servicewomen arrived

in Washington before the accommodations were completed. These women lived

in temporary quarters or had to find their own space in the crowded city.

Women’s Army Corps (WAC) officer Elna Hilliard Grahn did both. The Army

assigned her to the Burlington Hotel in downtown D.C., but, because the hotel

was fully booked, she could stay only two nights. After chasing down several

empty leads, Grahn finally located a room at the Meridian Hill Hotel in upper

Northwest. Locals sarcastically dubbed the building “Purity Palace” because of

all the young, single women living there. The Army compensated Wacs for room

and board ($45 a month for rent and $21 a month for food), but at $2.50 per

night, the hotel room cost more than both allowances combined. Grahn found

9 The government undertook similar construction in World War I when it built 13 temporary Colonial Revival style dormitories on 15 acres of government land between Union Station and the Capitol to house 1,800 women working for the Federal Government. The Main Navy and Munitions Buildings on Constitution Avenue were also built to house offices and dormitories in 1918 and were still in use as “tempos” during World War II. Rows of smaller dwellings were added in 1942 to provide work space for over 30,000 naval employees. “ U.S. to Build Big Dormitory for Single Government Girls,” Washington Post, June 24, 1942, 12; James E. Goode, Capital Losses: A Cultural History of Washington’s Destroyed Buildings, (Washington and London: Smithsonian Books, 2003), 485-7.

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that “it was common, and necessary, for us to send home for money.”10 Margery

Updegraff also arrived in Washington with no immediate room assignment. She

and her fellow Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES)

developed their own house-hunting strategy: “We paid attention to the death

notices in the paper to see if we could find a place to live,” Updegraff

remembered. “In fact, that’s the way I got an apartment. A lady died.”11

Although the military did not provide Updegraff with immediate housing, it did

offer one convenience for her and other enlisted women living on their own in the

city - access to a small PX located across from the Reflecting Pool that

contained a lunch room and a small store carrying ice cream, uniform pieces,

cotton pantyhose, and other life essentials.

Housing assignments, like everything else in Washington, could change at

a moment’s notice. Elizabeth F. Splaine was one of many SPARS (Coast Guard-

Semper Paratus Always Ready) bounced all over town while stationed in D.C.

Her unit originally resided in an apartment building on 16th Street, NW, but, after a

fire destroyed the property, it billeted at the Plaza Hotel near Union Station on the

other side of town. The Carroll Arms Hotel down the street already served as a

SPARS barracks, so they had plenty of company during several months of using

military-issued tokens to ride the buses back and forth to Coast Guard

headquarters at 13th and E streets, NW. Splaine and her unit soon moved again

to the administration building at American University. Although now in yet

10 Elna Hilliard Grahn, In the Company of Wacs (Manhattan, Kansas: Sunflower University Press, 1993), 15.

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another part of the city, the SPARS enjoyed the rural campus. Splaine

specifically reveled in the maple wood beds, wall-to-wall carpeting, and nautically

themed bedspreads and drapes that one of her roommates’ mothers made for

them during their stay in the Dean’s office. Such posh accommodations were the

luck of the draw as most of the SPARS ended up sleeping in iron bunks set up

on the second floor of the building. Splaine and 450 other SPARS eventually

ended up in specially built barracks across from the Smithsonian Castle on

Independence Avenue. SPARS squeezed into shared 7x10 rooms and complied

with a relatively early 10 p.m. bed check, but they could walk to work as well as

to the coveted Pepsi Cola canteen at 13th and G streets, NW. Servicemen and

women paid five cents for a sandwich or burger and all the Pepsi they could

drink.12

Another military housing development, "Quarters D," was the first

installation ever built specifically for WAVES. The 38 buildings covering 40 acres

of land on Ward Circle in Northwest D.C. made up the largest WAVE barracks in

the United States. The residences housed over 5000 women, nearly half of the

11,000 WAVES stationed in Washington during the war. In addition to the

sleeping quarters, the complex contained a 75-foot long swimming pool, a lounge

decorated with furniture obtained from the Normandie, a luxury liner taken over

for war service, a darkroom, classrooms, a beauty shop, dry cleaners, a soda

fountain, a post office, a bakery, a butcher shop, an auditorium that seated 1000,

11 Margery Updegraff interview with Wanda Driver and Ardith Kramer, November 19, 2003, WIMSA.

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and one room that was set aside to wrap presents at Christmastime. Pleasantly

warm days would find those WAVES lucky enough to be off duty sprawled across

the barracks’ grassy fields catching sun or listening to music. Many of the

WAVES living at Quarters D trained or worked at the naval communications

center across the street at the former Mount Vernon Seminary. Other

Washington-based WAVES bunked at the smaller and less lavish “Quarters B” in

West Potomac Park near the Lincoln Memorial or at Arlington Farms, a

Government Girl dorm in Northern Virginia.13

Compared to the SPARS and WAVES, WACs’ living situation in

Washington seemed downright primitive. Most Wacs bunked at nearby Army

bases in hastily built or renovated barracks. One reporter noted, “The Wacs in

Washington, generally speaking, live more as do their masculine compatriots

than any other women’s branch of service.”14 Two-story brick barracks at

installations such as Bolling Field, Fort Washington, and Fort Myer followed the

same open floor plan as the men’s quarters. Wacs slept on wooden bunk beds

that formed two long, continuous rows on either side of the cabin. They kept

their uniforms and toiletries in open footlockers consisting of narrow shelves and

a single clothing rod. Open windows offered the only relief from hot weather and

coal-fed potbellied stoves served as the heating system. Not only did Wacs bear

12 "New Quarters Tiny, but SPARS Love Them," Washington Star, September 17, 1944, Vertical File, MLK; Elizabeth F. Splaine interview with Kate Scott, April 16, 2004, WIMSA. 13 Genevieve Reynolds, “A Tour of the WAVES’ Quarters,” Washington Post, August 21,1943, B2; “5000 WAVES to Be Housed On American U. Property,” Washington Post, February 24, 1943,1; Anne Hagner, “Rep. Smith Pleased With WAVE ‘Homes,’” Washington Post, December 29, 1943, B1; Betty Wixcey, "They're Getting Ready to Go Home,” Washington Star, June 20, 1946, C3-5, Vertical File, MLK.

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the responsibility of stoking the temperamental stoves both day and night, but

those issued bunks closest to the grates roasted from the overwhelming heat,

while those farthest away froze throughout the winter. Out of a sense of

propriety, the Army made two concessions to its female recruits: curtains for the

windows and separate shower stalls. Otherwise, Wacs’ barracks offered the

women little privacy and even less sleep.15 Wac Cecilia Campbell lived at South

Post, Fort Myer. She and her bunkmates walked back and forth to work at the

nearby Pentagon on round-the-clock shifts. The constant commotion of women

coming and going based on their various work schedules left the entire barrack in

an unremitting state of sleep deprivation. After a few months of living in such

conditions, Campbell fell into bed each night and passed out from exhaustion. “It

wasn’t like sleeping,” she recalled. “It’s like you were drugged.”16 Wacs had

access to base swimming pools, tennis courts, and canteens, but missed out on

the luxury amenities provided to other servicewomen.

Enlisting in the military guaranteed women some form of housing for the

duration, but civilian workers relocating to Washington had no such security.

Federal dorms offered one possible option for Government Girls. Arlington

Farms just across the Potomac River in Arlington, Virginia was the largest area

residence built during the war. The 104-acre campus, nicknamed “Girl Town,”

accommodated nearly 10,000 Government Girls and WAVES in its ten

14 Anne Hagner, “Life With ‘Uncle’ Is 100% Army For 107 Wacs at Fort Myer,” Washington Post, August 10, 1944, 4. 15 Grahn, In the Company of Wacs, 96; Williams, Washington , D.C., 90; “WAACS Work Hard, Manage To Keep Hair in Order Too,” Washington Post, March 20, 1943, 9.

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dormitories. Arlington Farms functioned like a small town. It contained a post

office, beauty salon, library, bowling alley, soda fountain, outdoor recreational

facilities, movie theaters, convenience stores, and full-service dining rooms. A

story about the complex in Reader’s Digest magazine reported that the women

consumed an average of 4,000 hot dogs and 3,600 pies, cakes, and doughnuts

per day. Although the buildings lacked style, beauty, or structural permanence,

they allowed Government Girls to live within easy commute of the Pentagon, War

Department, and Navy Annex.17 Over 18,000 civilian women lived in similar

government-built residences during the war. Yet, close to a quarter of a million

female war workers came to Washington by 1945.18 Therefore, the majority of

women who relocated to D.C. navigated the housing maze by themselves.

Women fortunate enough to have relatives living in the city jumped at the

chance for a ready-made home. Betty McIntosh came from Hawaii to work first

as a journalist with Scripps Howard and then with the Office of Strategic Services

(OSS). While stationed in Washington, Betty occupied the third floor of her aunt

and uncle's Georgetown home. The situation was convenient, but far from ideal.

Betty's aunt felt hesitant to either give her a key to the house or to leave the front

door unlocked. So when Betty returned home after a night out, she had to enter

by way of an unlocked window on the first floor. This caused complications, as

when a policeman happened by just as an admiral friend of Betty's was hoisting

16 Cecilia Campbell interview with Wanda C. Driver and Fran Richardson, November 7, 2003, WIMSA. 17 "28 Acres of Girls; Arlington Farms," Reader’s Digest (July 1944): 36-8.

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her up and into the darkened house. Betty disappeared though the window and

the admiral was left to make hasty explanations to the local police.19

Other women had help from or struggled to live with extended families.

Sometimes these situations worked out well. Shirley and Ted Weinberger both

came to Washington to work as lawyers for the government. They moved to

Arlington, Virginia, with his widowed mother. While the couple worked, Ted's

mother helped out at home with the cleaning, shopping, and cooking. She also

provided companionship for Shirley when Ted joined the service and was sent to

Officers Candidate School. Another Government Girl, OSS worker Jean

Wallace, lived with her family, including her father, Vice President Henry A.

Wallace, in an annex of the Wardman Park Hotel in Northwest D.C. The hotel

was also a temporary home for members of the Supreme Court, the cabinet, and

Dwight D. Eisenhower and his family. Jean walked to work with her father--she

to her office near the Reflecting Pool and he to the White House. "It gave us

exercise and a chance to think," Jean later recalled.20

Other times living with family created more complications than solutions.

Adelaide Hawkins initially depended on her mother-in-law and sister-in-law to

watch her three young children while she worked at the OSS and her husband

was stationed overseas. After Adelaide's in-laws moved to New York, she

struggled to find temporary daycare and finally persuaded her parents to come

18 Marjorie Barstow Greerbie, “Women Work With Uncle Sam,” Independent Woman (March 1942): 74; Megan Rosenfeld, “’Government Girls’: World War M's Army of the Potomac,” Washington Post, May 10, 1999, A1. 19 Betty McIntosh interview with author, March 25, 2003.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. stay with her. A few months later, they too decided to move out of state.

Eventually, Adelaide sent her children to boarding schools in Bethesda, her dog

to a series of kennels, and found a single room to rent for herself.21

Government Girls without family or local connections had little choice but

to find space in Washington's aging and inadequate fleet of boarding houses.

While such accommodations had lost favor in other parts of the country,

Washington’s boarding houses continued to offer transient congressmen and

businessmen more modestly priced alternatives to apartments or hotel suites.

They could now offer those same services to Government Girls. Apartments

could be expensive and hard to locate, and women earning a lower level

government salary needed to find one or more roommates in order to make the

rent. The press labeled boarding houses "God's gift to the Government Girl" and,

in fact, the short-term accessible rooms they offered proved to be the most

reliable solution for civilian workers.22 However, the prewar number of available

rooms could not handle the demands of Washington's ever-increasing

population. In an effort to offset the housing shortage, the city bent zoning

regulations to allow for the conversion of more residential homes to rooming and

boarding houses.23 The Washington Guest House Association published a

guide, Rooming and Boarding House Manual, in order to aid novices venturing

20 Shirley Weinberger interview with author, March 13, 2003; Elizabeth McIntosh, Sisterhood of Spies: The Women of the OSS (Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1998), 43. 21 Adelaide Hawkins, "Better Than Crossword Puzzles" in Pauline E. Parker, ed., Women of the Homefront. (Jefferson, North Carolina and London: McFarland & Company, Inc. 2002), 80-81. 22 "Boarding Houses 'God's Gift' to Government Girls," Washington Daily News, September 12, 1941, Vertical File, MLK.

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into what it called “a very complicated business.” 24 By June 1942 the Evening

Star conservatively estimated that between 8,000 and 10,000 rooming houses

(both legal and illegal) operated in the District25

Women looking to rent a room made their first stop at the Defense

Housing Registry. The D.C. government created the Registry, located in today’s

Freedom Plaza on Pennsylvania Avenue, to provide newcomers with a list of

available and approved rooms throughout the city 26 The agency processed

around 10,000 newcomers every month or more than 300 a day. Just obtaining

the coveted list of rooms could be daunting to first-time apartment hunters. One

woman arrived at the Registry to "find it jammed to the doors. I was crushed

alongside Mildred, who looked tired and scared to death. She was from a town

of 1000 in Tennessee, had just ended 24 hours on a bus, and had never been

away from home before. She had a government job starting the next day." The

women resorted to doubling up in “a small room with a shared bath in the home

23 “Zoning Board Lifts Rooming House Bans,” Washington Post, June 7, 1942, 21; Merlo Pusey, “Housing Divided Against Itself,” Washington Post, February 24, 1942, 11. 24 Martin A. Olmem, Rooming and Boarding House Manual (Washington, D.C.: Guest House Service, 1943), X, HSW. 25 As quoted in Leslie T. Davol, "Shifting Mores: Ester Bubley's World War II Boarding House Photos," Washington History 10 (Fall/Winter 1998-99): 51. 26 The Commissioners’ Committee of Civilian Defense opened D.C.’s Housing Registry, the first in the nation, in March 1941. Representatives from the Board of Trade, Washington Real Estate Board, Alley Dwelling Authority, YWCA, and the Washington Housing Association served as the Registry’s advisory committee. The staff consisted of volunteers who inspected rooming houses, a director paid by the Board of Trade, and a staff of Works Progress Administration office workers. The federal government took over the registry in 1942 and appointed a new civil service director and staff. It was renamed the War Housing Center and became a model for programs nationwide. “Statement of the Washington Housing Association to The Tolan Committee- January 13, 1942,” 2-3, WHA Records, Container 2, Folder 16, HSW.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. of a couple in a modern row house on the outskirts of the District, a long ride to

and from work.”27

Women learned quickly about the odds they faced in finding suitable

quarters. “Newcomers Discover Private Baths Went Out With Hitler,” the

Washington Post declared. “Walking distance,” it added, applied only to cross

country runners.28 The Washington Housing Association published a booklet

informing potential lodgers that rent for a single room without board ranged from

$20 to $35 a month and for a shared room from $17.50 to $25 a month per

occupant. If a woman ate conservatively, meals could be had for $1.25 a day.

But, the Association warned, “Don’t expect to walk to work. Most of the available

rooms are in the residential areas about 30 to 45 minutes (by trolley or bus) from

the downtown section of the city where most of the government offices are

located.” The Housing Registry determined that a woman needed an income

above $2,000 a year in order to afford $30 a month for rent. Government Girls’

starting salary of $1,440 usually made sharing a room a financial necessity.29

The type and condition of the boarding houses varied greatly. District of

Columbia housing officials were responsible for investigating complaints about

unsafe and unsanitary properties. They inspected one rooming house (a

rooming house differed from a boarding house only in that it provided a bed but

27 Williams, Washington, D. C. in World War II, 51; The Girl with the Tired Feet, "You Lift 'Em Up and Lay 'Em Down- Going Room-Hunting All Over Town," Washington Daily News, March 16, 1942, Vertical File, MLK. "Newcomers Discover Private Baths Went Out With Hitler," Washington Post, May 4, 1942, 16. 29 “Typical Questions Asked At Housing Registries About Supplying Rooms, Housing in Wartime Booth, War Fair, October 22 to 30, 1942,” 3-5, WHA Records, Container 2, Folder 14, HSW;

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no meals) where fifteen women and four men, all government employees, lived

and found peeling paint, sagging stairs, and countless rats and cockroaches.

Two of the men shared the unfinished basement and the others shared

subdivided bedrooms, each paying $21.50 a month.30 Ruth B., a boarder who

stayed in a succession of the District’s unsuitable boarding houses, recalled:

I have shivered in winter, melted indoors in summer. I’ve resided with those little brown bugs that work only on the night shift. I’ve hated and fought cockroaches. I’ve rented a first-floor apartment where the landlady sent her small son outside to look in at the windows and if he reported lights burning in more than one room at a time, she came in without knocking and turned off what she considered superfluous.31

On the opposite extreme, more than five hundred men and women found

upscale comfort in one of D.C.'s largest and most popular boarding houses,

Scott's Club. Maggie Scott opened her first boarding house in 1916 and added

houses one at a time until she owned a row of 20 brownstones along 21st and P

streets, NW. Most boarders ranged between 20 and 30-years-old, which

fostered a social club-like atmosphere. Residents called themselves "Scotties,"

and the women wore toy canine Scottie pins on their lapels and sweaters. Men

and women organized their own basketball, baseball, and football teams, and the

management supplied uniforms and equipment. Boarders self-published The

James Daniel, “Girls’ Dormitory Plan Hits Labor Unit Snag,” Washington Daily News, October 23, 1941, Vertical File, MLK. 30 David Brinkley, Washington Goes to War (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1988), 243. 31 “Just Because You Rent a Room, You're No Angel!” Washington Post, September 5, 1941, B2.

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Wash, a magazine dedicated to in-house romance and gossip. Residents also

planned group picnics, dances, and trips to enjoy outside entertainment.32

By 1941 Maggie’s sons Ralph and Harry Scott also worked in the

hospitality business and contracted with the government to open an additional

hotel for 250 Government Girls. The Scotts owned the building but, as they

obtained backing from the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, the government

fixed the rents. Months before its 1942 opening (at which Eleanor Roosevelt cut

the ceremonial ribbon) the hotel had twice as many applicants as rooms. For

$34.50 a month girls got a single room, their own telephone and clothes cabinet,

two meals a day, and maid service. The owners conducted a poll to discover

what women most wanted in their new boarding house. They found that women

preferred showers, big closets, floor lamps, and easy chairs. Women also liked

old-fashioned dressers better than dressing tables. "Sit down to make up?" they

exclaimed, "We haven't time!"33

Tenants also had access to four separate roof decks for sunbathing,

dancing, sports, and picnicking. A penthouse classroom offered free language

courses, a practice room provided free access to a piano, and a coffee shop

offered snacks or meals for eating in or rooftop service. Although men were only

allowed on the ground floor lobby or the roof decks (trespassers were tried

before an all-female jury and could be banned from Scott’s for life), the hotel did

32 Eleanor Early, "Girls' Hotel Built for War Workers" Washington Times-Herald, March 25, 1942, 1, Vertical File, MLK; “Behind the Scenes in One of the Capital’s Residence Clubs,” Washington Post, November 30, 1941, L15. 33 Early, "Girls' Hotel Built for War Workers," 8.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. allow for some romantic privacy.34 Former resident and Government Girl Jean

Kearney remembered, “There were four curtained alcoves off the Community

Room, and above the opening to each was painted its name- ‘Romeo and Juliet,’

‘Dante and Beatrice,’ ‘Cinderella and Prince Charming,’ and ‘You and Me.’ We

girls named them the ‘necking parlors’!” While some Government Girls enjoyed

the amenities and camaraderie that Scott’s offered, the comparably steep rent

kept it out of reach for many workers.35

Another high-end living option for Washington’s workers was Dissin's

Guest House. It specifically catered to young Jewish people. The main facility

on Massachusetts Avenue near Dupont Circle contained a dining room that also

served residents at the two additional guest houses on nearby 20th Street. The

owners, Mr. and Mrs. Dissin, provided a Kosher breakfast and dinner during the

week, brunch and a light supper on Saturdays, and breakfast on Sundays. The

charge for the room, daily meals, and maid service totaled $35 a month. Ester

Bubley, a photographer for the Office of War Information, took a series of

photographs at Dissin's to record Washington’s wartime experiences. Bubley

recalled that men lived on the lower floors and women lived on the upper floors,

and "even though men and women weren't supposed to visit each other's rooms,

they did."36 Yet, Mrs. Dissin had the reputation for being a strict housemother.

34 “Government Girls to Get Dream Home,” Washington Post, December 4, 1941; “New Girls’ Dormitory Has Its ‘Romeo and Juliet’ Parlors,” Washington Star, May 11, 1942. 35 Jean Kearney, “My Life as Kitty Foyle,” in James. E. Thierry, ed., Looking Back at War: Archives Volunteers Remember World War (Washington, II D.C.: National Archives World War II 50th Anniversary Commemoration, 1995), 40. 36 Leslie T. Davol, "Shifting Mores: Ester Bubley's World War II Boarding House Photos," Washington History 10 (Fall/Winter 1998-99), 54.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. She stayed on the lookout for straying men and never allowed her female

boarders to wear shorts or slacks off the premises. Like Scott’s Club residents,

Dissin’s tenants socialized outside of the confines of the boarding house.

Wartime boarder Roslyn Dresbold Silverman ventured out with fellow residents to

the theater, Chinatown restaurants, concerts on the banks of the Potomac River,

and services at Washington Hebrew Congregation. "There was plenty of dating,"

Silverman recollected, "but no co-habitation. I met my husband at Dissin's and

several of my friends met their spouses there, too...It was like being away at

college, but working instead of studying.”37

The more money a Government Girl could spend on housing, the greater

and better options she had in finding a nice place to live. Women earning a base

government salary could not afford to stay at Scott’s Club or Dissin’s, and the

majority of boarding houses throughout Washington did not offer such specialties

as necking parlors or Kosher meals. Most incoming women made due with

cramped, crowded, and rudimentary accommodations.

In addition to temporary living solutions such as government dorms and

boarding houses, President Roosevelt created the Defense Homes Corporation

(DHC) to provide permanent development projects for war workers in congested

defense areas. The DHC built 7234 units (2872 individual houses and 2463

dormitory rooms) in the Washington region.38 Two of the agency’s large-scale

37 Roselyn Dresbold Silverman, "World War II in Washington: Life at Dissin's," The Record 22 [Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington] (1997), 42-44. 8 The DHC operated first under the Reconstruction Finance Corporation and then the National Housing Agency responsible for building wartime public housing throughout the United States.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. complexes generated great public interest, McLean Gardens in Northwest D.C.

and Fairlington in Northern Virginia. McLean Gardens opened in 1943 on

socialite Evalyn Walsh McLean’s former “Friendship” estate on Wisconsin

Avenue. Manager Ralph Scott (the same businessman responsible for Scott’s

boarding house) received more than 7000 applications for 31 apartments and 9

residence halls (6 for women and 3 for men). To apply for residency, a person

had to qualify as a white war worker living in D.C. for less than one year and

earning an annual income less than $2600. The $9 million project was home to

single men, women, and families. Apartment rents ranged from $60 to $85 per

month including utilities. Dorm rooms ran $8 per week for a single and $7 for a

double.39 The new development’s park-like grounds and convenience to

downtown attracted a wide range of workers. WAVE Margaret Engelberg left her

single room in Arlington Farms and shared an apartment with a Government Girl.

She enjoyed being away from the military. Living on her own gave Engelberg

“more freedom to do this and that.” She ended up meeting her husband at one

of the Gardens’ community dances.40

Fairlington (a blending of the names Fairfax and Arlington), constructed in

phases between 1942 and 1944, grew into the largest residential development

completed under the auspices of the DHC. The 3,439 colonial-style garden

apartments stood at the intersection of Leesburg and Seminary Roads in

The DHC opened in 1940, began selling completed properties as early as 1944, and shut down completely in 1948. “DHC Sold Itself Out of Business,” Washington Post, August 1, 1948, B3. 39 “McLean Garden Apartments, U.S. Venture, To Open This Week or Next at Friendship,” Washington Post, March 7, 1943, 10; “Friendship Applicants Exceed 7000,” Washington Post, March 7, 1943, R1.

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Arlington, Virginia. The development accepted only white applicants and judged

them on the basis of their importance to the war program. Rents ranged from

$58.50 to $89.50 including utilities.41 Developers promoted Fairlington as a child-

friendly complex in an effort to attract families who had found, as one salesman

put it, “D.C. landlords believe babies should be eliminated from the social

system.”42 Tot lots, baseball diamonds, playgrounds, and access to washers and

dryers created a sense of community and an easier lifestyle for many wartime

mothers. Fairlington did not function as low-cost government housing, but rents

remained lower than average for private developments. Although the complex

sat farther away from Washington’s commercial center than other housing

options, Government Girls and servicewomen working at the Pentagon or other

Northern Virginia agencies could easily commute to their offices. Some women

found the sense of community and presence of families more comfortable and

reminiscent of home than living independently in a dorm. However, the higher

costs of living prevented most lower level workers from seeking sanctuary in

these permanent communities 43

Even at the time that these massive developments opened, housing

authorities released a sample study of the metropolitan population, finding that

74 percent of area families lived in “deplorable conditions” with no running water,

indoor toilet facilities, or furnace heat. African Americans made up the majority of

40 Margaret Engelberg interview with Kate Scott, January 14, 2004, WIMSA. 41 Mary Spargo, “1470 Housing Units to Open February 1, Seminary Heights Development Still Held Up By Shortages,” Washington Post, November 19, 1942, 1-2. 42 “Fairlington To Be Ready About April 1,” Washington Post, February 21,1943, R1-2.

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these people living in substandard circumstances.44 If finding suitable housing

proved difficult for white women entering the city, it seemed nearly impossible for

most African-American women. Washingtonian John Dos Passos remembered,

“Most white people were in the habit of giving the colored people the worst end of

everything.” 45 Unfortunately, for black Government Girls the worst of everything

included living conditions.

Segregation in the nation’s capital extended into its residential

neighborhoods. Racially restrictive covenants eliminated entire sections of the

city as potential living quarters for both current black residents and incoming war

workers. While African Americans lived throughout Washington, certain pockets

of the city sustained long-settled and thriving black communities. During World

War II the largest concentration of African Americans lived just north of

downtown in the Shaw, LeDroit Park, and Howard University areas. Georgetown

had been home to a vital black community since the nineteenth century.

However, as the need for World War II defense housing escalated, so did interest

in acquiring and restoring Georgetown real estate. Throughout the war years

rising property values and new taxes forced many black homeowners to move

out of the area, and landlords seeking to take advantage of mounting wartime

rents evicted black tenants in order to renovate and seek higher-paying white

occupants. Alley dwellings around Capitol Hill and Foggy Bottom housed

43 Mary Spargo, “1000th War Worker Family Settles Down in Fairlington,” Washington Post, August 29, 1943, M10; “Shop Center Planned for Fairlington,” Washington Post, May 8, 1944, 4. 44 Carlisle Bargeron, “Washington Gets Soiled,” The American Mercury, Volume LVII, Number 239 (November 1943): 594. 45 John Dos Passos, State of the Nation (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1943), 154.

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predominantly black residents, but only the most desperate in-migrant workers

sought housing there. Therefore, black newcomers faced limited choices as to

where they could seek rooms.46

The Phyllis Wheatley YWCA, located on Rhode Island Avenue in Shaw,

offered black women one housing option. Like most other YWCAs, it rented out

sleeping quarters in addition to providing recreational and educational

opportunities. Dorothy Height, who would later spend 41 years as head of the

National Council of Negro Women, served as the facility’s executive director from

1939 to 1944. Height presided over the influx of young, nervous black women

who showed up day and night hoping for a place to rest before reporting to work

at Washington’s war agencies. However, the facility filled to capacity early in the

defense build-up, and many women ended up securing substandard rooms

because most boarding houses, the “gift to Government Girls,” refused to accept

black tenants. Height reported the situation to the federal housing agency, but

the response proved unhelpful. The housing director told Height that black

women did not need government help because the local black community could

be counted on to take care of its own 47 Such blatant disregard for the welfare of

incoming black workers forced Government Girls to pack into already

overcrowded and segregated housing. Junior clerk Mary Wright’s older cousin

46 Sandra Fitzpatrick and Maria R. Goodwin, The Guide to Black Washington (New York: Hippocrene Books, 1990); Kathleen M. Lesko, Valerie Babb, and Carroll R. Gibbs, eds., Black Georgetown Remembered: A History of Its Black Community From the Founding of The Town of George’ in 1751 to the Present DayWashington, ( D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 1999), 91- 93. 47 Dorothy Height, Open Wide the Freedom Gates: A Memoir (New York: PublicAffairs, 2003), 98- 100.

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encouraged her to relocate from North Carolina to expand her job possibilities.

Wright ended up living at her cousin’s two-story red brick row house on N Street,

NE with her cousin, her cousin’s husband, the couple’s seven children, two of her

cousin’s brothers, several male boarders, and two other female boarders. Many

black Government Girls lived crammed into similar lodgings.48

The National Housing Agency, a division of the Federal Works Authority,

eventually responded to the needs of black female employees. In May 1943 the

Agency opened the first of its black government dorms for women. These

included Midway Residence Hall on 24th Street and two dorms at Langston

Stadium Hall in Anacostia Park in Northeast and Lucy Stowe Hall, just south of

Howard University, in Northwest. Each residence provided space for

approximately 300 Government Girls. Workers paid an average of $28 per

month for a single room and $24 per month for a double 49 Although the

buildings lacked the impressive amenities of larger, segregated complexes, the

rooms and common areas contained similar dimensions and furnishings. Like

residents of other wartime communities, these women formed councils to

organize social, recreational, and educational activities including Spanish

lessons, lecture series, outdoor movies, community sings, and tie-ins with the

National Council of Negro Women. However, unlike the fanfare that

accompanied the openings of federal residences for white women (i.e.,

receptions with congressmen and local and housing officials), dorms for black

48 “Housing for Negro Defense Workers,” Monthly Labor Review, Volume 53, Number 3 (September 1941): 647; Wright, Far from Home, 59, 99, 102. 9 “Bissell Heads U.S. Residence Hall Project," Washington Post, October 20, 1942, 7.

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women simply opened their doors for business on an appointed day and time.50

Black Government Girls occupied just 4 out of 22 area residence halls

constructed during the war.51

Dormitories helped black women who planned to stay in the District for

long-term work, but those in town for shorter assignments had trouble finding a

place to sleep. While the Red Cross placed white volunteer trainees in

downtown hotels, black volunteers stayed in private homes or apartments in a

predominantly black Northeast residential neighborhood along East Capitol

Street. Training classes took place each day at the American University campus

in Northwest, requiring black women to travel an hour each way by bus. When

not working, the women had to journey even further out of their way to Shaw for

their meals, because no other restaurants in the city would serve them.52 Staying

in segregated Washington also posed a problem for movie star Kathryn Grayson.

The white actress and singer had a run-in with the management of the

prestigious Mayflower Hotel while in town performing with the U.S.O. The

Mayflower's manager told Grayson that her African-American maid could not stay

with her in her suite. When Grayson threatened to go with her maid to a hotel

that accepted blacks, the manager relented and made an exception to the

50 Midway Hall, First Negro Government Dormitory, Opens,” Washington Post, May 2, 1943, M10. 51 Letter from Lydia M. Jettson to Mary McLeod Bethune, June 23, 1943, in the Records of the National Council of Negro Women, Series 5, Box 38, Folder 6, MBCH; “2 Temporary Units Pose Problem on Sesqui Site,” Washington Post, December 2, 1949, B1; Fitzpatrick and Goodwin, The Guide to Black Washington, 124. 52 Lois I. Laster, interview with Brien R. Williams, February 23, 2000, ARC.

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rules.53 The Whitelaw Hotel at 13th and T streets, NW, served as the only

commercial hotel open to African Americans for the duration of the war.54

However, as most women who came to D.C. earned a government salary, or

even less if they worked in the private sector, few could afford such an expensive

luxury. Between the substandard conditions of affordable rooms for rent and lack

of available housing for both temporary and permanent transplants, African-

American women faced the most difficult housing prospects of all new

Washington residents.

Although black Government Girls faced difficulties finding shelter,

everyone living in the Washington area coped with potential hazards resulting

from the housing crisis. A 1943 congressional subcommittee conducted three

months of hearings on the overcrowded and unhealthy condition of the nation’s

capital. Inadequate housing for both low-income families and the incoming

female government workers topped the list as a major contributor to the threat of

an epidemic of typhoid fever and other contagious diseases and the overall poor

sanitation of the city. The subcommittee concluded: “We believe that an

epidemic of major proportions in what has become the ‘Capital of the world’

would be such a disastrous event that the War Production Board should be

compelled to recognize the needs of this community and give its approval to the

use of essential material for this purpose as a war measure.”55 Congressman

53 Maxene Andrews and Bill Gilbert, Over Here, Over There: The Andrew Sisters and the USO Stars in World War II (New York: Zebra Books, 1993), 63-4. 54 Paul K. Williams, Greater U Street (Charleston, S.C.: Arcadia Publishing, 2002), 48-50. 55 “Housing Group Gets Report Showing Poor Sanitation, Epidemic Condition in D.C.,” Washington Post, June 27, 1943, M14.

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Charles Plumely from Vermont went so far as to call Washington area housing

conditions “absolutely shocking” and a “dangerous menace.” He criticized D.C.

Commissioners for ignoring the situation and setting the city up for an epidemic.

Sanitation problems included filth from overused, rickety outhouses leaking out

onto the sidewalks and oozing down the streets. “Are we trying to commit mass

murder down here or suicide by sewage?” Plumley demanded. The

Representative insisted that Congress bore responsibility for any future

outbreaks of disease tied to war-related overcrowding as it held legal

guardianship for the nation’s capital.56

Female war workers living outside of the immediate city fared little better.

In Alexandria, Virginia, new developments built without proper drainage systems

leaked unregulated sewage into the city’s main water reservoir. Officials treated

the problem with chlorine so strong that it made the water undrinkable and

unusable. And residents of Greenway Downs, a private development in Falls

Church, Virginia, suffered with every rainfall as sewage backed up in their cellars

and poured out from under their houses. These calamitous results from bad

planning, rushed construction, and pressure to shelter struggling war workers

resulted in the resignation of the Falls Church mayor and two city council

members and several law suits against the city and county.57

Community groups in Maryland also expressed concern over conditions

brought about by war workers. A meeting of the Chevy Chase Community

56 “Insanitary [sic] Places Hold Danger of Epidemic, Plumely Warns,” Washington Post, March 23, 1943, 1, 6.

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Forum welcomed representatives from Congress, the Public Utilities

Commission, the Board of Public Welfare, and the League of Women Voters to

discuss the “oceanful of ills” afflicting the overpopulated district. The speakers

and more than 150 audience members discussed the city’s lack of proper

housing, health, transportation, recreation, and education facilities. Authority

figures and audience members agreed that D.C.’s existing infrastructure strained

under the demands imposed upon it by the influx of workers. Even with gas

rationing and a dearth of parking spaces, major roads and bridges into the city

remained impassable during business rush hours. Buses and streetcars

overflowed with war workers and locals jostling for room. Congressman John

Sparkman of Alabama declared Washington the exact opposite of the model city

it should be as “the nerve center of the Allied nations.” The Forum’s greatest

concern remained for the government workers’ physical and mental well being.

The stress of living under difficult circumstances added to limited recreational

and health facilities created increasing cases of melancholy among Government

Girls. Proposed solutions included building more government dormitories for the

women, locating funds for several thousand additional hospital beds, and

constructing an underground subway system in order to allow Government Girls

to commute to their downtown jobs from Maryland and Virginia. Concerned

citizens agreed that new growth outside the city’s limits would be necessary to

keep up with the ever-expanding workforce.58

57 Mary Spargo, “Health Perils, of New Housing Face Falls Church, Alexandria,” Washington Post, March 18, 1943, 1,8. 58 “Chevy Chase Forum Probes District’s Ills,” Washington Post, January 20, 1942, 15.

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female war workers had to worry about chicanery and dangers coming from their

own living quarters. By 1943 the number of landlords filing nuisance complaints

with the District’s Landlord Tenant Court in attempt to evict tenants gained

attention from housing authorities. The Washington Housing Association

recognized the practice as a way for unscrupulous apartment owners to

circumvent the 1942 rent control laws and charge new tenants more money for

the same apartment. Joseph P. Anderson, director of the War Housing Center,

warned Government Girls to watch out for “ruthlessly commercial lodging house

keepers” who were pulling bait and switch operations on prospective tenants.59

These owners listed rooms with the Registry for boarding houses that met all of

the requirements to pass inspection. But, when women arrived at the given

address, they found the advertised room supposedly already taken. The

landlords then directed them to other, substandard houses they owned.

Profiteering also flourished in Washington. For example, police arrested Charles

Nash for operating a typical scheme. He illegally evicted his tenants from a four-

room dilapidated apartment in Foggy Bottom that rented for $12.50 per month.

Nash then divided the apartment in half, put in running water, and charged $33

per month for each new space.60 In an effort to protect Government Girls from

such questionable practices, District defense and housing agencies formed

59 “Washington Housing Association Minutes, January 14, 1943,”2, WHA Records, Container 2, Folder 14, HSW. 60 Mary Spargo, “D.C. Housing Racket Revealed,” Washington Post, November 18, 1942, B1.

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committees to meet women at the train and bus stations to help them get safely

settled.61

Being overcharged seemed benign compared to the physical dangers

confronting women war workers in Washington. Orman W. Ewing became the

city’s most infamous wartime landlord. In 1942 the 55-year-old former

Democratic National Committeeman owned several boarding houses in the

District. One of his 19-year-old tenants, a Government Girl at the Office of

Production Management, accused Ewing of raping her in her own bed only two

weeks after she moved into one of his houses. Ewing knew the young

stenographer’s family and had taken her sightseeing when she first came to the

city from Utah. After a sensational court case that included accusations of

perjury against several witnesses, allegations of bribery by both sides, and

prosecutorial demands for the death penalty, a jury found Ewing guilty of the

attack. The details of the case filled newspapers for months, and the message it

sent to female boarders rang clear: danger may be lurking as close as your own

bedroom.62

Another message sent out to Government Girls came from gender-biased

landlords. The Washington Times-Herald reported, "Although more than 80 per

cent of war workers are women, 70 per cent of renting householders won't give

61 “Washington Housing Association Minutes,” November 17, 1943, 2, WHA Records, Container 2, Folder 16, HSW; Christine Sadler, “Plans Weighed to Steer Girls From Questionable D.C. Houses,” Washington Post, December 3,1941. 62 Robert W. Harvey, "Ewing Found Guilty Of Attack On 19-yr.-old Government Girl: Jury Finds Ewing Guilty Of Attack," Washington Post, February 22, 1942, 1; "Ewing Files Plea For Retrial In Attack Case," Washington Post, February 27, 1942, 1; "Witness Tried To Frame Ewing, Court Hears," Washington Post, March 12, 1942, 6; "Angry Words Flare at Ewing Proceedings."

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them house room, if they can help it."63 Landlords found male tenants less work

and less trouble than female tenants. The latter tended to "get lipstick on

napkins, nail polish on towels, and cold cream on the sheets."64 Another

proprietor complained that the women laid wet towels on the bedspreads and

made so much noise that the neighbors complained.65 Still another property

owner cited problems with female renters who raided her refrigerator for midnight

snacks, returned from parties inebriated, "necked" on the front steps until 2 or 3

o'clock in the morning, and pasted pictures of Nelson Eddy and other movie stars

on the bedroom walls.66 Male tenants were less likely to entertain in the common

rooms or take excessive time in the bathroom to get ready in the morning.

The plague of the female tenant became a favorite topic in the local press.

Articles entitled “Girl Tenants Not Desired” and “Just Because You Rent a Room,

You’re No Angel!” printed quotes and letters from aggrieved landlords.67 One

landlady complained, “We are told these girls come for patriotic reasons and that

they are proud to serve their country. Then why don’t they force themselves to

like their present accommodations and surroundings and stop acting as if the

whole war is a lark and just one continuous picnic.” A few property owners wrote

Washington Post, March 25, 1942, 17; "Frameup Tale Fake, Ewing Witnesses Say: Ewing Witnesses Confess Perjury," Washington Post, April 17,1942, 1. 63 Eleanor Early, "Girls' Hotel Built for War Workers," Washington Times-Herald, March 25, 1942, 1, Vertical File, MLK. 64 Ibid. 65 John Maynard, "Tales of Our Time: Them Landlords," Washington Times-Herald, October 18, 1942, Vertical File, MLK. 66 James E. Chinn, "Old Mansions Fail to Meet Standards as Rooming Houses" The Washington Star, June 23, 1942, Vertical File, MLK. 67 “Girl Tenants Not Desired,” The Washington Post, January 30, 1942, 5; “Just Because You Rent a Room, You’re No Angel!”, 15; "Tales of Our Time: Them Landlords,” The Washington Times-Herald, October 18, 1942; Vertical File, MLK.

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in to defend the Government Girls. One young proprietor insisted, “My husband

and I are only 28 years old so we can really get together with these folks and

have lots of fun.”68 However, the onus of behavior remained on the tenant, and

women often had to convince boarding house owners of their upstanding

character and impeccable habits before they were allowed to rent a room.

In “Shifting Mores: Esther Bubley's World War II Boarding House Photos,”

Leslie Davol suggests that many of these perceived problems with female

boarders surfaced because working women and the boarding house environment

posed a threat to traditional notions of domesticity and women's place in society.

Like other war-affected cities, the capital had become a site for the redefinition of

gender identity, providing expanding opportunities for women in areas that, in the

years between the wars, had been predominantly male. Boarding houses

provided an environment in which traditional conceptions of women in the home

were turned upside down. Women lived alone, in groups, or even on the same

floors as men. These changes left room for refashioning of women's roles and

identities. Such crowded and unguarded environments helped blur the

boundaries between public and private life both physically and socially. In an era

when the "public" sphere of work and the "private" sphere of home contained

strongly entrenched gender associations, the boarding house mix of single,

unconstrained young men and women provided a unique site for trying on and

transforming gender roles.69

68 “Just Because You Rent a Room, You’re No Angel!” 15. 69 Davol, "Shifting Mores: Esther Bubley's World War II Boarding House Photos," 58.

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In order to make sense of these shifting norms, the media tried to assign

traditionally accepted behavior to women in non-traditional circumstances. Films

and newspapers rarely covered the newly independent Government Girls without

insisting that their true heart’s desire lay not in working but in finding a husband.

In 1943's popular movie The More the Merrier, Jean Arthur plays a Government

Girl who, out of a patriotic duty, decides to share her apartment to help with

wartime overcrowding. Her orderly and contented life gets thrown into chaos

when her elderly gentleman boarder decides she can not possibly feel complete

without a husband and decides to find her a good man. By the end of the

comedy, Arthur’s character chooses love over career ambitions, and she lives

happily wedded after.70 A Washington Post reporter used even more direct

language to promote the same conclusion. A 1943 article on boarding houses

ended with the teaser, "Read tomorrow about the lonely girls of Washington.

They get wonderful jobs, but they can't get a wonderful man!"71 Washington’s

Government Girls, these types of stories conveyed, may look and act differently

than most Americans have become accustomed to, but, underneath it all, they

still longed for and prized the familiar, domestic life.

Many Government Girls did find love and marriage during their stays in

Washington’s boarding houses. According to one newspaper article, each spring

the "love barometer" at Scott's Club rose and fostered as many as 12 to 14

70 The More the Merrier, Universal Pictures, 1943. 71 Rosenfeld, "'Government Girls': World War ll's Army of the Potomac," May 10, 1999.

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marriages-no doubt encouraged by those romantically named necking parlors.72

For other couples proximity could be just as effective an aphrodisiac. John

Taylor, a California transplant working at the Archives, remembers the exact

moment he met his future wife. They passed by each other in the hallway of their

boarding house within the first hour of the first day he moved to Washington.73

The excitement and pain of such wartime love fills the pages of Anne L.

McLaughlin’s semi-autobiographical novel, The House on Q Street. Rebecca

Vaughn, a newly commissioned WAVE ensign falls in love with her fellow

boarder, a warrant officer stationed at the Navy Department. The story follows

the couple through the perils of dating while under the same roof, wartime losses,

and the connections that could create close bonds between strangers living

together through the drama of war.74 Yet, for the duration of the war, the

domestic ideal for Washington women had more to do with finding a room than a

mate.

Finding that place to call home, even temporarily, proved a daunting task

for women in Washington during World War II. The female war workers

exacerbated the city’s housing shortage, taxed its transportation, public health

system, and community resources, and challenged accepted notions of gender

roles. Where a woman lived depended upon the work she performed, rent she

could afford, date she arrived in the city, and the color of her skin. The federal

72 "Let's Get A cqu a in te d Agricultural Exchange, March 21, 1941, Vertical File, MLK; "New Girls' Dormitory Has Its 'Romeo and Juliet' Parlors," The Washington Star, May 11, 1942, Vertical File, MLK. 73 John Taylor interview with author, March 11, 2003.

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government took responsibility for accommodating military women, built

dormitories for approximately twenty percent of Government Girls, and ran a

housing center to help the thousands of newcomers arriving in Washington every

week. However, the supply of rooms could not keep pace with demand. As the

center for military and civilian wartime operations, Washington’s need for workers

grew throughout the war. The single, white, young women who made up the

majority of the workforce struggled to navigate a system that was difficult to

understand, constantly changing, and often hostile to their presence and

behavior. African-American women faced additional burdens from segregated

neighborhoods, limited government assistance, and lack of short-term options.

Even when women secured housing, problems stemming from overwrought

sanitation systems, unsanitary living spaces, or profiteering landlords threatened

their well being. However, in the midst of such chaos, or maybe because of it,

women instigated and developed close-knit residential communities. Activities

committees, athletic teams, theater guilds, religious groups, and other

associations created by Government Girls and servicewomen provided outlets for

them to interact, learn about each other, and develop personal connections.

Living together helped Government Girls develop a community that was

distinguished from the local population. Female workers left their families and

friends to come to Washington--where most did not know a single person--and

most found friendship, camaraderie, and social acceptance from their fellow

74 Anne L. McLaughlin, The House on Q Street (Santa Barbara, California: John Daniel & Company, 2002).

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housemates. Washington was forced to provide the legions of female military

and civilian government workers relocating from across the country a specialized

mixture of housing solutions that varied in their suitability, comfort, and success.

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ALL WORK AND NO PLAY....:

SOCIAL LIFE IN WARTIME

WASHINGTON

“No doubt about it- wartime Washington is the most thrilling city that ever was.” Columnist Hope Ridings Miller, Washington Post, September 15, 1943

A few weeks before an Ohio woman planned to accompany her husband

to Washington, she wrote to a local journalist for advice. Her husband’s business

dealings with the government would occupy their days, but after hours they

hoped to join the city’s infamous party scene. The journalist responded with a

step-by-step guide on how to crash embassy cocktail parties. “None of them will

know who you are,” he concluded, “but it will not matter because most of them

don’t know each other.” The woman followed the plan and, upon her return to

Ohio, contacted the reporter to assure him that she and her husband had a

wonderful time, managing to squeeze in three parties a night without being found

out.1 The Midwest couple’s adventure epitomized social life in wartime

Washington: abundant, frenzied, unpredictable, often impersonal, but usually

thrilling. An average small-town Jane could end up drinking a champagne

1 David Brinkley, Washington Goes to War (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1988), 150-151.

116

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cocktail next to a high-ranking senator or foreign ambassador--an experience

nearly impossible in peacetime.

The visitors from Ohio caught a glimpse of the opportunities available on a

daily basis to Washington’s Government Girls and servicewomen, who worked

hard and long, but managed to find time and energy to experience all the city had

to offer. Because the majority of women workers who came to Washington did

so without any family members, they turned to other workers, male and female,

to try to create through casual acquaintances the intimacy that they missed by

being away from home. Evelyn Stotler, a clerk with the Army Map Service,

witnessed the need for friendship and fun: “Everyone was working hard on

various war activities; but also people were craving emotional release.”2 This

need to release the pressures and tensions brought on by the war drove workers

to spend as much time and money as they had on entertainment. The New York

Times ran a piece on Washingtonians’ many pastimes reporting, “Folks still have

money to go to the movies, the ball park, the prizefights, the dance halls, the

amusement parks, the beer halls, the cocktail bars and the roof gardens...There

are squawks about high prices but no dearth of customers.” 3 The sheer volume

of the city’s new arrivals forced an increase in the variety and quantity of

entertainment options. Because of the selection of activities available, the

plethora of people with whom to interact, and the need to forge personal

2 Evelyn W. Stotler, "Wartime in Washington, D.C." in Pauline E. Parker, ed., Women of the Homefront (Jefferson, North Carolina and London: McFarland & Company, Inc. 2002), 71. 3 Luther Houston, Washington- a Summer Portrait,” New York Times, July 25, 1943, SM13.

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connections, social life in wartime Washington provided women with the

opportunity to experiment with new places, people, and roles.

Government service offered many women their first chance to visit the

nation’s capital. The prospect of visiting the celebrated city while serving the

country’s needs served as an enticing bonus. Betty Louise Wright arrived in

wartime Washington from the Midwest and gushed over the differences she

found: “There were many new things to learn. I had never seen milk that came in

cartons instead of glass bottles, nor streetcars running on a third rail instead of a

trolley. Fireflies were new and fascinating...There were new foods, such as kale,

butter brickie ice cream, and all sorts of strange sandwiches.”4 Red Cross

trainee Margaret Gooch Duffy was impressed by the city’s beautiful buildings and

being so close to the important people she had only previously read about. “We

were right at the center of everything,” Duffy remembered. “You could almost feel

the pulse of things.”5 Eunice Wilson arrived at Union Station from Nebraska to

serve as a Wac (Women’s Army Corps) at the Pentagon and thought, “Here is a

country girl in this beautiful big city, the capital of our nation and I must remember

this all my life.”6

Exploring the city became a priority for women like Wilson, who

appreciated Washington’s history and monumental beauty. During World War II,

D.C. fell short of rationed goods, accommodations, and cabs, but it offered plenty

in the way of tourist attractions. Marine Althea Parch was assigned to

4 Betty Louise Wright, "A Government Girl in Washington" in Parker, Women of the Homefront, 65-67. 5 Margaret Gooch Duffy interview with Brien R. Williams, May 30, 2001, ARC.

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Henderson Hall for only five months, but spent as much of her free time as

possible squeezing in visits to the Mall, Smithsonian, Washington Monument,

Senate, and foreign embassies.7 Women with no extra income to spend on

leisure activities could still take advantage of free activities such as watching the

Supreme Court, attending lectures at the Library of Congress, strolling through

the National Arboretum, and viewing the Capitol, congressional buildings, and

national memorials. Two recent additions, the Mellon Art Gallery, opened in

1941, and the Jefferson Memorial, completed in 1943, became popular with both

new and existing residents. However, Government Girls did not limit their

sightseeing to monuments or the downtown corridor. The owner of the Tabard

Inn, which housed WAVE (Women’s Auxiliary Volunteer Services) officers,

packed her car with tenants for Sunday sightseeing trips to Fredericksburg,

Warrenton, and Leesburg, Virginia.8 On weekends government clerk Evelyn

Stotler gathered groups of friends for bike rides across the Potomac River to visit

Arlington National Cemetery and Lee’s Mansion.9 And Lieutenant Helen Gunter

and a fellow WAVE enjoyed weekend tours of historic Georgetown gardens.

“Unfortunately,” Gunter lamented, “our feet gave out before we completed the

circuit.”10 Washington’s public treasures proved accessible and appealing to

6 Eunice Wilson interview with Judy Bellefaire, April 28, 2003, WIMSA. 7 Peter A. Soderburgh, Women Marines: The World War II Era (Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, 1992), 103. 8 Helen Clifford Gunter, Navy Wave: Memories of World War II(Fort Bragg, California: Cypress House Press, 1992), 53. 9 Stotler, "Wartime in Washington, D.C.," 71. 10 Gunter, Navy Wave, 73.

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incoming female war workers and offered women opportunities to get to know

each other outside of work.

An average summer Sunday during the war could find approximately

100,000 people taking advantage of facilities in D.C.’s immense and verdant

Rock Creek Park.11 In addition to hiking and picnicking, women played tennis,

rented bicycles, and rode horses. Washingtonians also took advantage of Glen

Echo Park in Bethesda. Like many amusement parks of the time, Glen Echo

was built by the local transit company, Capital Transit, as a way to generate

revenue. Throughout the summer, residents could get there by way of a short

bus or streetcar ride.12 A woman might find a dance partner at the Spanish

Ballroom, have a glass of beer or two, and ride the merry-go-round. John Taylor

fondly recalls accompanying his future wife on a date to Glen Echo's ballroom for

the music and the chance to escort her around the elegant dance floor. Adults,

teenagers, and families all made use of the picnic grounds, roller coaster,

bumper cars, and swimming pool.13 It offered such a popular rural oasis from the

heat and bustling streets of the city that during the war years the owners opened

the park over a month earlier than usual to service the crowds.

Free concerts became another warm weather favorite for Government

Girls. Military bands often used the Sylvan Theater at the base of the Washington

Monument for celebrations like the first anniversary of the WAVES, with four

11 "Red Cross Opens New First-Aid Station in Rock Creek Park," The Washington Star, July 12, 1942, Vertical File, MLK. 12 Robert Harrigan, Pastimes in Washington: Leisure Activities in The Capital Area, 1800-1995 (Bowie, Maryland: Heritage Books, Inc., 2002), 188.

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thousand parading corps members; touring bands gave open-air performances in

East Potomac Park; noon time concerts sounded out from the steps of the

Treasury building, and the Washington Post sponsored musical acts in Meridian

Hill Park.14 But the most memorable concerts for D.C. residents took place at the

Watergate, a floating barge anchored in the Potomac River off the west side of

the Lincoln Memorial. Although the music began at sunset, audiences set up

chairs and blankets along the river’s edge by late afternoon. Government Girls

sat with their friends or dates on the back of the Lincoln Memorial or anchored

canoes and small boats in the water around the barge. Late-comers made do

with an unclaimed patch of grass, which was equally detrimental to pastel

summer dresses and Navy whites. Local musicians, the National Symphony

Orchestra, big bands, and name draws like Frank Sinatra all played the unique

venue.15

For many women, one of the greatest benefits of living in Washington

during the war was the possibility of celebrity sightings. Between dignitaries

coming through the city on war business and stage and screen stars selling war

bonds and performing for the troops, opportunities for star gazing abounded.

Royal visits to Washington were common enough experiences in peacetime, but

in wartime they provided a welcome bit of sizzle to the war weary. At both public

13 John Taylor interview with author March 11, 2003; Elizabeth Delean Cozad interview with author June 14, 2004. 14 “Band Concert Loosens Rolls of Hepcats,” Washington Post, April 1, 1942, 19; Soderburgh, Women Marines, 103; Wright, "A Government Girl in Washington," 66 15 Stephen Kuyunak interview with author, August 3, 2004; Sibyl Smith interview with author, June 14, 2004; Paul K. Williams, Washington, D.C.: The World War II Years (Charleston, S.C.: Arcadia, 2004), 59.

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functions and formal dinners, Kings and Queens elicited a touch more excitement

than regular foreign dignitaries. In 1940 the U.S. offered refuge to Norway’s

Crown Princess Martha and her three young children. They stayed as guests of

President Roosevelt before settling into a mansion in Bethesda, Maryland for the

duration of the war. In addition to diplomatic events, the royal family made public

appearances to support the war effort, hosted Girl Scout meetings and became

favorite subjects for gossip columnists. A royal sighting provided much dinner

table conversation for awe-struck Government Girls. Regal visits from King Peter

of Yugoslavia, King George of Greece, and Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands

drew media attention but, because they were less identifiable, less enthusiasm

from locals. The majority of the public caught only passing glimpses of these and

other distinguished political visitors. The most recognized and appreciated of

these, Winston Churchill, generated countless amateur impressions.16

Royalty created buzz around town, but the possibility of seeing or meeting

favorite performers during this Golden Age of Hollywood generated untold

excitement among female followers. Fan magazines were at the height of their

popularity during the 1940s and women were the primary readers. As many of

the women who relocated to Washington were from smaller towns and cities,

they had little previous opportunity to come in contact with the beautiful or

glamorous idols they read about. Publicized events attracted thousands of

16 Joan Kelly, “Embassy Row Gets a New Princess,” Washington Post, September 20, 2005, C10; Vera Bloom, There’s No Place Like Washington (New York: Putnam’s Sons, 1944), 288-9; see Holger H. Herwig and David J. Bercuson, One Christmas in Washington: The Secret Meeting between Roosevelt and Churchill That Changed the World. (Woodstock and New York: The Overlook Press, 2005) for more on Churchill in Washington.

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Government Girls, servicewomen, and local residents. Thirty thousand fans

crammed into Treasury Plaza next to the White House to see Hedy Lamar,

Abbott and Costello, James Cagney, and Dinah Shore perform at a bond rally. A

packed audience watched screen legend Marlene Dietrich, singer Kate Smith

and other celebrities broadcast patriotic radio programs at the Navy and

Munitions Building. A capacity filled crowd at Griffith stadium cheered on Babe

Ruth in an exhibition game and watched Bing Crosby belt out “White Christmas”

from the pitcher’s mound. These bond rallies were often more of an artistic coup

than a fundraising success, but they created unforgettable memories for those in

attendance.17 WAVE Florence “Pinky” Bernard remembered her brief viewing of

handsome movie star Tyrone Powers as “very exciting!”18 And Government Girl

Mary Wright recalled being late for work because, just as she was ready to board

her bus, an Army cavalcade drove by on Pennsylvania Avenue carrying Lucille

Ball, Dick Powell, and the Marx Brothers. She was so star-struck, the bus pulled

out before she could tear herself away from the spectacle.19

Women looking for a more active and structured approach to recreation

had several outlets from which to choose. Female workers living in dorms,

boarding houses, and barracks formed social clubs that organized weekly group

events ranging from attending concerts to hosting in-house mixers. One favorite

17 "Burgess Meredith Entertains 300 Key Drive Workers" Washington Post, April 17, 1943, 1; "Group to Plan Free Tickets for Concerts," Washington Post, June 8, 1943, B1; Harold Rabinowitz, A Sentimental Journey: America in the '40s(Pleasantville, New York and Montreal: The Reader's Digest Association, Inc. 1998), 124; Williams, Washington, D.C., 51, 53. 18 Soderburgh, Women Marines, 80.

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group outing for women involved dressing up and heading to the elegant tea

room at the Woodward & Lothrop department store, where the English-style

meals included finger sandwiches, imported teas, and Wellesley fudge cake, the

house specialty.20 Because rationing depleted much of department stores’ stock,

the women rarely stayed after tea to browse or window shop. As it was often

difficult for Washington’s new brigade of working women to get to stores before

they closed at 6 p.m. during the week, retailers implemented a late-night

Thursday that allowed women to shop for essential items until 9 p.m.21

Women in social clubs looking for cheaper fare than high tea preferred a

trip to the cafeteria at People’s Drugstore at 12th and G streets, NW. For 25

cents a Government Girl got a grilled cheese sandwich, a Coke, and an Eskimo

pie 22 National Theater was another popular destination for club members.

Helen Gunter went on such an excursion and counted every one of the 76 stairs

it took to climb to cheap seats in the upper balcony. Seeing her first stage

musical made the physical exertion worthwhile.23 Sales to social clubs helped

make the World War II years National Theater’s most prosperous period 24

Regardless of which activities club members pursued, the shared pursuit of fun

19 Mary Herring Wright, Far from Home: Memories of World War II and Afterward (Washington, D.C.: Gallaudet University Press, 2005), 40. 20 Joanne Lichty interview with author, July 29, 2004; Smith interview, July 8, 2004; Roselyn Dresbold Silverman, "World War II in Washington; Life at Dissin's," The Record 22 [Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington] (1997), 44. 21 David L. Lewis, A History of the District of Columbia, (Washington, D.C.: Associates for Renewal in Education, Inc., 1980), 8-9. 22 Margaret Crook interview with author, May 27, 2005. 23 Gunter, Navy Wave, 56, 176. 24 Harrigan, Pastimes in Washington, 190.

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helped create bonds of friendship and allowed Government Girls to become part

of an extended group of women who shared their interests.

Both federal and local government also provided women with organized

leisure activities. The Women's Bureau of the Department of Labor published a

handbook with recommendations for government-sponsored programs to help

with the “special needs of women.” The Bureau believed that “wholesome”

outlets for physical, mental, educational, cultural, creative, and social activities

(including ample association with men) could help keep the female war worker

healthy and productive. Bureau officials deemed recreation especially important

due to the “three-fold pressure of strange surroundings, overcrowding, and the

speeding up of industry.” 25

Washington’s War Hospitality Committee and Recreation Services

decided that clubs for civilian workers were one solution to these pressures. The

Walsh Club for War Workers, so named because it operated out of a building

owned by socialite Evalyn Walsh McLean, was a center for federal employees

from 17 to 70. The twenty-five cent membership fee helped cover expenses for

the center’s offerings such as dances, bridge tournaments, and language

courses. Members could run for Club office, serve on an organizing committee,

or just enjoy the camaraderie of fellow workers. The Hearthstone War Workers

Club served a similar function for African-American government employees. The

Club lasted for only three-quarters of 1944, closing because of fuel shortages.

25 Recreation and Housing, Women War Workers: A Handbook on Standards, Bulletin No. 190 (Washington, D.C.: Women's Bureau of the U.S. Department of Labor, 1942), 2, 11, NARA.

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During its brief run, however, it provided refuge and activities for 55,956 war

workers and 1,806 servicemen. Another club, the Banneker Service Center, was

geared towards helping military personnel en route through the city, so was not

available as a club for servicewomen. Washington’s enlisted women made do

with activities organized by the military at their individual duration residences.26

For additional diversions personnel branches of government agencies like

the Office of Price Administration (OPA) offered their employees athletic

opportunities. An open strip of land behind the Mellon Art Gallery became known

as the OPA campus. Government Girls obtained special permits to play tennis,

badminton, volleyball, croquet, and touch football 27 The Census Bureau,

Department of Agriculture, Veterans’ Bureau, and a dozen other agencies

sponsored women’s softball teams that played under the aegis of the U.S.

Government Girl League. Games took place during weekends on a field in West

Potomac Park complete with cheering sections of fellow workers. Although the

Senators remained the epitome of baseball in Washington, Government Girls

developed a competitive and popular league.28

26 Report of Commissioners of the District of Columbia for the Year Ending June 30, 1945 (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1946), 200, MLK; Report of Commissioners of the District o f Columbia for the Year Ending June 30, 1944 (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1945), 197, MLK; “Social Survey,” 1946, ll-D-7, Series 5, Box 32, Folder 9, MBCH. 27 Luther Huston, "Uncle Sam's Seminary for Girls," New York Times Magazine, December 6, 1942, 8, 31. 28 In 1943, chewing gum magnate and Chicago Cubs owner Philip K. Wrigley sponsored the All- American Girls Professional Baseball League as alternative wartime entertainment for baseball fans. The league gained notoriety when it was portrayed in the 1992 film A League of Their Own. The four teams were set up in cities close to Chicago. The league lasted until 1954, soon after men’s baseball became televised and attendance dropped off. Washington, D.C. did not have a comparable professional league for women. “Government Girls’ League Will Open,” Washington Post, May 8, 1938, X2; “Census Girls Top General Accounting,” Washington Post, May 15, 1941, 26; Emily Yellin, Our Mothers' War: American Women at Home and at the Front During World War II (New York and London: Free Press, 2004), 300-1.

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In an effort to facilitate respectable, chaperoned male-female interaction,

the newly created D.C. Recreation Department set up the Women's Battalion.

This organization arranged for female government employees to serve as dance

partners to service personnel in nearby Fort Belvoir, Fort Meade, Quantico,

Bolling Field, and other posts.29 Women submitted their names in boxes

mounted in government offices and dorms. Applicants then undertook a lengthy

screening process to determine their suitability and eligibility. Each candidate

filled out forms giving her name, hometown, employer, height, weight, age, and

an estimation of her dancing ability. Once she passed this preliminary step, a

potential dancer faced an interview with a Women’s Battalion representative to

rate her personality and appearance (attractive, good, or fair). The woman’s

employer filled out an additional form detailing her honesty, character, and loyalty

to the United States. If chosen, the women received temporary guest cards for a

thirty-day trial membership in the Battalion. Chartered buses, each carrying forty

women, a chaperone, and two Red Cross nurses, left Washington around 7 p.m.

for dances that went from 8 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. The Battalion also hosted its own

dances for soldiers in Washington on leave.30

The “draftettes” attracted national attention and sparked interest from

women and promoters in creating similar programs around the country. A few

29 A group called Recreation Services, Inc. had been in charge of organizing dances for soldiers and women, but turned the job over to the new District of Columbia Recreation Department when it was approved by Congress in 1943. “Girl Workers’ Recreation Plan Mapped,” Washington Post, April 19, 1942, 14. 30 “Army Dancees Will Register Every 2 Weeks,” Washington Post, March 11, 1941, 3; Marjorie Barstow Greenbie, “Uncle Sam’s Prettiest Battalion,” Christian Science Monitor (April 11, 1942): 1, 14.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. negative responses came in as well. A Baptist preacher from Pennsylvania

declared the plan “immoral and unsafe for young girls” and a local man insisted

that, while he gladly gave his son to the war effort, he’d never allow his daughter

to be drafted as a dancer.31 A widely reprinted story reporting that Washington-

area servicemen used a “date machine” with levers marked for blondes,

brunettes, redheads, tall, short, blue eyes, green eyes, etc. to order up the

perfect partner may have given women momentary pause before applying for the

Battalion.32 However, area servicemen enthusiastically embraced the program.

Joseph Jones, a twenty-year-old sailor stationed at the Navy Yard, remarked,

“They’re a nice bunch of girls. They all shape up pretty well. A little above

average, I’d say.”33 Other appreciative GIs sent the volunteers fan mail and

requests for dates. “Why not try a marine?” pleaded one admirer. “Uncle Sam

needs you,” another man wrote. “So do I.” And one confident sailor suggested,

“Have a date with a Navy man and see the world.”34

Government Girls also enjoyed the mixers. Federal Communications

Commission clerk Corrine Perry repeatedly volunteered for the dances because

she thought the idea was “cute” and offered “a chance for girls coming here from

other cities who have no social connections in Washington to meet some fine

31 “Girls Regard D.C. Draftettes With Envy, Letters Disclose,” Washington Post, March 19, 1941, 2. 32 Barstow Greenbie, “Uncle Sam’s Prettiest Battalion,” 14. 33 “120 Girls Find Army Dancing ‘Patriotic—and a Lot of Fun’,” Washington Post, August 22, 1942, 5. 34 “Marines, First in War, Try To Be First Dating D.C. Girls,” Washington Post, November 15, 1942, 11.

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men.”35 Kay Wilson, a stenographer for the Civil Service Commission, admitted

that she liked going to the military bases because she was “susceptible to

uniforms.” And Vanda Hermann, a typist for the Coast Guard, became a dance

partner because, she explained, “The men in the service I know are all a very

decent bunch of fellows. It’s only fair to give them a chance to meet some nice

girls.”36 Applications for membership outnumbered available slots throughout the

war. Over 6500 members regularly attended dances four nights a week.37 The

Battalion eventually expanded its repertoire to include co-ed picnics, boat rides

on the Potomac, and bicycle trips to Rock Creek Park.38

Both military dances and field trips were open to white men and women

only. Segregation in Washington extended into recreational facilities and

entertainment venues.39 However, because D.C. had facilities owned by both

local and federal governments, segregation policies varied according to

whichever legislative body controlled a particular location. Secretary of the

Interior Harold Ickes began the desegregation of federally owned properties in

1939. By 1941 most of the recreational facilities in Washington were integrated,

but D.C. laws and local segregationist policies remained intact. Conflicts and

confusion occurred often, especially in situations in which the federal government

owned the land but the local government owned or operated the physical

35 “Cute, Say Girls Of Plan to Draft Dance Partners,” Washington Post, February 6, 1942, 1,4. 36 “Ready to Serve Their Country,” Washington Post, April 8, 1943, B4. 37 Women’s Battalion To Provide 6500 Dance Partners,” Washington Post, August 22, 1943, X13. 38 Lewis, A History of the District of Columbia, 12; “Girl in a Mob,” American Magazine 134 (October 1942): 35.

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structure. For example, because the swimming pool at Haines Point lay on

federal property it should have been open to all residents, but, because

management of the pool fell under local jurisdiction, it denied access to African

Americans. Out of the fifty public pools in Washington, only five allowed entry to

blacks. The issue became so controversial that the federal government

considered withdrawing certain facilities from jurisdiction of the local Board.

African Americans enjoyed federally owned mainstays such as the National Zoo,

Smithsonian Museum, Library of Congress, and Washington Monument, but

National Theater (the only equity stage in D.C.), downtown first-run cinemas,

supper clubs at the Shoreham, Statler, Willard, Mayflower, and other top hotels,

bars, restaurants, country clubs, and any other city or privately owned white-only

entertainment or night spot remained off limits.40

In response to D.C.’s segregation policies, black residents created an

enclave of their own. For several decades, including the war years, the U Street

corridor in Northwest Washington served as a “downtown” district for African

Americans. It contained the core of the black community’s business, retail, and

entertainment interests. Banks, groceries, churches, theaters, restaurants,

stores, and clubs catering to and/or owned by African Americans lined the area

around the intersection of 14th and U streets, NW (or “You” as it was often

39 For further discussion of segregation in Washington’s entertainment outlets, see Marya Annette McQuirter, “Claiming the City: African Americans, Urbanization and Leisure in Washington, D.C., 1902-1954,” Ph.D. dissertation, (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, 2000). 40 “Social Survey,” ll-C-25-6; Spencer R. Crew, “Melding the Old and the new: The Modern African American Community, 1930-1960” in Francine Curro Cary, ed., Urban Odyssey: A Multicultural History of Washington, D.C. (Washington and London: Smithsonian Institution Press,

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spelled). This corridor ensured that black Washingtonians did not have to face

the indignities of Jim Crowism from white retailers such as those prevalent at

Garfinckels department store. Saleswoman Barbara deFranceaux recalled,

“They didn’t allow any blacks. You tried to avoid waiting on them and you

certainly didn’t let them try anything on. You let the floor manager know. And

he’d sort of walk past and give the cold shoulder. They were not meant to feel

welcome at all. Not many blacks came in.”41 To avoid that type of prejudicial

treatment, shoppers, including newly arrived female war workers, crowded the U

Street area day and night seeking merchandise as well as a sense of community

and acceptance.

U Street boasted three of the nine movie houses open to blacks in the

District. Movies emerged as the most popular form of wartime entertainment in

America. Between 1940 and 1945 the total number of moviegoers increased by

over half a million and box office receipts more than doubled 42 Movie theaters in

Washington made money for the first time since the Depression. One D.C.

theater owner said he “put in two box offices for the cashiers and we still had

lines around the theaters all day and all night...we were making money hand

over fist."43 However, only one-third of the cinemas around Washington admitted

black patrons. While this often made movie-going inconvenient for residents, the

few theaters that did service the African-American community earned record

1996), 210; Keith Melder, City of Magnificent Intentions: A History of Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C. and Silver Spring, Maryland: Intac, Inc.), 428. 1 Barbara deFranceaux interview with author, August 6, 2003. 42 Rabinowitz, A Sentimental Journey, 107-108.

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sales. African-American theaters in the District attracted so many locals and

newcomers during the war that they sold $87,000 in war bonds between

September 20 and December 16, 1944 alone.44

In addition to movie theaters, the U Street corridor boasted some of the

liveliest nightlife in Washington. African-American Government Girl Mary Wright

worked with “a group of young, single adults who liked to go to the clubs on U

Street when they got off at night and party.”45 These women could choose from

any number of superlative night spots. Cabarets, supper clubs, dance halls, and

cafes featured top contemporary black artists. The popular Club Bali, Club

Bengasi, and Bohemian Caverns all offered two shows daily with local and big

name swing bands and jazz performers. Cafe society flocked to hear greats like

Nat King Cole, Jelly Roll Morton, and Cab Calloway jive through the night. The

Casbah and a few other clubs stayed open every night until 1 or 2 a.m. These

were rare after-hour hang outs in which to get food or listen to music in a city

noted for its residents’ pre-war predilection for retiring early. Women working

night shifts appreciated the opportunity for a few hours of fun they would normally

miss due to regular club hours.46

43 Robert K. Headley, Motion Picture Exhibition in Washington, D (NorthC. Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., 1999), 167. 44 Grace Ridgeley Drew, "Everything was Segregated" in Parker, Women of the Homefront, 73; Headley, Motion Picture Exhibition in Washington, D.C., 167, 169. 45 Wright, Far from Home, 45. 46 Club and theater advertisements, Washington Afro American, December 27, 1941, 15; Club and theater advertisements, Washington Afro American, April 4, 1942, 4; Club and theater advertisements, Washington Afro American, June 17, 1944, 9; Paul K. Williams, Greater U Street (Chicago: Arcadia Publishing, 2002), 38, 54-55, 67, 79, 128; Sandra Fitzpatrick and Maria R. Goodwin, The Guide to Black Washington (New York: Hippocrene Books, 1990), 212.

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Although the nightclubs attracted near-capacity crowds every night, the

Lincoln and Howard, two of the largest theaters in Washington, drew the most

patrons to the 14th and U commercial area. Both the 1600-seat Lincoln Theater,

often called the “jewel of U Street,” and the 1200-seat Howard Theater offered

first-run films and live performances. Finely dressed ushers greeted Lincoln

patrons and led them into arguably the most beautiful and largest black theater in

the world. Plays, musicals, and singing and dancing acts attracted audiences

from as far away as Philadelphia. A dance hall called the Lincoln Colonnade,

accessible through a tunnel running back from U Street, sat just behind the

theater. This space showcased smaller musical acts than the theater, but local

groups favored it most for fraternity and sorority dances, charity events, women’s

clubs events, and annual celebrations like Mardi Gras. Both Lincoln venues

became well-known for offering high-end productions.

The Howard Theater opened in 1910 as the nation's first, full-sized theater

built for black audiences and entertainers. The stage at 7th and T streets

promoted D.C. natives Duke Ellington and Pearl Bailey and other notable acts

such as Sarah Vaughn with Billy Eckstein and Dinah Washington with the Lionel

Hampton Band. White entertainers like Artie Shaw and Louis Prima also played

at the theater, helping draw audiences that at times were up to 25 percent

white.47 The Howard and Lincoln auditoriums also hosted interracial crowds at

yearly presidential birthday celebrations. All-star events held around the city

47 Linda Wheeler, "Curtain May Rise Once Again For District's Lincoln Theater," Washington Post, August 17, 1989, D10; Williams, Greater U Street, 57, 79.

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raised money for President Roosevelt’s pet charity, infantile paralysis, and

anyone could purchase tickets. The President, the First Lady, Hollywood movie

stars, and famous crooners made appearances at the Lincoln and Howard

fundraisers to enjoy performers like Louis Armstrong and all-night dinner and

dancing48

There is no way to calculate how many white female workers ventured into

black areas of the city. However, enough white theater-goers mixed in with black

crowds that a local black resident, Charles Haywood, wrote the Washington Afro

American to complain. “Since our nation’s capital is such a disgustingly jim-crow

city, can you explain why white people can gain admittance to theatres where the

patronage is predominantly colored?” Haywood asked. He went on to argue that

white people should be denied access to all black food and entertainment

venues.49 Haywood’s remarks reveal that white people coming into the U Street

area created an undercurrent of racial tension. However, no major racial

incidents erupted during the war and the corridor’s lively atmosphere and first-

rate performers kept business prosperous for the duration.

Washington’s female war workers interacted across class boundaries as

well as racial boundaries. A 1940 magazine expose called “Tales Out of School,

by a Senator’s Daughter” revealed, “The social lines in Washington are more

numerous than the castes in India.”50 These lines formed a rigid protocol

48 “Mrs. Roosevelt, Movie stars at U Street Ball,” Washington Afro American, February 7, 1942, 3; Fitzpatrick and Goodwin, The Guide to Black Washington, 155, 157, 217-18. 49 “Reader Would Bar Whites from ‘Colored’ Theatres,” Washington Afro American, March 14, 1942,14. 50 As quoted in Lewis, A History of the District of Columbia, 12.

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structured around politics and power. Parties, dinners, galas, and receptions

traditionally sported guest lists taken, not from the social registry as in other

major American cities, but from a who’s who directory of government officials and

influence peddlers. Mingling in society and meeting interesting people was not

just a cultural pastime in Washington, it served as an elemental part of business

and deal making. Social order trickled down from the White House. Those

closest to the president in terms of personal and professional importance basked

in reflected glory and those farthest away from national or local professional

influence remained off the social radar.51 Government Girls and servicewomen

did not fit into any of the existing “castes” functioning in the city. On an individual

basis the women’s mostly lower level jobs gave them little importance in the

governmental structure but, en masse, their necessity to the war effort gave them

a greater public presence and significance. Because these career women never

stabilized into one social category or another, they were able to move more

fluidly between traditional classes and take advantage of the wartime breaks in

formal decorum.

Although wealthy and well-connected Washingtonians continued to hold

parties during World War II, the scope and format changed to reflect wartime

conditions. The upper class elite rarely held elaborate events, such as socialite

Evalyn Walsh McLean’s Sunday night dinners with dance orchestras, movies,

and catered food for more than a hundred, anymore. Rationing depleted

51 Kathryn Allamong Jacob, Capital Elite: High Society in Washington, D.C., after the Civil War (Washington and London: Smithsonian Institution press, 1995), 3.

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available supplies and sacrifices for the war effort became a badge of honor.

Debutante balls became the exception rather the rule (unlike Charleston and

New York). The Beaux Arts Society (which once staged a full-scale three-ring

circus at the Willard hotel), Alfalfa Club, and Gridiron Club suspended their

annual dinners for the duration. And the lowly cocktail party, once deemed

unsophisticated and gauche by social sophisticates, became a staple of

Washington life.52

As the visiting couple from Ohio looking to experience Washington’s party

circuit found out, the mass cocktail hour became "an omnipresent form of

entertainment" around the city.53 The more than 50 embassies and legations in

the District and the social elite opened their doors to dignitaries, government

officials, businesspeople, and their staffs nearly every night. This provided a way

for foreign governments to maintain diplomatic and wartime relations as well as

offer their countrymen posted in Washington opportunities to forge new

connections. Locals and high-ranking U.S. officials used the parties to gain

visibility and stay in the loop with the constantly changing flood of newcomers.

Because diplomats and their staffs could not possibly know who worked with or

for every influential person in town, Government Girls could easily slip in and out

of these parties and mingle with people at all levels of society. The “light brigade

charge” began about 4:30 every afternoon and continued past 8 p.m. Women

with stamina tried to squeeze in two or three cocktail parties a night. Because of

52 Lewis, A History of the District of Columbia, 4; Stuart A. Kallen, World War II: The War at Home (San Diego: Lucent Books, 2000), 97.

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the informal nature of the parties and the numbers of people who crammed into

each event, female war workers gained entry into an enclave to which they would

not normally have been invited. A Washington raconteur summed up the melting

pot effect the war had on people in the nation’s capital: “...society in wartime

Washington is a whirling of many waters-like splashing together in a gigantic

soup tureen a Manhattan, a martini, a scotch and soda, rye with water on the

side, a straight gin, bourbon with ginger ale, and bacardi rum.”54

Government Girls also had the opportunity to mix with women from

Washington’s various social strata through volunteer work and at service

organizations. As World War II preparations overtook the capital city, upper

class women sought ways to aid in the effort. An incident involving heiress and

Red Cross volunteer Marjorie Merriweather Post worked its way into Washington

folklore. One morning Merriweather sat at the organization’s headquarters rolling

bandages with a roomful of women from diverse backgrounds. After a few hours

she glanced down at her wrist, frowned, and looked back up in annoyance.

Merriweather leaned over to a neighboring volunteer. “Tell me, what time is it

dear?” she asked. “They forgot to wind my watch this morning.” The worker

simply stared back in stunned silence.55 Other elite women chose to contribute

in ways that felt more familiar to them. Peggy Vogel chaired the Home

Hospitality Committee, formed to provide “a touch of home and sociability” to

53 Thomas F. Troy, ed., Wartime Washington: The Secret OSS Journal of James Grafton Rogers 1942-1943 (Frederick, Maryland: University Publications of America, 1987), 169. 54 The Man at the Microphone, Washington Broadcast (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., 1944), 164.

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servicemen passing through Washington. Vogel planned house parties for the

men and invited Government Girls, debutantes, and politicians to eat, sing,

dance, and talk together. The soirees benefitted men far from home, but also put

female war workers in touch with their social betters and debutantes who were

“eager to make friends with girls whom they otherwise might not meet.”56

The Stage Door Canteen and the USO also offered outlets for

Government Girls and servicewomen to mingle with women of all classes. D.C.

native Helen Hayes founded the Stage Door Canteen in New York City as a

place for servicemen to spend their evenings eating, dancing, and watching live

performances. The organization, sponsored by the American Theatre Wing,

added a unique twist: in addition to regular volunteers, stage and screen

performers helped serve refreshments and danced with or socialized with the

men. The successful set-up spawned additional canteens in several cities.

Washington’s Canteen opened at the Belasco Theater in Lafayette Square in

1942. Orchestras played on the stage every evening and local female hostesses

served refreshments. The volunteer staff included women from high society,

high school and college, and workers ranging from Government Girls to maids.

Celebrities like Burgess Meredeth, Alfred Lunt, Milton Berle, and literary critic

55 William Wright, Heiress: The Rich Life of Marjorie Merriweather Post (Washington, D.C.: New Republic Books, 1978), 170. 56 Genevieve Reynolds, “Mrs. Vogel, Whose Parties Excel, Tells How to Give Service Men a Homey Welcome,” Washington Post, September 14, 1942, S9.

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Alexander Woolcott entertained at the Canteen. Within the first year of operation,

volunteers served an estimated 252,000 enlisted men and women.57

In a similar program, USO centers provided military personnel with a

“home away from home”--a place to rest, play cards, read books and magazines,

celebrate holidays, or attend organized social events. Founded in February

1941, the USO (United Service Organization) consisted of the YMCA, YWCA,

Salvation Army, National Catholic Community Services, and the National Jewish

Welfare Board. Long-time front man Bob Hope made the USO famous for its

overseas camp shows. However, the group ran hundreds of domestic clubs

across the U.S., staffed throughout the war by over a million and a half

volunteers. Washington boasted several USO centers. Donna Pearce, a

seventeen-year-old volunteer during the war, spent a typical evening talking,

dancing, serving coffee and doughnuts, and generally trying to alleviate

widespread homesickness.58 Celebrity performers and touring orchestras shared

the spotlight with local politicians. Comedian Ed Wynn joked about visiting a club

in Washington and finding members of Congress eating with servicemen. Wynn

quipped, “those poor fellas must be starving, because you know how long it takes

Congress to pass anything.”59 Military women also took advantage of the service

clubs, but in numbers proportional to their smaller representation in Washington.

57 Mary Connolly interview with author, June 24, 2005; “Capitol to have its own ‘Stage Door Canteen,’” Washington Post, August 1, 1942, 10; Anne Hagner, “Stage Door Canteen: 'Best Entertainment in Town,’” Washington Post, December 16, 1942, B2; Lewis, A History of the District of Columbia, 10; Robert Heide and John Gilman, Home Front America: Popular Culture of the World War II Era (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1995), 112-113. 58 Frank Coffey, Always Home: 50 Years of the USO (New York: Brassey's, Inc., 1991), 6.

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Through the two military service organizations, WACs, WAVES, SPARS (Coast

Guard- Semper Paratus), and Marines got the chance to meet and mingle with

women and men from all classes. The Canteens and USOs strove to function as

egalitarian playgrounds for service personnel and staff alike.60

In addition to organized and volunteer-based social interaction,

Government Girls came in contact with people from a variety of backgrounds at

the city’s numerous night spots. Unlike clubs in the African-American

community, which were concentrated in one area, establishments geared

towards white customers were scattered around town in the commercial district

and in outlying neighborhoods. Newspapers carried lists of each week’s theater

and club offerings. Government Girls and military women enjoyed music and

drinks at busy hot spots like the Casino Royal, Balalaika, Louts, Troika,

Dubbonet Room, Victory Room, Del Rio, Anchor Room, Pall Mall Room, and

Restaurant “823” and floor shows at the Wardman Park, Mayflower, Shoreham,

and Statler hotels.61 Government Girl Beth Campbell Short found space at the

clubs so limited that “you really needed pliers and a screwdriver” to get through

the crowd.62 Nightclubs gave women a place to relax and meet people outside of

59 Maxene Andrews and Bill Gilbert, Over Here, Over There: The Andrew Sisters and the USO Stars in World War II (New York: Zebra Books, 1993), 84. 60 Olga Gruhzit-Hoyt, They Also Served: American Women in World War (New II York: Carol Publishing Group, 1995), 132. 61 See Mary Harris, “Ringside Table with Mary Harris” Column, Washington Post, 1941-1945. 62 Beth Campbell Short interview #3 with Margo Knight, August 17, 1987, Washington Press Club Foundation Oral History Collection found at http://npc.press.org/wpforal/bcs3.htm.

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their workplace and boarding houses. “Even with a war on,” Department of

Labor clerk Jane Fowler recalled, “we had so much damn fun!”63

Nightclubs also proved a good place to find romance. The Naval ensign

Stephen Kanyusik felt thrilled to be posted in Washington during the war. “It was

loooovely,” he reminisced, “Ten girls to every guy...If you had a date and you

were in one of the bars you could not go to the restroom without getting a fistful

of phone numbers. You had to be dead to not get a date.”64 The pervasive myth

regarding women far outnumbering men also fostered the idea that women must

aggressively compete for the limited mates available in Washington. In the film

The More the Merrier (1943), which centers on Washington’s housing shortage

but also deals with gender relations, the leading man endures ogling, catcalls,

and even a pinch on the bottom as he passes a line of man-hungry female war

workers.65 D.C.’s local press also devoted “tons of printer’s ink” to the lonely

plight of Government Girls. However, women living in D.C. during the war

remember the situation slightly differently. WAVE Vivian Ronca recalled:

The girls complained about being assigned to Washington because they thought there were no men here. But there were plenty, an abundance of young men. We'd go down to F Street, the shopping street, and wander around, and there were men all over. We'd just bump into them on the street. A lot of girls whose hometowns were boring found Washington exciting. Many of them were married here. I was.

63 Jane Fowler interview with author, August 31, 2004. 64 Stephen Kanyusik interview with author, August 3, 2004. 65 The More the Merrier, Universal Pictures, 1943; Thomas Doherty, Projections of War: Hollywood, American Culture, and World War (New II York: Columbia University Press, 1993), 189. 66 Brinkley, Washington Goes to War, 238-239.

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Finding dates through government-sponsored activities, hospitality committee

mixers, boarding house socials, on sightseeing tours, or at nightclubs did not

pose a problem for women searching for romance. In fact, Miss Fay Thompson’s

Social Exchange, which acted as a dating service, had a plethora of men seeking

dates but a dearth of women with which to set them up. Miss Thompson insisted

that “the loneliest hearts in Washington are masculine, not feminine.” 67

Because most of Washington’s young female war workers had active

social lives, locals sometimes perceived them as frivolous and promiscuous.

Flistorians John D’Emilio and Estelle Freedman’s research on American sexuality

shows that female war workers, particularly single women, faced societal

assumptions that they possessed a higher than average libido and a

correspondingly lower resistance to sexual temptation. These notions stemmed

from widespread anxiety over the women moving into public spaces without the

restraining influences of male partners, family members, or community

authorities.68 Questions about Government Girls’ virtue arose in public discourse

regarding their behavior. A 1944 Washington Post article titled “Girls on the

Loose” detailed the “frightening degree of promiscuity” that existed among the

city’s younger female war workers. The article went on to say that, because of

this increased sexual activity, the police department had a hard time determining

which cases constituted true sexual offenses against women 69 Dr. Winfred

67 Inez Robb, “Believe It or Not D.C. Men Are Lonely Is the Report,” Washington Post, November 2, 1942, B4. 68 John D’Emillio and Estelle B. Freedman, Intimate Matters: A History of Sexuality in America (Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1997), 289. 9 “Girls on the Loose,” Washington Post, October 14, 1944, 4.

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Overholser, superintendent of St. Elizabeths Hospital, a federal psychiatric

facility, also complained about what he perceived as increasing incidents of

female immorality. Overholser remarked, “Cynics say there is no reason to

commit rape here in Washington.”70 And the District Social Hygiene Society and

the National Women’s Advisory Committee on Social Protection labeled the

amateur “good-time girl” as a major source of the rising venereal disease rate in

Washington,71 even though vice investigations identified the proximity of

expanding Army posts and soldiers’ visits to professional prostitutes as the

cause.72 Government Girls knew about the doubts surrounding their reputations.

For example, as Navy clerk Mary Wright prepared to leave work one night, the

desk drawer holding her purse, paycheck, and bus fare refused to open. After

much frantic tugging and watching the clock tick down the minutes until the bus

left, Wright enlisted Mr. Gaskin, her manager, to help. The drawer finally gave

way and Wright started to hug Gaskin in gratitude. However, she stopped herself

for fear that other workers would see her and say, “Look at that little fast thing.”73

Military women in particular garnered an unfair reputation for being

sexually promiscuous. A demoralizing worldwide slander campaign launched in

1943 planted the seeds of suspicion. Also known as the “Whispering Campaign”

70 As quoted in Scott Hart, Washington at War: 1941-1945 (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1970) 90. 71 Ray H. Everett, Executive Secretary, “Current Prostitution and Venereal Disease Conditions in Washington Year-end Summary Report to Board of Directors, D.C. Social Hygiene Society, December 14, 1943, D.C. Social Hygiene Society Papers, Container 1, Folder 3, HSW; “A Digest of the Minutes of the Meeting of the National Women’s Advisory Committee on Social Protection,” April 12, 1945, 7, Series 5, Box 32, Folder 6, MBCH. 72 Carlisle Bargeron, “Washington Gets Soiled,” The American Mercury, Volume LVII, Number 239 (November 1943): 597; “Venereal Peril,” The Washington Post, September 12, 1945, 6. 73 Wright, Far From Home, 31-2.

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or “Rumor Campaign,” this onslaught of rumors, gossip, jokes, and innuendo

spread the belief that military women, even nurses, engaged in licentious

behavior. Women reportedly participated in sexual encounters with servicemen

and each other, with the full knowledge and indifference of the top brass. The

FBI investigated several theories about who started the campaign. The most

popular story centered on Axis spies spreading the rumors to hurt morale and

cause friction between men and women fighting for the war effort. However, the

FBI identified American servicemen as the true culprits. They resented women’s

intrusion into the military. The “Free a Man to Fight” recruiting slogan designed

to encourage women to fulfill their patriotic duty had a different meaning for the

men freed to join the dangers of the battlefront. The rumormongers hoped to

push women to leave the military and discourage new recruits from joining by

impugning servicewomen’s reputations. Although the WAC, Army, and Congress

worked to dispel the slander, the campaign created widespread public distrust of

uniformed women’s characters and motives throughout the country.74

Washington-based servicewomen knew that their conduct received

constant scrutiny. SPAR Mary Lyne remembered, "We were all quite aware of

the fact that civilians reasoned about us from the particular to the general. We

were constantly under surveillance by the public eye. Should one of our

74 Mattie E. Treadwell, The United States Army in World War II, Special Studies: The Women's Army Corps (Washington, D.C.: Office of the Chief of Military History, Department of the Army, 1954), 191-218; Charity Adams Early, One Woman’s Army: A Black Officer Remembers the WAC (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1989), 70; Janann Sherman, “The Vice Admiral’: Margaret Chase Smith and the Investigation of Congested Areas in Wartime,” in Kenneth Paul O’Brien and Lynn Hudson Parsons, eds., The Homefront War: World War II and American Society (Westport, Connecticut and London: Greenwood Pres, 1995), 120.

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numbers have too much beer, ergo-all SPARS are drunkards.”75 WAVE Helen

Gunter wrote home to assure her parents that the rumors about degenerate

servicewomen did not apply to her. "You asked me about smoking,” she wrote.

“You needn't worry about hearing 'all women in the armed forces smoke.'

Instead of turning me on, that has turned me off."76 WRM Patricia Anne Spohr

remembered, “the general public sat in judgment of all women in uniform as

being...uneducated, unemployable, unattractive ‘ready teddys’ who only joined

the service to ‘get a man.’”77 And Wac Elna Grahn recalled, “At some time or

other all of us were cornered by at least one person who asked in a give-me-the-

lowdown tone of voice, ‘Why did you join the service?’ Implying: ‘I don't

understand it. You seem like such a nice girl, too.’”78

Even Government Girls sometimes condemned other female war workers.

For instance, government lawyer Shirley Weinberger distrusted single

servicewomen working in Washington with her husband Teddy: “There were

WAVES and Wacs, that's when I put the wedding ring on Teddy. When he went

into service, I said I want the WAVES and Wacs to know that you're married...I

went to the PX. I paid 4 dollars and bought a wedding ring.”79 Similarly, clerk

Lucille Davis remembered women in uniform as “a little freer with their favors--

that was what the feeling was...It wouldn't surprise me if some the guys who

75 Mary C. Lyne and Kay Arthur, “Three Years Behind the Mast: The Story of the United States Coast Guard SPARs,” in Judy Barrett Litoff and David C. Smith, eds., American Women in a World at War: Contemporary Accounts from World War (Delaware: II SR Books, 2002), 60. 76 Gunter, Navy Wave, 61. 77 Soderburgh, Women Marines, 50. 78 Elna Hilliard Grahn, In the Company of Wacs (Manhattan, Kansas: Sunflower University Press, 1993), 36.

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were kind of operators might have gone over to [WAVES Quarters D] to see what

they could find, what they could get.”80 The pervasive rumors created feelings of

antipathy and suspicion regarding servicewomen’s personal and professional

motives.

Rates of Government Girls’ participation in premarital sex are difficult to

quantify. D.C.’s Vice Squad arrested relatively few people on charges of “carnal

knowledge” during the war.81 And although women had fewer social constraints

in D.C., they still had space limitations. With most women living in boarding

houses, military barracks, dorms, or crammed apartments, and hotel space

virtually nonexistent, finding a place to have sexual intercourse presented a

challenge. Washington’s illegitimate birthrate actually decreased over the course

of the war, totaling 6.9 percent of all births at the height of the population boom,

down from 8.4 percent in 1940 and a prewar high of 8.5 percent in 1939.82

According to the chairman of D.C.’s Council of Social Agencies’ Committee on

Unmarried Parenthood, Government Girls did not constitute the majority of

unwed mothers.83 The illegitimate births mostly occurred in white women in

professional work like school teaching and nursing and in young black women

under 16. Regardless of how much sex Government Girls actually had, the

79 Shirley Weinberger interview with author, March 13, 2003. 80 Lucille Davis interview with author, March 23, 2003. 81 See Report of Commissioners of the District of Columbia for the years 1940 through 1946, MLK. 82 “Births in District During 1943 Break All Records for One Year,” Washington Star, March 5, 1944, Vertical File, MLK; Richard Smith, “One Out of Every 12 Births In District Is Illegitimate,” Washington Times Herald, October 25, 1945, Vertical Statistics File, “Statistics, Comparative #1” Folder, MLK; “Illegitimate Birth Rate Shows Sharp Increase,” Washington Post, May 15, 1946, Vertical Statistics File, “Statistics, Comparative #1” Folder, MLK.

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perception among conservative Washingtonians remained that of women veering

out of control.

None of the interviews conducted or consulted for this dissertation offered

evidence of female homosexual activity occurring in Washington’s military

barracks or boarding houses. However, studies on sexual behavior during World

War II reveal that such relationships did exist. For example, historian Lillian

Faderman quotes WAC Sergeant Johnnie Phelps’s response to a request from

General Dwight D. Eisenhower that she “ferret out” the lesbians in her battalion:

Yessir. If the General pleases I will be happy to do this investigation...But, sir, it would be unfair of me not to tell you, my name is going to head the list...You should also be aware that you’re going to have to replace all the file clerks, the section heads, most of the commanders, and the motor pool.84

General Eisenhower cancelled the order. And Alan Berube’s study of gay men

and women during the war finds that private, gay cocktail and dinner parties

flourished in Washington to accommodate the military and government personnel

who relocated to the city.85 Because lesbian relationships occurred on a smaller

scale and in a less visible environment than those of heterosexual couples, they

did not become public targets for condemnation or included in the types of

female promiscuous behavior denounced by local conservatives.

The upheaval of war created a psychological need in Americans to keep

as many prewar norms as possible in place. Changes in society, such as the

83 “Unmarried Mothers Ages Run 12-42,” Washington Post, April 27, 1944, Vertical Statistics File, “Statistics, Comparative #1” Folder, MLK. 84 As quoted in Lillian Faderman, Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers: A History of Lesbian Life in Twentieth-Century America (New York: Columbia University Press, 1991), 118.

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absence of men due to enlistment; northern migration of southern blacks looking

for war work; threat of home front military attacks by air and sea; shifting roles of

women, family and community; and the new emphasis on sacrificing individual

goals or needs for the greater patriotic cause, all created discontent and anxiety

for many Americans. These changes prompted fears regarding the traditional

social order that were redirected onto the perceived threat of both increased

female immorality and newly independent women in the workplace.86

The high level of anxiety generated by wartime changes led to attempts to

manage individual conduct in hopes of containing the forces for change. In

Intimate Matters D’Emillio and Freedman assert that “controlling the sexual

behavior of women was seen as the key to regaining control over sexual norms

and behavior in general.”87 A controversy that erupted in Washington epitomizes

institutional attitudes towards controlling Government Girls, their perceived social

indiscretions, and the resulting tension between old-guard norms and the new

working woman. Representative Earl Wilson (R- IN) created a city-wide brouhaha

by proposing a 10 p.m. curfew for all female federal workers. Although he had

no evidence, Wilson suspected that Government Girls’ unrestrained social lives

decreased their work efficiency. He heard stories, he claimed, that women

showed up for work tired, loafed on the job by taking too many coffee and

85 Alan Berube, Coming Out Under Fire: The History of Gay Men and Women in World War II (New York: The Free Press, 1990), 113. 6 Karen Anderson, Wartime Women: Sex Roles, Family Relations, and the Status of Women During World War II (Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1981), 76. 87 D’Emillio and Freedman, Intimate Matters, 261.

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bathroom breaks, and requested an inordinate amount of sick leave.88 Wilson

decided these problems must be caused by women’s rambunctious nighttime

activities. The proposed curfew would keep women “healthier, frisky and fine.”89

He hoped to obtain the cooperation of Washington’s landladies to enforce the 10

p.m. bedtime for Government Girls, and federal supervisors to institute a “card

system,” in which sleepy or unproductive workers would receive a card reporting

the bad behavior.90

Wilson’s idea generated support from several other congressmen.

Representive Clare Hoffman (R- Ml) recalled seeing “two young women--one

smoking and the other fixing her nails” outside of a tempo. Hoffman could not

determine “whether they were waiting for a bicycle or what,” but believed the

matter should be scrutinized.91 Congressman Karl Stefan (R- NE) supported a

thorough investigation of all personnel offices but admitted that carrying out such

an inquiry would be difficult.92 And Representative Robert Ramspeck (D- GA)

agreed that “a general lack of understanding of the urgency of the war situation”

existed among female war workers.93 Wilson’s advocates could not point to

specific statistics on office productivity. However, they all agreed that

Government Girls needed guidance and control.

88 “Girls in Capital Fight A Curfew,” Washington Post', January 17, 1942, 4; “Curfew for Government Girls Proposed for Efficiency’s Sake,” Washington Post, January 7, 1942, 1, 3. 89 Mary Hornady, “Sideglances in Washington: Wilson Puts ‘Rest’ Up to Boys,” Washington Post, February 8, 1942, B6. 90 Earl J. Wilson, “An Earl Wilson Gets in Hair of an Earl Wilson,” Washington Post, February 2, 1942, 13. 91 “Rep. Wilson Again a Teacher; Lectures on What Ails Us,” Washington Post, February 4, 1942, 19. 92 Ibid. 93 “Rep. Wilson Charges Laxity in U.S. Offices,” Washington Post, February 19, 1942, 12.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Government Girls quickly labeled Wilson an “Ogre” and called the curfew

“childish, ridiculous, and impossible.” They discounted Wilson’s argument

regarding women’s out-of-control social lives and instead blamed terrible housing

conditions, transportation delays, reduced lunch breaks, inadequate work

training, and long hours on the job for inefficiencies at government agencies as

well as worker exhaustion.94 War Department typist Patricia Watkins insisted,

“These poor little Federal slaves who are the victims of Wilson’s silly curfew

suggestion didn’t create this condition and aren’t responsible for the multiplying

confusion in Washington.”95 Hazel Henry, a stenographer with the Social

Security Board, related all of the after-work activities she performed every

evening in order to prove that a 10 p.m. bedtime was impossible. After arriving

home at 6:45 p.m., Henry ate dinner, went over her budget, washed and ironed

her laundry, wrote home to her family, performed her nightly beauty regime,

practiced her trumpet, and listened to the radio to keep up with current events.

She charged Representative Wilson with telling her how she could “expedite

herself into bed” in time for the curfew.96 Wilson dismissed the women’s

complaints and condemned their resistance as “thinking only of their own

pleasure.”97

Detractors of the proposal were not limited to female war workers. Senator

Hattie Caraway (D - AK) defended the women: “If the girls are old enough to be

away from home to work here, they ought to be able to take care of

94 “Trials of Government Girls,” Washington Post, February 8, 1942, B6. 95 “Why Blame Girls?” Washington Post, February 11,1942, 6. 96 Scott Hart, “Curfew Shouldn’t Ring, Girl Proves,” Washington Post, February 1, 1942, 12.

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themselves.”98 Representative Jennings Randolph (D- WV) cautioned against

imposing stringent regulations, because, “One cannot be too critical of girls

working for the Federal Government. They are the backbone of the Government

agencies.”99 Another congressman from Oklahoma, Representative Victor

Wickersham (D), argued that the women had “good reputations...and should be

allowed to go to bed when they get ready.”100 And some local men also weighed

in against the idea of women being forced to retire early, because “a stag party is

not attractive every evening that you go out.”101

A few weeks later, Wilson offered a compromise and suggested extending

the curfew until 11 p.m. but eventually backed down altogether from the

impractical and unpopular idea.102 The campaign of this former small-town

teacher to control the lives of Government Girls illustrates the degree of

discomfort that the social activities of these women caused. Self-appointed

guardians of virtue, like Representative Wilson and Dr. Overholser, identified

Government Girls’ behavior as out of control. Yet, publicly labeling the women

as promiscuous did not change their participation in the sexually charged

wartime nightlife. Attacking the women’s work, in essence their patriotism, was

another attempt to maintain the patriarchal order. Calling the women selfish,

97 “Check on Girls’ Efficiency Sought,” Washington Post, February 14, 1942, 1. 98 “Curfew Sponsor Wants House to Check Girls on Efficiency,” Washington Post, February 1, 1942, 1,4. 99 “Check on Girls’ Efficiency Sought,” February 14, 1942, 12. 100 “Oklahoman Declares They Should Be Allowed To Retire When Ready,” Washington Post, February 3, 1942, 15. 101 Jack Westbrook, “A Man Protests Curfew,” Washington Post, February 9, 1942, 10. 102 “Curfew,” Washington Post, February 3, 1942, 8; Charles Mercer, “11 p.m. Girl Curfew Proposed So They Won’t Primp on Job,” Washington Post, January 31, 1942, 1, 3.

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lazy, and unprofessional was used as an excuse to reign them in like

misbehaving schoolgirls. Wilson’s attempts to use landladies as glorified hall

monitors and issue workplace report cards reveal the patronizing, dismissive

attitude he and his supporters held towards Government Girls. The presence of

so many single, independent young ladies forging new identities as modern

working women represented wartime changes in gender roles and relations that

conservatives wished to stem.

The Government Girls and servicewomen who spent the war years in

Washington found a great variety of leisure-time pursuits, possibilities to develop

close friendships, opportunities to meet people outside of their previous social

milieu, and freedom to date and experiment with men. Spending time in the

nation’s capital offered women cultural advantages such as access to museums,

monuments, historical sites, and government proceedings. Even women on

limited budgets could take advantage of the free concerts, outdoor parks,

organized dances, and sports activities sponsored by government programs.

However, the greatest change for most new war workers was the chance to

interact with women and men from diverse backgrounds, economic classes, and

races. Wartime circumstances created openings for Government Girls to meet

Washington’s social and political elite. They, in turn, brought a social openness

and informality to the city’s upper classes. While a woman’s race determined the

range of possible social activities and interaction open to her because

segregation remained a legal and practical impediment to social equality,

relations, and advancement, opportunities to intermingle with other races through

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. volunteer outlets such as the USO and entertainment venues like the Howard

Theater enriched women’s wartime experiences. By participating in the

numerous and varied activities available in the city, women developed

friendships and associations with Government Girls beyond those they met at

work or in their living situations. But because Government Girls and

servicewomen took full advantage of Washington’s nightlife, they also attracted

much negative attention. Sensational accusations of female promiscuity and

frivolous behavior shaped the way Washingtonians made sense of their changing

urban environment. Government Girls brought debate about proper activities

and behavior for women into the city’s public discourse. However, institutional

and media attempts to control the social lives of Washington’s female workforce

could not stem the tide of change.

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GLAMOUR, ROMANCE, AND SUPERPOWERS:

THE GOVERNMENT GIRL IN

POPULAR CULTURE

“Look Smokey, you can’t leave Washington like this. You’re a Government Girl. Why, it’s your life." Government Girl, 1943

A Washington Post photograph captures pretty, young Patricia

Koerner smiling demurely into the camera. Koerner, a 19-year-old clerk-typist

from small-town Butler, Pennsylvania, represented the typical Government Girl

for an article highlighting the women “talked about, written about and worried

about from New York to California.”1 Readers learned how Koerner set aside ten

percent of her base government salary for war bonds, enjoyed listening to

records after dinner with fellow boarding house roommates, primped for weekend

dates, and dressed with an eye for style. Another photo shows Koerner diligently

taking dictation during her work day that often stretched to nine or ten hours.

Although employed at the Board of Economic Warfare, Koerner eschewed a

personal budget because, as she laughingly admitted, “I never can keep my

numbers straight!” Regardless of the stringent routine, the text insists the young

1 Anne Hagner, “Government Girl,” Washington Post, October 15, 1942, B3.

154

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woman had a “marvelous time in Washington.”2 Koerner’s depiction as simple,

hard-working, temporary worker epitomized the media’s treatment of

Government Girls. Washington’s new corps of working women came from

diverse geographical regions, ways of life, experience, and educational levels.

However, press coverage created a one-dimensional iconic figure, similar in

effect to Rosie the Riveter.

Mainstream media constructed the “Government Girl” as a young, single,

naive, white secretary temporarily relinquishing her traditional domestic role to

aid the war effort. Films, radio, comic strips, magazines, and newspapers used

this image in varying ways: to promote war work, provide women with a wartime

role model, and address audience concerns regarding women’s changing

responsibilities. Popular culture succeeded in shaping the public perception of

Government Girls — what they looked like, what they were capable of, how they

fit into the context of the war effort, and how they compared to other defense

workers. Such media-produced images of female war workers (Government

Girls, servicewomen, and industrial workers) provided Americans with an

accessible way to discuss the meaning of social and cultural changes in wartime

female identity.

During World War II, movies dominated the field of mass entertainment

and were among the most influential vehicles in shaping public perception of

Government Girls. American theatergoers purchased an average of 85 million

2 Ibid.

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movie tickets every week.3 Women made up two-thirds of this audience, and film

producers provided them with material that mimicked their specific wartime

experiences and struggles.4 The large number of “women’s films” served as a

practical way of handling the shortage of men in Hollywood during the war and

an attempt to satisfy the studios’ main customer base.5 The arrival of the

defense worker on screen reflected women’s changing roles in society--as well

as the pressure filmmakers felt from the Office of War Information (OWI) to

create more stories that would entice women into the workforce.

The domestic bureau of the OWI, which controlled war propaganda6 on

the home front, viewed film as a great influence in society and a means to help

the government encourage female war work to employers and employees alike

and spread its pro-democracy message. The Government Information Manual

for the Motion Picture Industry outlined several key areas that films should

address, including work and production and the home front.7 It advised

filmmakers to take women’s work seriously. According to the Manual, female

defense workers were “not a lipstick, hairpin affair” and should be shown

3 Gene Brown, Movie Time: A Chronology of Hollywood and the Movie Industry from Its Beginnings to the Present (New York: Macmillan, 1995), 163, 169, 173, 177. 4 Robert Sklar, Movie-Made America: How the Movies Changed American Life (New York: Random House, 1975), 250. 5 Edwin Schallert, “Drama and Film,” Los Angeles Times, July 27, 1943, 15; Molly Haskel, From Reverence to Rape: The Treatment of Women in the Movies (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987), 182. 6 Government officials avoided use of the word “propaganda,” as it connoted negative totalitarian control mechanisms. Instead, the government viewed itself as disseminating “information” to the American public through “strategies of truth.” See Leila Rupp, Mobilizing Women for War: German and American Propaganda, 1939-1945 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1978), 90-92. 7 Office of War Information, Government Information Manual for the Motion Picture Industry (Washington, D.C., 1942), 3, Office of War Information Records, RG208, Box 3, NARA.

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“performing an essential task in a businesslike manner.”8 Hollywood and OWI’s

Bureau of Motion Pictures developed an uneasy and often antagonistic

relationship. The studio system stood at the height of its power, but OWI had the

ability to block a film’s overseas distribution rights by claiming it harmed foreign

relations. However, they formed a wary but successful wartime alliance that, for

the most part, served their respective interests.9 Popular director Frank Capra

commented on the relationship between films and fighting the war and

encouraged the Hollywood community to show its patriotism: “Your weapon is

film! Your bombs are ideas! Hollywood is a war plant!”10

Films depicting female defense workers satisfied both studios’ desire for

profits and the OWI’s entreaty for positive material regarding the war effort. The

most famous group of women workers achieved recognition by way of a song, a

magazine, and a government poster. In 1942 Redd Evans and John Jacob Loeb

wrote “Rosie the Riveter’s Song” as a tribute to women working on the assembly

lines in the defense industries. The upbeat tune became a hit with catchy

patriotic lyrics like:

All day long, whether rain or shine, She’s part of the assembly line, She’s making history working for victory, Rosie, Rosie, Rosie, Rosie, Rosie, Rosie the Riveter.

8 Ibid., 47. 9 For further discussion of the relationship between Hollywood and OWI, see Clayton R. Koppes and Gregory D. Black, “What to Show the World: The Office of War Information and Hollywood, 1942-1945,” Journal of American History, Volume 64, Number 1 (June 1977): 87-105. 10 Brown, Movie Time, 166.

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Keeps a sharp lookout for sabotage, Sitting up there on the fuselage. That little girl will do more than a male will do."11

The most endearing and enduring version of Rosie was immortalized in

illustrator Norman Rockwell's 1943 cover painting for the Saturday Evening Post.

This image appeared on the cover of the May 29th, Memorial Day issue and went

out to the magazine’s nearly four million readers. Rockwell’s powerful,

competent, and womanly portrait became an icon for women working in essential

defense industries nationwide.12 Government propaganda posters capitalized on

Rosie's popular appeal with their “We Can Do It!” campaign. The widespread ads

sported a “Rosie”-type woman in overalls and pola-dotted kerchief flexing her

muscles to encourage more women to take on wartime jobs. The film industry

followed the trend and on-screen war workers with catchy monikers like

“Swingshift Masie” (1943) and “Jane Who Made the Planes” (1944) joined “Rosie

the Riveter” (1944) as symbols for female strength and duty on the home front.

Ginger Rogers headlined RKO’s Tender Comrade (1943), Hollywood’s

most popular film featuring female industrial workers. Rogers’ character, Jo

Jones, is married to her high school sweetheart, Chris, and pregnant with their

first child. When Chris enters the Army at the start of the war, Jo seeks a way to

support him and aid the war effort. She decides to work at a Douglas Aircraft

factory and share a rented house with three female co-workers to save on

expenses. The women pull together to deal with job difficulties, rationing,

11 Redd Evans and John Jacob Loeb, “Rosie the Riveter’s Song,” New York: Paramount Music Corporation, 1942. 12 Thomas S. Beuchner, Norman Rockwell (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1996), 148.

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shortages, loneliness, losing loved ones, and other wartime sacrifices. Jo

delivers a son, but her joy is short-lived. She receives news of Chris’s death

while still recovering from childbirth. While Jo stoically cradles her infant, named

Chris, Jr., and assures him that his father's sacrifice has helped protect freedom

for all Americans, her housemates vow to stand by her. Tender Comrades

represents the height of melodrama in which no amount of courage, fidelity,

tragedy, or sacrifice was considered excessive.

The “Rosies” in Tender Comrades epitomized the celluloid stereotype:

they held blue-collar jobs, joined the workforce for the first time for patriotic

reasons, had sweethearts or husbands fighting overseas, transitioned easily

between workplace and home, and managed to remain feminine even while

performing “men’s” work. Promotional material for another film, Good Luck Mr.

Yates (1943), illustrates how important this last quality was to the film industry in

creating Rosie-type characters. The feature included Ruth Jones (Claire Trevor),

a young woman working on an assembly line. In describing the Jones character,

a shipyard welder, the ads declare:

She’s tender-- and tough! Strong-- and feminine! Brave-- and clinging! At work on a ship! At work on a man! At work on the biggest job that ever made a soft-as-satin girl a tough-as- nails homefront heroine!13

The clear implication of reminding industrial workers to maintain their traditional

feminine identity in untraditional circumstances was that the current conditions

13 Thomas Doherty, Projections of War: Hollywood, American Culture and World

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were temporary. When the men returned to the factory the women should return

to their prewar roles. OWI’s Hollywood branch enthusiastically backed such

messages to wartime audiences and supported both of these films.14

Military heroines also proved popular at the box office. The war era’s

most successful female-centered combat films, Paramount’s So Proudly We Hail

(1942) and MGM’s Cry “Havoc!” (1943), depict WAC (Women’s Army Corps)

nurses serving in Bataan in the Philippines.15 Both stories follow parallel

plotlines. A group of dissimilar women (including a socialite, stripper, waitress,

and farmer’s daughter) put aside their differences and pull together to brave the

dangers and harsh conditions of the battlefront. Glamorous stars Claudette

Colbert, Paulette Goddard, Veronica Lake, Ann Southern, Joan Blondell, and

Margaret Sullavan don fatigues to portray nurses as dedicated medical personnel

functioning under frontline hazards to help the soldiers. The nurses don’t all

survive, which only accentuates their patriotism and heroism. However, unlike

the GIs in contemporary war movies, Hollywood’s military women steal time

away from the fighting to bemoan their war-torn appearances and pursue

romantic interests. Even in the midst of combat, female characters maintain

recognizable and socially sanctioned gender traits.

War II (New York: Columbia University Press, 1993), 156. 14 Clayton R. Koppes and Gregory D. Black, Hollywood Goes to War: How Politics, Profits and Propaganda Shaped World War II Movies (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1990), 166-8. 15 Other films featuring women amidst battlefield action, such as MGM’s They Were Expendable (1945), used nurses as supporting characters rather than in starring roles. Universal’s Ladies Courageous (1943) dealt with the original 24 members of the Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron, who were not technically serving in the military. Doherty, Projections of War, 160-4.

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Although dramas that focused on servicewomen hailed their heroism on

the battle front, more light-hearted films portrayed women in uniform as comic

figures. Finding love takes center stage for female protagonists in She’s in the

Army (1942), Here Come the WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer

Emergency Service) (1944), and Keep Your Powder Dry (1945). War work took

second place--when work commanded any attention at all—for characters played

by Lucille Gleason, Barbara Hutton, and Lana Turner respectively. These

screwball comedies are fraught with physical pratfalls, mistaken identities, glitzy

nightclub numbers, and ill-conceived romances. They were geared towards

providing frivolous entertainment, not serious examinations of women’s wartime

contributions. The scatter-brained characters treating military service as playtime

offered a counterpoint to the dedicated nurses on-screen. These uniformed

women did not threaten the male-oriented domain of the armed services.16

Military women’s clerical contributions to the war were ignored by the film

industry. Civilians performed the office work portrayed on the screen. Although

they did not garner as much celluloid attention as female factory workers and

servicewomen, Hollywood took notice of Government Girls. Only three major

studio films, The More the Merrier, Government Girl,and Pin-Up Girl, featured

Washington’s white-collar workers as central characters, but these helped

formulate the Government Girls’ public image.

16 Doherty, Projections of War, 157-9.

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Washington’s housing crisis serves as the impetus for the plot of Columbia

Pictures’ comedy The More the Merrier (1943).17 Government Girl Connie

Milligan (Jean Arthur) decides to share her apartment to help ease the city’s

wartime overcrowding but winds up toppling her simple, orderly life. She

reluctantly rents out half of her apartment to Benjamin Dingle (Charles Coburn), a

grandfatherly figure, in town for two weeks on defense business. Dingle, in turn,

rents out half of his space to Joe Carter (Joel McCrea), a “high type, clean cut,

nice young fella,” whom he identifies as a potential romantic match for Connie.

Pretty, young, blonde Connie works at a fictional war agency called “OPL” and

comes across as efficient, smart, and capable. After she presents Dingle with a

morning schedule choreographed to rival any Allied Force invasion plan, he

observes, “You’re a very systematic girl.” “I used to work in the office of facts

and figures,” she answers proudly. Connie cannot, however, figure out her own

love life. Her long-term engagement to a bombastic government official leaves

her bored and alone most of the time. Dingle’s meddling ultimately costs Connie

her fiancee and job, but gives her the chance to discover true love. She and Joe

marry in order to save Connie’s reputation (threatened because she lived with

the two men), but realize their feelings for each other are genuine. The movie

ends with a jovial Dingle celebrating his successful matchmaking.

17 Writer/Director Garson Kanin co-wrote The More the Merrier based on his and his wife’s (Ruth Gordon) own experiences living in wartime Washington while he served in the Army. Because the government forbade GIs from partaking in outside work, Kanin remained uncredited. Garson Kanin, Tracy and Hepburn: An Intimate Memoir (New York: Viking Press, 1971), 76-7; Ruth Gordon, My Side: The Autobiography of Ruth Gordon (New York: Harper & Row, 1976), 253-5.

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Olivia de Havilland stars as RKO’s Government Girl (1944), the second

studio release featuring the eponymous character, de Havilland plays Smokey

Allard, secretary to Ed Browne (Sonny Tufts), a dollar-a-year man,18 who arrives

in Washington to head up the government’s Bomber Division. Smokey guides

the inexperienced Ed through the city’s political and bureaucratic red tape (like

Jean Arthur’s Clarissa Saunders did forJimmy Stewart’s novice congressman

Jefferson Smith in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)), but he prefers

unorthodox methods to get the airplanes made (i.e., reallotting materials without

permission and settling labor disputes with his fists). Smokey and Ed develop a

mutual attraction, but, when he suggestively asks, “Do you always have to call

me ‘Mister?’” she dutifully answers, “Of course, Mr. Browne. I’m your secretary.

You wouldn’t like it at all if your secretary became familiar.”

A subplot involves Smokey and her roommate, May, in a scheme to oust a

foreign secret agent. The FBI asks the women to “serve their country” by

pretending to get drunk at the agent’s apartment and feed him false government

secrets. The plan goes awry and the women get drunk for real, but they still get

their man. Smokey has a harder time getting the man she loves. She dates a

scheming government lawyer who uses the “funny things” Smokey innocently

tells him about Ed’s business dealings to bring him in front of a senate

investigating committee. Smokey interrupts the hearing and saves Ed with an

18 Dollar-a-year-men were successful business executives recruited for civilian government service. They had no civil service status and therefore could be let go without notice or appeal. The administrators continued to receive their regular salaries from their companies, but the government gave them a token wage to make them official employees. David Brinkley, Washington Goes to War (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1988), 65.

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impassioned speech touting his patriotism and effectiveness in producing the

much needed bombers. Ed declares his love for Smokey and asks her to marry

him. “Might as well be around to get me out of trouble,” he tells her before

grabbing her up in a kiss.

Twentieth Century-Fox produced the third movie revolving around a

Government Girl as a showcase for the country’s most famous wartime pin up

model, Betty Grable.19 The Pin-Up Girl (1944) follows flirty, capricious Lorry

Jones (Grable), a popular small-town singer and pin-up girl, as she and her

mousy friend Kay (Dorothea Kent) relocate to Washington to work as Navy

Department stenographers. Lorry, who harbors ambitions to sing professionally,

convinces Kay to stop in New York for an adventure before she ends up “pushing

a typewriter and eating drugstore lunches and being a fixture in an office." When

the pair meet war hero Tommy Dooley (John Harvey), sparks fly between

Tommy and Lorry. In order to appear more glamorous, Lorry pretends to be a

famous nightclub songstress. The women leave on the late train for D.C. before

Lorry can reveal the truth. After two uneventful weeks at work, Lorry gets

assigned to record the naval air exploits of none other than Tommy Dooley. She

borrows Kay’s glasses and conservative outfit and, a la Clark Kent/Superman,

creates an alter ego that fools her new love. She works as Tommy’s dowdy

secretary during the day and dates him as the alluring performer at night. The

ruse lasts until the arrival of one of the five hundred men Lorry offhandedly

19 For discussion on the cultural role played by wartime pin-ups see Robert Westbrook, “I Want a Girl Just Like the Girl That Married Harry James: American Women and the Problem of Political Obligation in World War II,” American Quarterly 42 (December 1990): 587-614.

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promised to marry while volunteering at the USO back home. Lorry clears up the

misunderstanding and unveils her true identity when she takes to the stage in her

stenographer “costume” and sings. Tommy welcomes the chance to love both

sides of Lorry, the “sincere” stenographer and the nightclub star.

Of the films discussed above, The More the Merrier proved the greatest

artistic and commercial success. It received five Academy Award nominations

(Charles Coburn won as Best Supporting Actor), three New York Film Critics

Circle Awards nominations (George Stevens won for Best Director), and became

Radio City Music Hall’s fourth highest grossing movie up till that time.20

Government Girl earned a respectable $700,000 profit, but most critics panned it.

The Chicago Daily Tribune reviewer called it a “dismal flop” and de Havilland’s

performance “nothing short of pathetic.”21 Pin Up Girl also garnered poor

reviews. Noted New York Times film critic Bosley Crowther dismissed it as a

“spiritless blob of a musical, and a desecration of a most inviting theme.”22 Film

exhibitors named Grable the top box office star in 1943, but her popularity still

only attracted a modest $500,000 for Pin Up Girl.23 While only one of the movies

became a smash hit, they all contributed to creating a singular vision of

Government Girls.

20 “Film Academy Nominates for 1943 Oscars,” Chicago Daily Tribune, February 7, 1944, 16.; Bosley Crowther, “All for the Best,” New York Times, January 2, 1944, 3X; Thomas M. Pryor, “A Brief History of the Music Hall,” New York Times, December 19, 1943, X5. 21 Mac Tinee, “Film Comedy Dismal Flop to Our Critic,” Chicago Daily Tribune, March 11, 1944, 15. 22 Bosley Crowther, “’Pin Up Girl’ at Roxy, ‘Shoe Business’ at Palace- ‘Hour Before Dawn’ Comes to Victoria,” New York Times, May 11, 1944, 25. 23 Brown, Movie Time, 169.

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Hollywood’s Government Girls look remarkably similar. Connie, Smokey,

and Lorry are all pretty, white, thin blondes in their early to mid-twenties. They

wear stylish, tailored suits, hats, and gloves to work and form-fitted lace or

beaded gowns for nighttime dinners, dancing, and dating. Sophisticated hairdos

and expertly applied make-up complete the ensembles. Their appearance has

more in common with the cinematic society debutante from the 1930s than with

the contemporary on-screen factory worker or servicewoman. Unlike the later

women’s visual association with their work (overalls and kerchief for the “Rosies”

and government-issued uniforms for military enlistees), Hollywood’s Government

Girls cannot be immediately identified from the way they dress. The women

would fit in equally well in an office or at the country club. An informal study of

Washington women’s wardrobe choices revealed that “the World War II girl is a

shirtwaist girl.” 24 However, putting onscreen characters in chic clothing follows

historian Leila Rupp’s observations that most of the publicity concerning women

workers emphasized glamour over realism in order to make defense work

appealing.25

The characters’ upscale image extended to their living conditions. Even

though The More the Merrier and Government Girl include scenes making fun of

Washington’s housing crisis, Connie and Smokey’s living quarters appear

comfortably furnished, well-decorated, and spacious. Connie’s apartment boasts

French doors, window flower boxes, frilly curtains, and a rooftop sun deck.

24 Sally Dee, “Meet Miss 1943,” Los Angeles Times, January 17, 1943, g18. 25 Rupp, Mobilizing Women for War, 147.

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Smokey’s boarding house room offers chenille bedspreads, lace-trimmed pillow

cases, separate kitchen facilities, and a living room anchored by an elaborate

stone fireplace. The fictional women’s surroundings match their refined, feminine

image. Real life Government Girl Jean Kearney remembered, “We all laughed at

the movies portraying a romanticized version of living and working in

Washington... [the character] lived in a whole apartment (while we were lucky to

have one room to ourselves).”26 Placing women in lush, feminine-frilly

surroundings at home not only reinforced Government Girls inherent glamour,

but offered a visual contrast to the spare, drab furniture and decorations that

made up the office setting in which the women worked.

While the movies highlight Government Girls’ strengths and capabilities,

they fall short of accurately depicting their professional environment. Connie,

Smokey, and Lorry work as private secretaries to individual, high-level male

executives instead of in the ubiquitous Washington clerical pool. No female

government economists, lawyers, analysts, linguists, or other professionals

appear in the films. No military women work in cinematic Washington either.

Onscreen women, whether shown in the office, home, or out on the town, are

civilians.27 Government Girls in the audience noticed other job-related

inaccuracies. Stenographer Ruth Miller complained, “Have just seen Olivia de

Havilland in Government Girl and the way she handles a notebook! I’d like to see

26 Jean Kearney, “My Life as Kitty Foyle,” in James E. Thierry, ed., Looking Back at War: Archives Volunteers Remember World War (Washington, II D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1993), 40, HSW.

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any white collar girl take fast dictation with a book held up in the air like that.”28

The details of the characters’ professional lives are vague, often erroneous, and

take second place to personal considerations, especially romance. Connie and

Smokey become engaged to men they meet at the office, and Smokey and Lorry

find true love with their handsome bosses. Hollywood validated Government

Girls’ participation in defense work by creating stories about them. However, it

also provided a model of Washington’s working women that emphasized style

over substance and marriage over career.

One other wartime film focused on women in Washington but did not

include Government Girls. In Warner Brothers’ The Doughgirls (1944), the

capital city’s wartime housing shortage once again provides the backdrop for

romance and comedy. The story is based on Joseph Fields’s 1942 hit Broadway

play of the same name. It follows three women (played by Jane Wyman, Anne

Sheridan, and Alexis Smith) who, in trying to find accommodations during the

war, end up sharing a hotel suite. Their complicated love lives involve a

boisterous melange of characters and become the crux of the farcical plot.

Although the women look similar to the film images presented of Government

Girls— young, attractive, dressed in stylish, upscale clothing, sporting perfectly

manicured nails, wearing flowers in their hair - they come to Washington for their

husbands’ or fiancees’ work rather than for their own. The character Vivian

(Wyman) does get a part-time job as a private secretary to her husband’s

27 The Pin Up Girl includes a nightclub number filled with chorus girls marching in formation, but they wear uniforms more akin to crossing guards than Wacs and the routine seems choreographed by Busby Berkley rather than WAC Director Oveta Culp Hobby.

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business associate (who does not work for the government) because she wants

to “help end this war.” However, Vivian is a dimwitted newlywed who offers as

her only work qualifications the fact that she “can type and file things— and most

of the time find them.” In the film’s one brief office scene, she proves

incompetent at dictation and spends the remainder of her time fighting off

advances from her male boss. Two women in the film appear in uniform, a

volunteer for the “War Wise Relief Corps” and a Russian sniper who likes to

shoot pigeons from the suite’s balcony. They function as cartoonish comedic

relief and lampoon female efforts at regime and order. Although Government

Girls are absent from the film, the women portrayed in The Doughgirls reinforce

the visual and substantive interpretation created of women in Washington by the

film industry.

White Government Girls could watch a fictionalized version of themselves

onscreen, but African-American federal workers did not find any character

resembling them in The More the Merrier, Government Girl,or Pin-Up Girl.

Neither Connie, Smokey, nor Lorry work alongside, speak to, mention, or come

in contact with black women. Wartime movies generally failed to portray black

women in defense jobs. A 1942-43 OWI analysis concluded that, in terms of the

war effort, Hollywood portrayed African Americans “as offering nothing,

contributing nothing, expecting nothing.”29 Black actresses did appear in

mainstream films, but usually in the same domestic servant roles as they had

28 Ruth Mac Kay, “White Collar GIRL,” Chicago Daily Tribune, April 6, 1944, 22. 29As quoted in Clayton R. Koppes and Gregory D. Black, “Blacks, Loyalty, and Motion-Picture Propaganda,” Journal of American History, Volume 73, Number 2 (September 1986): 399.

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before the war. Only one major studio release, MGM’s Since You Went Away

(1944), depicts a black woman participating in industrial war work. This occurs in

a scene about white female factory workers, and the African-American employee

appears for a moment in the background.30 No characters in this or any feature

film showed black servicewomen or civilian office workers. The black

Government Girl did not exist in movies.

Neither black nor white Government Girls appeared in World War II radio

programming. However, female office workers and servicewomen did appear as

characters in both fiction and nonfiction shows. Radio in the 1940s brought news

and entertainment into millions of American homes. Nine out often people

owned at least one radio and tuned in to three to four hours of broadcasting each

day.31 During the war, dramatic serials, or soap operas, featuring female central

characters dominated daytime programming. Soap operas aired on at least one

station continuously between the hours of 10 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. every

weekday.32 Historians Gerd Horten and Susan Hartmann show that producers

rejected widespread use of female defense worker characters as too progressive

30 Producer David Selznick removed another scene containing black defense workers after several African-American Wacs complained at a preview screening. The sequence showed a group of silly, giggling black Wacs as extras at a train station, and the women felt it undermined their seriousness and dedication to the war. Additionally, Hattie McDaniel, the most famous African-American screen actress during World War II, plays a maid, who discusses taking an unspecified defense job. See Thomas Cripps, Making Movies Black: The Hollywood Message Movie from World War II to the Civil Rights Era (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993) 86-88. 31 Gerd Horten, Radio Goes to War: The Cultural Politics of Propaganda during World War II (Berkley: University of California Press, 2002), 2. 2 Susan M. Hartmann, The Home Front and Beyond: American Women in the 1940s (Boston: Twayne Publishers), 196.

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and instead remained faithful to traditional domestic storylines.33 Stay-at-home

women made up the programs’ primary audience and such family-oriented plots

reassured them of their importance as wives and mothers. Only a few leading

female characters took defense jobs (i.e., Stella Dallas, Kitty Foyle) and none

volunteered for military or civilian government service. One soap opera, Lonely

Women, which debuted in July 1942, did include female office workers. The

serial follows a group of young, single women who move to Manhattan in search

of work and end up living together in a downtown hotel. The opening narration

on the first broadcast reveals that the show aims to “make you cease to envy

glamour girls—or career women.” 34 Not surprisingly, in Lonely Women’s one

year run, the characters encounter numerous professional and personal

difficulties (getting fired from work, uncovering a duplicitous boyfriend, suffering

with a tyrannical boss, etc.). The show’s title encapsulates its message: women

who choose work over family lead sad, lonely lives.

Soap operas, including Lonely Women, featured only white leading ladies

and families. While some entertainment programs depicted African Americans

(most notably Amos ‘n Andy*5), a dearth of black voices existed in the medium.

In a measure to help rectify this lack of coverage, the National Urban League

sponsored Heroines in Bronze. This 1943 nonfiction program celebrates

33 Horten, Radio Goes to War, 147-176; Hartmann, The Home Front and Beyond, 196-8. 34 Horten, Radio Goes to War, 157. 35 Although Amos n Andy contained black leading characters, Freeman Gosden and Charles Cornell, the men who created and voiced the show from its 1928 inception, were white. Black actors did not take over the leads until the program debuted on television in 1951. See Melvin Patrick Ely, The Adventures of Amos 'n Andy: A Social History of an American Phenomenon (New York: The Free Press, 1991).

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historical and contemporary successful black women. One segment contains

interviews with female workers, including a Red Cross administrator, radio

technician, and flight training instructor. The women discuss their training,

responsibilities, and experiences. Heroines in Bronze put forth profiles of

intelligent, resourceful, industrious white- and blue-collar working women.

Federally funded shows like Freedom’s People, which touted African- American

accomplishments in a cross-section of fields, and public affairs programs such as

America’s Town Meeting of the Air, which critically discussed race and racism,

dealt with contemporary issues, but no other broadcasts focused directly on

black female workers.36

Servicewomen were represented on the radio, but received little airtime

during the war. The government sponsored few programs such as G.l. Jane

Presents and Everything for the Girls to promote women’s roles in the military.

Women read inspirational stories based on their service experience, bands

performed patriotic music, and actors presented dramatic vignettes of battlefront

scenes. However, these shows concentrated on women serving overseas.

Nurses represented the image of self-sacrificing servicewomen for radio

audiences. Clerical workers did not appear in the programs. No concrete picture

of Government Girls developed from wartime radio broadcasts. Listeners could

only infer details about the women’s lives from the narrow portraits of white-collar

workers offered by Lonely Women and Heroines in Bronze.

36 Barbara D. Savage, Broadcasting Freedom: Radio, War, and the Politics of Race, 1938-1948 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1999), 70, 103, 214.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. A more tangible and memorable image of Government Girls came from an

unlikely source, the pages of a comic book. “As lovely as Aphrodite—as wise as

Athena—with the speed of Mercury and the strength of Hercules,” Wonder

Woman burst onto the scene in 1941,37 The Amazon princess falls in love with

an American pilot after his plane crashes near her Paradise Island home. She

follows Captain Steve Trevor back to the United States to help protect American

ideals against the evils of Fascism and Nazism. Wonder Woman takes an alter

ego, Diana Prince, and works first as an Army nurse and then a WAC secretary.

Diana aids the war effort and Wonder Woman fights injustice. Dr. William

Moulton Marston, a psychologist and feminist, created the strip for DC Comics in

hopes of developing a strong female role model.38 Wonder Woman first

appeared along with several other superheroes in an issue of All Star Comics.

Her popularity quickly surpassed that of the other characters and her own book

debuted within six months.39 Adults made up about twenty percent of comic

book readers. Industry sales grew from twelve million books each month in 1942

to more than sixty million in 1946.40 Millions of fans read about Diana Prince’s

experiences working for an Army colonel as a Wac. Not only did Diana/Wonder

Woman display intelligence, competence, and patriotism in both personas, she

maintained her femininity (perfectly made up, coiffed, and in heels whether taking

dictation or fighting crime) and unflinching loyalty to the man she loved. Readers

37 Charles Moulton, All Star Comics 8 (New York: DC Comics, 1941). 38 Dr. Marston wrote under the pseudonym Charles Moulton. 39 Les Daniels, Wonder Woman: The Complete History, the Life and Times of the Amazon Princess (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2000), 30-37. 40 Hartmann, The Home Front and Beyond, 190.

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certainly could not expect all Government Girls to harbor super powers like the

fictional Wonder Woman, but the comic strip put a serious, powerful, working

woman into popular culture.

National audiences read about Government Girls in more than just comic

books. Magazines covered Washington’s new workforce, because publishers

determined, as an article in Independent Woman noted, “the Boom Town Girl is

here for the duration.”41 The OWI opened a Magazine Bureau to work with

magazine publishers and writers in a similar collaboration to that set up with the

film industry. Historian Leila Rupp concludes that during World War II

mobilization propaganda, including magazines, promoted the acceptance of

female war workers while still encouraging women to retain their femininity 42

Pieces written about Government Girls and servicewomen illustrate Rupp’s

argument. A January 1942 Good Housekeeping article typifies the coverage.

Using the Capitol as a backdrop, attractive stenographers and clerks dressed in

tailored suits, hats, white gloves, cotton stockings, and high-heeled shoes

proudly strike posture-perfect poses demonstrating the latest Government Girl

fashions. The accompanying text offers readers clues as to how they too can

remain attractive, girlish, and stylish by relying on good grooming and quality

separates.43 Even Time, a magazine geared towards a general readership of

both men and women, promoted this same message. The periodical put WAVES

Captain Mildred McAfee on the cover of its March 1945 issue along with the

41 Elizabeth Field, “Boom Town Girls,” Independent Woman, (October 1942): 298. 42 Rupp, Mobilizing Women for War, 137-166. 43 Good Housekeeping (January, 1942): 32-37.

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quote, “Women can still be women.”44 To reinforce the already blatant message

regarding the WAVES’ ability to hold on to their femininity, the accompanying

article quotes McAfee as saying, “Women can be efficient and professional and

still be women.”45 Ladies Home Journal, Woman’s Home Companion,

Independent Woman, and Reader’s Digest all featured stories detailing

Government Girls’ ability to complete their patriotic war work and maintain their

chic and feminine appearances.46 National print media communicated a stylish,

ladylike Government Girl image.

Washington’s local press also paid attention to female war workers’

appearances. Newspapers consistently featured winners of citywide contests for

Miss Government Girl, Miss Beauties With Brains, and Washington’s Most

Beautiful Girl 47 The Washington Post ran its own informal beauty contest in

response to a reader’s request. A “Lonely Plebe” from the Naval Academy in

nearby Annapolis, Maryland wrote in seeking the best looking girl in Washington

as an escort to the Academy’s spring dance. The Post called for submissions,

chose three beautiful Government Girls, and printed their photographs, names,

and addresses for the plebe’s consideration. As a bonus for interested

bachelors, the paper included names and addresses of six additional

Government Girls and servicewomen who considered themselves beautiful and

44 Time Magazine (March 12, 1945). 45 “U.S. at War,” Ibid, 23. 46 “Winning on the Home Front,” Ladies Home Journal (June 1943): 31; “Special To You From Washington,” Women’s Home Companion (August 1942): 25-31; “White Collar Women Are Behind Defense,” Independent Woman (November 1941): 324-6; “Twenty-Eight Acres of Girls; Arlington Farms,” Readers Digest (July 1944): 36-8.

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date-worthy.48 Reporters reinforced the emphasis on looks by adding adjectives

like “pretty,” “willowy,” or “cute” to descriptions of Government Girls appearing in

stories and noting superfluous details of clothing and grooming habits. For

example, an article recounting how small-town Margy Hollingsworth made the

transition to the big city for government work includes references to her

“tremendous blue eyes” and how she “powdered her nose and straightened the

seams of her stockings” before getting out of a taxi 49 Local media presented the

ideal Government Girl as beautiful, feminine, and fashionable.

Despite national and local print media’s attention to Government Girls,

woman working in industrial defense jobs dominated coverage in the wartime

press. Photographs of women in factory overalls and kerchiefs regularly

appeared on the front of major magazines. As with Rockwell’s Saturday Evening

Post cover, many of these images picture strong, tough women ready to take on

the responsibilities left by men. However, glamour shots of beautiful women

posed on the wings of planes or wielding a wrench also accompanied periodical

and advertising copy. Both views of “Rosie” aimed to promote war work.50 Even

the glamorous treatment of factory jobs presented the work as serious war

business. Historian Maureen Honey examined popular culture’s wartime visions

of female defense workers and concluded that blue-collar women generally

47 “Beauty With Brains Working for U.S. Will Win Post Prize,” Washington Post, April 17, 1939, 22; “Senate Unit Offers 5 entries for ‘Miss Government Girl,” Washington Post, January 8, 1943, 1; Ralph G. Martin, Cissy (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1979), 440. 48 “Beautiful but Modest Girls Eager for Date With Plebe,” Washington Post, January 31, 1942, 1, 13. 49 Bill Brinkley, “Margy Comes From Florida To See and Conquer Capital,” Washington Post, December 3, 1941, 3.

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received positive portrayals in terms of strength, dependability, and

compassion.51 Whereas images and text regarding Government Girls

emphasized their personal lives outside of the workplace, stories on industrial

defense workers continually placed them within the context of their work.

Government Girls performed clerical duties, a traditionally sex-typed occupation.

So, the need to reinforce the suitability of women in the office environment was

less essential than emphasizing the appropriateness of their presence on the

assembly line.

While African-American women occasionally appeared in articles about

industrial workers, they were excluded from the press’s depiction of Government

Girls. Magazines and newspapers targeting at a white audience only included

white women in stories about Washington’s wartime workforce. However, black

periodicals also refrained from calling black government workers “Government

Girls.” The Washington Afro American, the area’s most widely distributed

African-American newspaper, featured many stories about women’s office work

throughout the war. Articles included serious issues such as racism in federal

agencies as well as lighter topics like the latest fashions. Instead of one catch-all

phrase, reporters used specific job titles to describe the women. For instance,

the paper identifies Beatrice Black as a “junior astronomer at the Naval

Observatory” and Gwendolyn Hemmingway as a “senior typist at the Department

50 Rupp, Mobilizing Women for War, 145-153. 51 Maureen Honey, Creating Rosie the Riveter: Class, Gender, and Propaganda during World War II (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1984).

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of the Interior.” 52 From 1942 to 1945 the paper profiled one female government

employee each week, first under the headline “Career Women” and later “Uncle

Sam’s Nieces.” The brief biographies included a photograph and detailed where

women came from, what government position they held, what education they

possessed, and occasionally a bit of advice for other women seeking federal

work.53 For example, Leona Cobbs, a college-educated Kentucky native who

worked as a clerk with the War Production Agency, recommended that

government applicants should “always be neat and clean.”54 Neither reporters

nor the workers used the term Government Girl to describe their positions. The

Aframerican, the National Council of Negro Women’s journal that focused on

black women’s issues, did not include even one wartime article identifying federal

employees as Government Girls.55 And the idiom never appears in 1942-1945

editions of The Negro Handbook, a reference tool for journalists. The books,

written by Washington-based, African-American author Florence Murray, offered

information on black culture and life across the nation and contained categories

such as professions, war work, and government agencies 56 It is noteworthy that

the Handbook was written by a woman. The black press, and specifically black

women, did not identify African-American clerical workers with the Government

Girl icon any more than the white media did. The use of alternative and more

52 “Girl Gets Naval Astronomer Post,” Washington Afro American, February 7, 1942, 1; “Career Women,” Washington Afro American, March 7,1942, 9. 53 See Washington Afro American 1942-1945. 54 Mabel Attison, “Career Women,” Washington Afro American, February 21, 1942, 8. 55 See The Aframerican, HU. 56 Florence Murray, ed., The Negro Handbook (New York: Wendell Malliet and Company, 1942- 44), 132-146; 159-180.

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respectful job titles for black government workers raises the possibility that

African Americans made a distinct effort not to belittle these women by using the

title “Government Girl.” Historian Maureen Honey observed that, during World

War II, “racism proved to be an impenetrable barrier in creating expanded

images of women.”57

Although the press did not use imagery of Washington’s African-American

women in association with Government Girls, such material did exist. OWI’s

domestic photography units hired Gordon Parks and other well-known

photographers to capture images of black life in America to distribute to the

press. The News Bureau included the Negro Press Section dedicated to

furnishing pictures and stories to black newspapers around the country in order

to boost morale for the war effort. However, as Barbara Orbach found in “The

Mirror Image: Black Washington in World War II Era Photography,” few black

papers and even fewer white press outlets carried OWI product.58 Major black

newspapers such as the Baltimore Afro American, Washington Afro American,

and Pittsburgh Courier had their own photographers and included OWI material

only when unable to cover the same stories. Mainstream white press such as

the Saturday Evening Post, Chicago Sun, New York Herald Tribune, and UP and

AP news wires had access to OWI’s photos and stories but chose not to carry

them. Therefore, few members of the public got the chance to see photographs

57 Maureen Honey, “Remembering Rosie: Advertising Images of Women in World War II,” in Kenneth Paul O’Brien and Lynn Hudson Parsons, eds. The Home-Front War: World War II and American Society (Westport, Connecticut and London: Greenwood Press, 1995), 101. 58 Barbara Orbach, “The Mirror Image: Black Washington in World War II Era Photography,” Washington History, Volume 4, Number 1 (Spring/Summer 1992), 20.

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of Washington’s African-American female workers like Ella Watson, a

government charwoman, or Jewel Mazique, a file clerk in the Serials Division of

the Library of Congress. Watson was technically a Government Girl (she worked

at the Capitol and was paid by the federal government), but her job and her

serious, world-weary countenance lacked the glamour and vitality that national

magazines or local papers generally strove to promote regarding African-

American government workers in Washington. The most famous pose from

Parks’s many photographs of Watson captured her standing in front of a large

American flag holding her mop and broom. Parks’s classic statement on the

inequities of democracy did not gain notoriety until after the war. In contrast to

the photos of Watson, the pictures of Jewel Mazique promoted an ideal similar to

that attributed to white Government Girls. The series of Mazique taken by John

Collier show her as attractive, stylishly dressed, hard working, volunteering,

donating blood for the war effort, and going home to her husband, a medical

intern at Howard University Hospital, and the three nieces for whom she cared.

She fits the upscale, white-collar image that the press used to portray

Government Girls. Yet, she was not included in the propaganda used to

advocate and attract women to war work in Washington.59 Even though African-

American women worked in all levels of the federal government, and material

was available to illustrate their stories, neither the black nor white press included

these women in their definition of the ideal Government Girl.

59 Ibid., 7-12,20-21.

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World War II era media reflected both women’s changing roles in society

and anxieties created by those changes. In creating stock characters for

Government Girls, servicewomen, and industrial workers, media outlets provided

wartime figures that still fit into prewar notions of acceptable female behavior.

Hollywood studios worked with the OWI and cast their most popular and

attractive female stars to portray war workers as glamorous and exciting to the

American public.60 Although Government Girls did not receive the same heroine

status in the media as nurses or women toiling in defense plants, film, radio, and

print media projected a positive, standardized Government Girl image: young,

attractive, white, fashionable, patriotic, and eager for adventure and romance. In

portraying wartime clerical workers as glamorous and stylish, the media enticed

women into war work with hopes of achieving similar elegance. By emphasizing

women’s beauty and romantic yearnings, and deemphasizing their professional

competence, white collar workers appeared more interested in traditional

feminine pursuits than in blazing new career paths. This image of Government

Girls created by popular culture enabled audiences in Washington and around

the country to feel comfortable with the emergence of a new, high profile,

professional group of women.

60 It is interesting to note that two of Hollywood’s strongest leading ladies and biggest box office draws, Joan Crawford and Bette Davis, did not play female war workers. Those roles were left to the popular but more traditionally feminine stars like Ginger Rogers and Jean Arthur. It is likely that producers could not imagine audiences believing that a woman with a more aggressive reputation (both on and off the screen) like Davis would happily give up her job at the end of the war.

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GOVERNMENT GIRLS NO MORE:

LIFE AFTER WORLD WAR II

“What will happen then to the girls of the lipstick brigade?”1 New York Times Magazine, 1942

August 14, 1945 started out as just another hot, muggy summer Tuesday

in Washington, but, according to the Washington Times Herald, it ended as “the

wildest, noisiest, most joyous and most colorful night this Capital has ever

known.”2 The announcement at seven o’clock that evening of Japan’s surrender

sent the city into bedlam. Church bells rang to signal the happy news.

Government Girls trying to make their way home from downtown maneuvered

between the gridlock created by cars, people, and the ticker tape and toilet paper

that rained down from office building windows. Celebrants climbed on top of

stalled streetcars to view the crowds. Musicians spilling out from downtown

theaters formed an impromptu victory parade.3 Thousands of men and women

shared drinks, dances, and hugs as they gathered in Lafayette Square outside of

the White House waiting for confirmation from President Truman. Just two days

1 Luther Huston, "Uncle Sam's Seminary for Girls" in the New York Times Magazine, December 6, 1942, 31. 2 Roland Nicholson, “Screaming Crowds Welcome Peace In Hilarious Spree,” Washington Times- Herald, August 15, 1945, Vertical File, MLK. 3 Margaret Crook interview with author, May 27, 2005.

182

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earlier a false peace announcement dashed many Washingtonians’ hopes and a

nod from the President would dispel any lingering doubts.4 At 7:30 p.m. the

President and First Lady walked out onto the White House lawn and waved to

the screaming throngs. President Truman addressed the crowd over a public

address system with a jubilant, “This is the day for democracy." Chants of

“Harry, Harry" filled the air.5 All across the city offices, theaters, restaurants, and

stores closed so workers could join the celebration. Several days passed before

business returned to normal.6 Symbolic affirmation of the war’s end came as the

Capitol’s dome lit up the night sky for the first time since Pearl Harbor.

Demobilization of Washington’s war workers began immediately. However,

federal agencies still needed help to maintain overseas operations, bring their

troops home, set up foreign and domestic peacetime programs, and manage the

enormous government bureaucracy. Therefore, reduction of the Government

Girl labor pool occurred more gradually than those of her industrial counterparts.

Many of Washington’s wartime women became part of the city’s postwar female

workforce. The presence and the power of the federal government in

Washington made it possible for most Governemnt Girls who wanted to continue

working to transition out of war work and into local peacetime employment.

Despite the war’s end, Government Girls’ impact on the city continued well past

4 “Downtown Crowds Calm As Peace Rumor Proves False,” Washington Post, August 13, 1945, Vertical File, MLK. 5 Untitled article, Washington Daily News, May 8, 1945, Vertical File, MLK. 6 Vincent X. Flaherty, “Bedlam Reigns as Celebrants Rip Up Washington,” Washington Times- Herald, August 15, 1945, Vertical File, MLK.

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VJ Day, affecting the metropolitan area’s postwar physical, political, and social

development.

Washington remained in a state of jubilation for months after the war

ended. Every few weeks Government Girls lined up to watch the latest parade

honoring returning war heroes. General Eisenhower received the largest and

most spectacular welcome home. Evelyn Stotler’s government supervisor let her

leave work to catch a glimpse of the famous military leader. As Eisenhower rode

down Pennsylvania Avenue waving from an open convertible, Stolter felt thrilled

to see that “He was wearing the jacket that had been named for him.”7

Like many other Government Girls, Stolter’s job extended into the

immediate postwar period. The end of hostilities did not bring an economic

slowdown of federal agencies as it had in World War I. Washington functioned

as the central administrator in both international and national peacetime

programs such as the United Nations and International Monetary Fund;

temporary military rule of Japan; recovery aid for nations devastated by the war;

and President Truman’s Fair Deal domestic agenda with expansion of the

Federal Housing Administration, G.l. Bill, Social Security, and other economic

initiatives. While the need for lower-level clerks fell short of wartime peaks,

Government Girls made up an important part of Washington’s postwar labor

force. America’s troops did not return en masse, but demobilized over an

extended period of time. This necessitated women’s clerical assistance past VJ

7 Evelyn W. Stotler, “Wartime in Washington, D.C.” in Women of the Homefront, Pauline E. Parker, ed. (Jefferson, North Carolina and London: McFarland & Company, Inc. 2002), 72.

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Day. Some women continued with their wartime duties. The WAVES (Women

Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service), WACs (Women’s Army Corps),

SPARS (Coast Guard), and Marines did not decrease their Washington forces

until mid-1946. Although the SPARS and Marines disappeared entirely by that

fall, local Army and Navy offices retained several thousand uniformed women

each.8 For instance, WAVE Penelope Smith worked as a cryptologist during the

war and remained in Washington as an analyst until 1962.9 Other federal

agencies kept Government Girls on staff to help set up peacetime programs. For

example, Pauline Menes spent a year and a half after the war updating maps

with classified information provided by servicemen returning from overseas

posts. The department she worked in became part of the new National Security

Agency.10 And Dorothy Finley Wilbur, a civilian typist with the Army, became a

postwar editorial assistant for publications explaining veterans’ assistance

programs.11 However, government cutbacks did necessitate letting some

Government Girls go. Female workers made up less than a quarter of total

government personnel by 1947, down from 40 percent in 1944.12

While some Government Girls left federal jobs because of downsizing,

other women felt societal pressure to leave the workforce. Speculation and

trepidation regarding women’s postwar role in society and the workplace became

8 Jerry Klutz, “Uniformed Girls in D.C. To Disappear Shortly,” The Federal Diary, Washington Post, November 2, 1945, 12; Antoinette Loezere interview with Kate Scott, January 5, 2004, WIMSA. 9 “Penelope P.P. Smith,” Obituaries, Washington Post, June 4, 2006, C8. 10 Paulene Menes interview with author, May 11, 2006. 11 “Dorothy Finley Wilbur,” Obituaries, Washington Post, August 13, 2005, B6.

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part of the public discourse even before the war ended. At the height of the

conflict, Department of Labor Women’s Bureau director Mary Anderson

denounced prejudice against female workers as detrimental to the war effort:

Some among us are worrying for fear [women] will not be willing to call it a good day’s work and go home when the war is over and Johnny comes marching back for his job. That fear, which is so large a part of the prejudice against employment of women, is being used in subtle ways to keep us from making full use of that great reserve of labor.13

The type of prejudice to which Anderson referred was evidenced in a May 1944

conference address by Brigadier General Frank T. Hines, the Administrator of

Retraining and Reemployment for the Office of War Mobilization. Hines spoke

about the place of women in the postwar workforce:

Let the men continue to be the welders, the butchers, the bakers, the plumbers. Who wants a woman with a stillson wrench in her hand or a cleaver? Let the women do the light and artistic things, the things requiring finesse.. .or perhaps better than any of these, the mothers of children and the makers of homes, for these are jobs too.14

Periodicals contained the same message as they ran articles with titles

like “Getting Rid of the Women,” advising employers on the easiest ways to

transition back to prewar employment practices, and “Give Back the Jobs,”

encouraging women to leave the workplace when male veterans returned.15 One

article cautioned Government Girls about the consequences of keeping their

wartime jobs: “Most social observers are of the opinion that just as there were

12 “G.G. Not Exactly a Girl Anymore; Statistics Tattle,” Washington Post, March 20, 1950, B5; “Women in Federal Defense Activities,” Monthly Labor Review (March 1942): 640. 13 Mary Anderson, “16,000,000 Women at Work,” New York Times, July 18, 1943, SM18. 14 “Address of Brigadier General Frank T. Hines, Administrator, Retraining and Reemployment, Office of War Mobilization, Before the Conference on War and Postwar Employment, Washington, D.C., May 5, 1944,”, 1, 1944, War Manpower Commission Records, RG 211, Box 32, NARA.

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thousands of unmarried women in the Capital after the last war, so too, after this

one there will be left a new generation of spinsters, living one day on their hard-

earned pensions.”16 Another warned women that government work did not

guarantee long-term stability. The reporter suggested that before they chose the

career route to “picture yourself growing older, a dependent in the home of

relatives,” if one day their precious job was lost.17 Government Girl Joanne

Lichty and her co-workers understood the media’s message as: “It was OK to do

your part for the war effort, but once it was over you’ve got to get back and act

like a woman. Like a lady, excuse me, like a lady.”18 Many Government Girls

heeded that message, left the workforce, and devoted themselves to other

pursuits.

Despite an immediate postwar increase in the national divorce rate,19

between 1945 and 1950 the country’s marriage rate reached a twentieth-century

peak, and the accompanying baby boom kept millions of women concerned with

domestic responsibilities.20 Former Government Girl Elizabeth Delean Cozad fell

into this category. Cozad quit working to have the first of her seven children and

remained home to care for the family as they relocated around the country with

15 “Getting Rid of the Women,” Atlantic (June 1945): 79-82; “Give Back the Jobs,” Woman’s Home Companion (February 1943): 56. 16 Sally Reston, “Girls’ Town - Washington,” New York Times, November 23,1941, SM22. 17 Tom Dryer, “Foretaste of Fear,” Washington Post, June 14, 1945, 8. 18 Joanne Lichty interview with author, July 29, 2004. 19 Divorces reached a record high of 610,000 in 1946. Washingtonians and local media attributed the divorce rate to impetuous wartime marriages, incompatibility, money problems, and postwar return to routine life. Women’s wartime employment did appear as a probable reason. “Causes of Divorce as Seen By Six District Residences, Washington Post, April 21, 1947, 2; “U.S. Divorce Rate Declines 7 Percent,” Washington Post, December 2, 1950, B14; “Divorce Rate Trend Still Downward,” Washington Post, October 18, 1948, 7.

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each of her husband’s career promotions 21 Leonora Haag, a secretary at the

White House, left her prestigious position to move to Delaware with her husband

and raise their two daughters.22 And after Marine Mary McVay Spaulding

married her husband, a Marine lieutenant colonel, at the end of the war, she left

the service to travel with him from base to base and raise their seven children 23

Other Government Girls left D.C. and entered academic life. Mostly

thanks to the Gl Bill, colleges and universities experienced tremendous growth

after the war. Over six million veterans took advantage of the government

program to pay for their educations. Female enrollment also increased during

the immediate postwar years. The number of women who entered college

between 1945 and 1950 reached over one and a half million. WACs, WAVES,

SPARS, and Marines earned eligibility for Gl Bill benefits. Although the military

did not keep precise records, one report estimates that women accounted for

65,000 of 2.23 million veterans that utilized their educational benefits between

1944 and 1956.24 Pentagon worker Margery Updegraff was one of them. After

leaving the WAVES, she used her Gl Bill money to get a master’s degree in Fine

Arts from the University of Iowa. She returned to Washington and worked for the

Department of the Interior and Library of Congress for a total of thirty-one

20 Elaine Tyler May, Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era (New York: Basic Books, 1988), 5-7. 21 Elizabeth Delean Cozad interview with author, June 14, 2004. 22 “Leonora Haag,” Obituaries, Washington Post, August 10, 2006, B5. 23 “Mary Spaulding,” Obituaries, Washington Post, November 27, 2005, C6. 24 Peter A. Soderburgh, Women Marines: The World War II Era (Westport, CT: Praeger, 1992), 159.

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years.25 Women, however, still represented a smaller percentage of the overall

student population than men. One contemporary study revealed that women in

the postwar era were twice as likely to enter college than their mothers, but much

less likely to graduate because they chose to interrupt their education for

marriage 26 Because of women’s lower graduation rate, the Gl Bill did not

provide them with the same boost as men in academic and professional

advancements 27 Many women agreed with former Washington war worker

Claire Shrivener’s assessment that, “The main goal in those days was to get

married and have a family.”28 Civilian Navy worker Guinn Cooper concurred, “I

didn’t even think about not leaving work after I got married. It was just expected.

Just something you did.”29

For Government Girls who chose to remain in the workforce,

Washington’s burgeoning private sector offered them a chance to transfer their

professional skills out of government service. The city continued to experience

rapid economic growth after the war, and the total number of employees in

private businesses nearly doubled between 1945 and 1950.30

25 Margery Updegraff interview with Wanda Driver and Ardith Kramer, November 19, 2003, WIMSA. 26 Tyler May, Homeward Bound, 78-80. 27 For indepth discussions on the effect of the Gl Bill, see Suzanne Mettler, Soldiers to Citizens: The G.l. Bill and the Making of the Greatest Generation (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005) and Michael J. Bennett, When Dreams Came True: The Gl Bill and the Making of Modern America (Virginia: Potomac Books, 1999). 28 Claire Shrivener interview with author, June 4, 2004. 29 Guinn Cooper interview with author, August 2, 2004. 30 Washington Board of Trade, Postwar Planning Committee, “Postwar Plans of Metropolitan Washington Employers: A Survey for the Postwar Planning Committee” (Princeton, New Jersey: Opinion Research Corporation, 1945), 1, GWU; Keith Melder, City of Magnificent Intentions: A History of Washington, District of Columbia (D.C. and Silver Spring, Maryland: Intac, Inc., 1997), 501.

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Research and Development (R&D) emerged as one of the fastest growing

fields. The number of local firms increased from a handful in 1946 to more than

two hundred in 1964, employing one out of every thirty Washington area

workers.31 As the Cold War escalated, the rise in defense spending played a

large part in fueling this industry. Defense contractors sprang up in Northern

Virginia near the recently created Department of Defense (formed by President

Truman in 1947) headquartered in the Pentagon. Many contractors sought

former Government Girls with experience in the War Department or military

offices as they had familiarity with procedures and jargon of the field. WAVE

Margaret Engelberg found this out when she sought work after leaving the Navy

in 1949. Her military experience helped her secure several offers for

administrative R&D positions in the defense industry.32

A changeover to a private industry like R&D made particular sense for

women in military service like Engelberg. In 1948 Congress passed the

Women’s Armed Services Integration Act, which permanently incorporated

women into the armed services but limited female enlistees to two percent of the

total military population and restricted women’s duties (women could not fly

aircraft or be assigned to ships engaging in combat), advancement possibilities

(only one female full colonel or captain was allowed per service and the number

of female lieutenant colonels or commanders was limited), and power (leaders of

the individual military branches had the authority to discharge women without

31 William Graves, “Washington: The City Freedom Built,” National Geographic (December, 1964): 774. 32 Margaret Engelberg interview Kate Scott, January 14, 2004, WIMSA.

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cause). When the United States entered the Korean War two years later, women

made up less than one percent of the military’s total strength.33 As neither the

country or the government needed to mobilize to the same degree as it had for

World War II, opportunities for servicewomen to fully utilize their experience

remained slim. The federal government continued to drive the Washington area

economy, but potential prospects for lower to mid-level female clerical workers

increased faster outside of the public arena.

Some Government Girls transitioned into private industries that took them

outside of the Washington area or helped them launch new career paths. WAVE

Phillis Heller Rosenthal, who worked as an administrative lawyer at the Bureau of

Naval Personnel, spent ten months reading and classifying documents detailing

atrocities at the Auschwitz concentration camp for the Nuremburg trials.34 Julia

Child served as an Office of Strategic Services (OSS) junior research assistant

before parlaying her skills to overseas positions and then to investigating French

cooking for her highly successful culinary career.35 WAVE Helen Gunter became

an associate at Encyclopedia Britannica Films and later formed her own

production company.36 Wac Martha Settle Putney returned to school, earned a

Ph.D. at Howard University, and spent almost forty years as a college history

33 Vicki L. Friedl, Women in the United States Military, 1901-1995 (Westport, Connecticut and London: Greenwood Press, 1996), 12-13. 34 Emily Yellin, Our Mothers’ War: American Women at Home and at the Front During World War II (New York: Free Press, 2004), 234-6. 35 Noel Riley Fitch, Appetite for Life: The Biography of Julia Child (New York: Anchor Books, 1999), 89-120. 36 Helen Clifford Gunter, Navy Wave: Memories of World War II(Fort Bragg, California: Cypress House Press, 1992), 138.

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professor.37 WAVE Dorothy Gondos Beers also pursued academia. She joined

the faculty at American University in 1947 and served as chair of the history

department and Dean of Women before she retired in 1974.38 Calista Wehrli

used her training as a WRM recreational instructor to develop a career as a

physical education teacher at high schools and universities throughout

California.39 And government lawyer Shirley Weinberger became president of a

New York real estate association.40 Most professional women discovered

greater opportunities for career exploration and advancement in private

business 41

African-American Government Girls had little choice but to find postwar

employment within the private sector. Initially, federal wartime work helped many

local black women move out of domestic service positions and gain greater

financial and personal freedom. Female African-American government

employees increased from 8.4 percent to 19 percent of the federal workforce

between 1938 and 194442 However, once the national emergency ended, many

of these women lost their positions in the first wave of layoffs. Grace Ridgely

Drew worked as a war agency clerk for the duration, but received a pink slip

immediately after hostilities ended. She had impressed her bosses, and they

recommended her for secretarial work to several employers they knew in

37 Martha Putney interview with Kate Scott, March 26, 2004, WIMSA. 38 Biographical Notes, Box 1, Dorothy Gondos Beers Papers, AU. 39 Calista Wherli interview with author, July 7, 2003. 40 Shirley Weinberger interview with author, March 13, 2003. 41 Betty McIntosh interview with author, April 4, 2003. 42 Doris Kearns Goodwin, No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994), 540.

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Washington. Drew retired decades later without ever again working for the

government43 Drew’s experience was not unique, but it was unusual. Although

female clerical and sales jobs grew in both public and private quarters, black

women faced increased competition from displaced white war workers. This

resulted in many black women remaining segregated into service-oriented

positions like food servers and housekeeping staff.44 As late as 1960, only 17

percent of all African-American women employed outside the home worked in

white collar jobs, compared to 59 percent of their white female counterparts.45

Washington’s postwar employment situation for black women closely

mirrored this trend. Whether in government or private industry, the majority of the

area’s African-American women worked as unskilled labor. Historian Karen

Tucker Anderson argues, “For black women, especially, what is significant about

the war experience is the extent to which barriers remained intact.”46 Most

African-American former Government Girls and servicewomen remained stymied

by those barriers and the lack of professional opportunities. A 1946 Presidential

Advisory Committee on Civil Rights report concluded that, because of racial

discrimination, Washington’s black workers often took jobs far below their ability

levels. The Committee found that “Negroes are confined to the lowest paid and

43 Grace Ridgeley Drew, "Everything was Segregated" in Parker, Women of the Homefront, 75- 76. 44 Darlene Clark Hine, ed., Black Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia (Brooklyn, New York: Carlson Publishing, Inc., 1993), 1292. 45 Jesse Carney Smith and Carrell Peterson Horton, eds., Historical Statistics of Black America: Agriculture to Labor and Employment (Detroit, Michigan: Gale Research, Inc.: 1995), 1089. 46 Karen Tucker Anderson, "Last Hired, First Fired: Black Women Workers during World War II" in The Journal of American History. Volume 69, Issue 1 (June 1982), 91, 97.

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least skilled jobs” because of their race rather than their aptitude.47 Even African

Americans who earned degrees or acquired skills were excluded from

professional associations like the trade unions, District Bar Association, and the

Medical Society all of which accepted white members only. Clerical positions

were similarly exclusive. In 1940, only about 12 percent of all black workers in

Washington held white collar jobs. Two years after the war ended black workers

still held fewer than 15 percent of those positions 48 The wartime exigencies that

produced employment changes in federal and local policies and practices

involving employment of African-American women disappeared as the labor

scarcity subsided.

Whether former Government Girls undertook work in Washington’s public

or private sector, they all had to deal with a continued postwar housing crunch.

The federal government started closing or selling area dormitories immediately

after the war. For instance, American University bought the enormous WAVES

Quarters D in Northwest for use as offices, dorms, and recreational facilities.49

Howard University acquired dormitories built for African-American workers and

utilized them for residential students.50 The Army took over Arlington Farms’

ninety-five acres and converted residences into housing for servicemen and their

47 Committee on Civil Rights, “Racial Discrimination in Washington, D.C.,” in Mortimer J. Adler, ed., The Negro in American History I. Black Americans 1928-1971 (Encyclopedia Britannica Educational Corporation, 1971), 369, 373; James A. Pawley, “Jobs Held Limited For Area Negroes,” Washington Post, June 5, 1949, F11. 48 “Board of Trade Newsletter,” Volume 6, Number 6 (August 22, 1960), 2, Record Group IX: Publications, Box 185-2, Board of Trade Newsletters, 1960-1961 Folder, GWU. 49 Betty Wixcey, "They're Getting Ready to Go Home," Washington Star, June 20, 1946, C3-5, Vertical File, MLK. 50 “U.S. to Close Three Resident Halls for Girls,” Washington Post, September 27, 1947, B1.

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families at Fort Myers.51 Tempos on the Mall became offices for expanding

government agencies.52 By 1950 the government had divested all of its civilian

dorms. Throughout the late 1940s Government Girls joined the returning

veterans and the rest of the area population in seeking affordable

accommodations.

The lack of available housing in the District hastened current and former

Government Girls’ migration out to the suburbs. Nearby counties like Arlington

and Fairfax in Virginia and Montgomery and Prince Georges in Maryland

attracted thousands of workers and their families. Federal Housing

Administration (FHA) and Veteran’s Administration (VA) loans often made buying

a home in the suburbs less expensive than renting an apartment in the city.53

Planned improvements in transportation promised easier access to outlying

areas, though it would be decades before the additions (more bridges across the

Potomac and Anacostia Rivers, a beltway connecting Washington to close-in

suburbs in both Maryland and Virginia, and a Metrorail system) were

completed.54 And new shopping centers with plentiful parking and convenient

evening hours offered shoppers goods and services previously available only in

51 Dorothea Andrews, “Arlington Farm Soon To Be a Memory to G-Girls,” Washington Post, July 23, 1950, M10. 52 “Dormitories To Be Used For Office,” Washington Post, August 6, 1949, B1. 53 Before World War II, mortgage lenders often required fifty percent of the purchase price of a home as down payment and typically issued five to ten year loans. The FHA required only five to ten percent down and guaranteed mortgages for up to thirty years at low interest rates. The VA asked for a single dollar as down payment from prospective homeowners. Stephanie Coontz, The Way We Never Were: American Families and the Nostalgia Trap (New York: Basic Books, 1992), 77. 54 See Zachary Moses Schrag, “The Washington Metro as Vision and Vehicle, 1955—2001,” Ph.D. Dissertation (New York: Columbia University, 2002) for further discussion of Washington’s postwar mass transit systems.

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the city. Two of downtown’s largest department stores, Hecht’s and Woodward

and Lothrop, both opened suburban branches by the early 1950s.55 These

developments contributed to Metropolitan Washington’s suburban population

doubling between 1940 and 1950.56

The impact of this shift out to the suburbs went beyond mere population

numbers. Suburban growth extended the area of urban influence, bringing the

habits, values, and ideological beliefs of the World War II workforce to previously

rural and conservative areas. These changes affected the political climate of the

Metropolitan region. As early as 1946, women’s voices in area politics rang

louder than in any previous election year. Washington Post reporter Malvina

Lindsay, who wrote a column called “The Gentler Sex,” followed the trend of

women who were “dirtying their skirts in politics as a public duty.”57 She

identified contemporary female candidates and campaigners as individuals who

had long used indirect approaches for societal change through letter writing to

elected officials, joining social and philanthropic clubs, attending forums and

study classes, but who, because of their wartime experiences, felt the time had

55 “Opening Set For Section of Beltway,” Washington Post, Times Herald, March 21,1964, B1; “New Beltway Section Open,” Washington Post, Times Herald, July 26, 1964, B6; Thomas M. Walsh, “Seventies Bright for D.C. Area,” Washington Post, Times Herald, January 11, 1970, 113; Jack Eisen, “Get Ready, Get Set: Saturday You Can Ride Free on Metro,” Washington Post, March 26,1976, C1-2; Martha M. Hamilton, “Crowds Wait 4 Hours to Ride Metro,” Washington Post, March 28,1976, 16, 1. Levey and Freundel Levey, Washington’s Album, 127; S. Oliver Goodman, “Area Business Upsurge Brings Fresh Records,” Washington Post, Times Herald, January 4, 1956, 33. 56 “Board of Trade Newsletter,” Vol. 6, No. 4, June 23, 1960, 1, Record Group IX: Publications, Box 185-2, Board of Trade Newsletters, 1958-1959 Folder, GWU. 57 Malvina Lindsay, ‘Women on the Stump,” The Gentler Sex, Washington Post, May 28, 1946, 16.

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come for direct action.58 That action reflected beliefs not always in tune with

existing local practices. By 1946, Dorothy Dennison, a resident of the northern

Virginia suburb of Vienna, observed changes in racial segregation beginning to

occur. Most notably the separate schools for black and white children merged

into one larger facility. She credited the change with the advocacy of wartime

women who moved into the area from all over the country and brought their more

progressive views on race with them. “Coming from Massachusetts it was

shocking to see segregation,” Dennison remembered. “I knew about it but being

in it was much different.”59 Although local women failed to make immediate

political inroads, their presence in suburban affairs remained steady. By the

1960s they were regularly winning some elections to local offices and changing

the shape of suburban politics.60

The experience of former Government Girl Pauline Menes, one of the

political newcomers, epitomizes how suburban ideological transformations took

place. Menes left her government job after giving birth to her first child. She and

her husband, both liberal Democrats, moved into a new suburban development

in what had traditionally been a conservative rural farming area of Prince

George’s County. Menes got involved with local affairs because she and another

young transplant sought information on voter registration. During their

58 Malvina Lindsay, “Women Take the Plunge,” The Gentler Sex, Washington Post, April 26, 1946, 14; Malvina Lindsay, “Can Women Lead,” The Gentler Sex, Washington Post, July 2, 1946, 14. 59 Dorothy Dennison interview with author, July 19, 2004. 60 Richard Homan, “Learning About Lawmaking,” Washington Post, Times Herald, November 23, 1966, B1; Walter B. Douglas, ‘Women Eye School Vote Plan,” Washington Post, Times Herald, February 20, 1966, B2.

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investigation, the two women were recruited to help administer local elections.

Menes met other newcomers with similar beliefs, and soon worked on campaigns

attempting to elect progressive candidates who dealt with issues important to the

new, younger residents (such as school additions, commuter taxes, and civil

rights). She became a state delegate herself in 1966, an election year with more

female candidates than ever before in the county, including several other former

war workers. Menes remained in elected office for the next forty years.61

Women’s increasing political and community influence reached beyond the D.C.

area and liberal causes. The GOP labeled 1966 its “Year of the Woman”

because of the high percentage of women running for office.62 However, the

types of changes made by permanently transplanted Government Girls and their

families leaned towards the progressive, creating a more liberal political base in

the Maryland and Virginia settlements closest to the Washington border. State

Senator William Hodges, an “old school politico” from Baltimore, recognized this

transformation, as it was reflected in the make-up of the Maryland legislature.

Hodges complained, “I don’t know whether that’s going to carry--all that liberal

thinking in here...It’s a strange setup.”63

The mass resettlement out to the suburbs also changed the physical and

demographic character of Washington. As private firms and stores relocated

from the city center, commercial downtown suffered. Real estate vacancy rates

61 Menes interview, May 11, 2006. 62 Marie Smith, “It’s ‘Year of the Woman’ in GOP Politics,” Washington Post, Times Herald, October 21, 1966, C4. 63 Richard Homan, “Learning About Lawmaking,” Washington Post, Times Herald, November 23, 1966, B1.

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went up; retail sales declined; rents decreased because of a drop in demand;

and businesses wanted office space in the newer west end that had been

constructed during and immediately after the war. For instance, when Julius

Winkelman moved his retail store to lower Connecticut Avenue in 1949, he

brought his wife Sylvia to visit the construction site. “This is going to be a

beautiful store,” Julius crowed proudly. “But who’s going to see it?” Sylvia

asked.64 The corridor where Government Girls and socialites once spent hours

negotiating crowds to contemplate the latest fashions and merchandise had

deteriorated into a lonely commercial stretch of mixed quality and decreasing

importance. Competition from suburban developments created a “hollowing out”

of the formerly busy urban center from which the city would take decades to

recover.

The physical changes in the city also spurred a demographic shift. Slum

clearing and the development of low-income housing became central features of

Washington’s urban renewal plans.66 The Washington Housing Authority, a

renamed and revamped version of the Alley Dwelling Authority, worked with the

new Office of Urban Renewal to help the thousands of families, mostly African

American, displaced by wartime construction and postwar public works

programs 67 Many of these families relocated into formerly all-white areas

vacated when white city residents fled to the suburbs. A 1948 Supreme Court

64 Robert J. Samuelson, “Connecticut Avenue Prosperity,” Washington Post, Times Herald, June 1, 1969, 125. 65 Melder, City of Magnificent Intentions, 501. 66 Robert C. Albrook, “Expert Tells of Weapons in Slum War,” Washington Post, October 20, 1954, 15; “Vision for Washington,” Washington Post, September 14, 1954, 14.

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ruling helped pave the way for this transition. In the locally-based case Hurd v.

Hodge, the Court declared racially restrictive housing covenants unconstitutional.

The newly available housing combined with the legal ruling resulted in sections of

the city previously dominated by white residents becoming racially mixed or

predominantly black. Although blacks and members of minority ethnic groups

also moved out of the city to take advantage of recently built suburbs, white

residents left in greater numbers--300,000 left Washington in the 1950s alone.68

In addition to transformations in the physicality of the Washington area,

World War II war workers instigated changes in the social climate of the city.

Government Girls helped pave the way for the acceptance of Washington’s

postwar “bachelor girl.”69 According to a contemporary journalist, these single,

independent women “work for the love of working and take pride in playing a part

in the pulsating life of their Nation’s Capital.”70 Before the war, young women

generally left home only when they married and moved in with their husbands.71

WAVE Margery Updegraff remembered that, when she first came to Washington

early in the war, single women could not rent an apartment on their own as

67 “‘Slumless’ D.C. Seen In Decade,” Washington Post, Time Herald, November 3, 1954, 17. 68 Levey and Freundel Levey, Washington Album, 132. 69 The name “Bachelor Girl” was first used to describe young, single, independent women in the early 1900s. By the early 1920s the term became blurred with “bohemian” and came to mean single women of small means and questionable morals living in a city in order to work. The positive use of the phrase in the postwar period signifies a newfound approval of single, working women in Washington. See Besty Israel, Bachelor Girl: The Secret History of Single Women in the Twentieth Century (New York: William Morrow, 2002), 98-100, 110-2, 174-5. 70 Marjorie Binford Woods, “Marriage or Career? They Count on Both!” Washington Post, March 3, 1946, S1. 71 Cora Carlyle, “Living Alone Can Have Its Benefits, Too,” Washington Post, August 1, 1950, B11.

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landlords accepted only families.72 But after four years of hosting thousands of

self-supporting Government Girls, the city’s changing attitude towards single

women was noted by the press. One local reporter insisted that “not an eyebrow

is raised at the bachelor girl who maintains her own apartment as long as it’s

clean and well-run.”73 And Mary Haworth, a respected advice columnist, argued

in 1959 that “many nice girls today choose to ‘shove off’ into bachelor-girl living

as an alternative to getting married.”74

This acceptance, however, did not indicate unconditional approval of

career women. One argument in favor of the bachelor girl was that she gained

valuable experience for becoming a wife and mother. A woman who lived on her

own before marriage developed household skills and avoided the “bride’s

traditional helplessness to boil an egg.”75 Even presidential daughter and

operatic hopeful Margaret Truman, the city’s “No. 1 bachelor girl,” could expect

accolades for her independence only “from the time she graduates until the time

she marries” according to a Washington Post etiquette expert.76

As historian Joanne Myerowitz discovered in her study of national

publications, Washington’s postwar discourse sent complex and sometimes

conflicting messages to women.77 The local press did not simply exhort all

Government Girls to return home once the war ended. Public agencies and

72 Updegraff interview, November 19, 2003. 73 Carlyle, “Living Alone Can Have Its Benefits, Too,” B11. 74 Mary Haworth, “Bachelor Girl Asks ‘Moving Question,” Washington Post, April 23, 1959, C14. 75 Carlyle, “Living Alone Can Have Its Benefits, Too,” B11. 76 Elizabeth Maguire, “A Washington Miss Must Be a Hit As a Hostess, Careerist and Playgirl,” Washington Post, July 10, 1949, S1.

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private businesses needed women’s labor to remain viable. Editorials praised

the women’s intelligence, enthusiasm, and outside interests in music, sports, and

travel.78 But newspapers also ran letters of protest against women in federal

jobs, complaining that they prevented veterans from reclaiming jobs or competed

with them for promotions. For example, a Navy employee wrote in to the

Washington Post, “These so-called women veterans were trained for and

performed civilian jobs during the war which now gives them a wholly unfair

advantage over the male veteran.”79 Bachelor girls had more opportunities and

freedom than ever before, but the pressure to relinquish work and follow

traditional roles remained. A Washington Post article titled “Marriage or Career?

They Count on Both!” did not encourage bachelor girls to pursue work and

marriage at the same time, but rather as successive steps along life’s journey.80

Government Girls helped stretch the boundaries of acceptable behavior for

Washington’s young working women, but bachelor girls still fell under society’s

postwar feminine domestic expectations.

Wartime Government Girls also instigated the loosening of strict,

longstanding social protocol in Washington. When Lindy Boggs, wife of

Louisiana Congressman Hale Boggs, arrived in the city for the first time in 1940,

other congressional wives helped steer her through the arcane customs of polite

society. She learned, for example, that political wives adhered to the Victorian

77 Joanne Myerowitz, “Beyond the Feminine Mystique: A Reassessment of Postwar Mass Culture, 1946-1958,” Journal of American History Volume 79, Number 4 (March 1993): 1455- 1482. 78 “Bachelor Girl,” Washington Post, July 10, 1949, S1. 79 Jerry Klutz, “The Federal Diary,” Washington Post, January 10, 1947, 9.

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tradition of calling on each other every afternoon and having weekly “at-homes,”

or designated days and times to receive visitors. Women followed a specific

order for social visits, depending upon the official post their husbands held (i.e.,

wives of the Supreme Court justices accepted visitors on Mondays, wives of

Cabinet members on Tuesdays, and so on).81 The war necessitated a

breakdown in such rigid schedules. As one contemporary social observer noted,

“All the old rules...are off.”82 Women from different classes and professional

levels interacted at volunteer activities, parties arranged for visiting servicemen,

and the ubiquitous cocktail party. Such fluidity between social strata prompted a

distinguished Cave Dweller, or member of an old Washington family, to complain

about the “little stenographer” seated next to a senator and his wife at a dinner

party.83

The informality that Government Girls brought to the city by virtue of their

youth, behavior, and sheer numbers did not permanently eradicate class barriers

between women. However, the old guard monopoly over Washington society

and established customs never fully reestablished itself after the war. Changes

in the city’s annual Easter celebrations illustrate the new postwar character and

atmosphere of the city. Upper class Washingtonians had traditionally kicked off

Easter Sunday by participating in a formal parade starting at St. Johns Church in

Layfayette Square and ending at St. Matthews Cathedral on fashionable

80 Woods, “Marriage or Career? They Count on Both!” S1. 81 Burt Solomon, The Washington Century: Three Families and The Shaping of the Nation’s Capital (New York: William Morrow, 2004), 46. 82 Reston, “Girls’ Town - Washington,” SM8.

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Connecticut Avenue. Women wore elaborate bonnets and stylish gowns, and

men sported top hats and tails. Socialite Evalyn Walsh McLean hosted a late

breakfast followed by a lavish sit-down luncheon for two hundred or more guests

at Friendship, her country estate on Wisconsin Avenue. Ambassadors,

entertainers, members of congress, high-ranking government officials, literati,

and high society mingled among the antique treasures inside the mansion and

the finely cultivated gardens outside. After the war former Government Girls and

returning veterans preferred attending parades honoring patriotic heroes rather

than resurrecting staunch, elite traditions. The former Easter parade, postponed

for the duration, never returned. Middle-class workers and families began to walk

about the grounds of the former Friendship estate, which became McLean

Gardens, an apartment complex, after Walsh McLean sold the property to the

government. And in place of the elegant, day-long McLean feast, Morris and

Gwendolyn Cafritz, wealthy real estate developers and new on the social scene,

held an Easter Sunday cocktail party that included more local executives than

nationally recognized celebrities.84 Washington remained a city structured by

official and social protocol, but Government Girls helped dislodge the rigid,

exclusive, top-down approach that Lindy Boggs first encountered as a young,

congressional wife.

While Government Girls upset several longstanding social customs, their

influence did nothing to alleviate systemic racial tensions within the city.

83 Drew Pearson, “The Washington Merry-Go Round,” The Bell Syndicate, Inc., June 11, 1945, 1, Drew Pearson Papers, Box 6, Folder 9, AU.

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Although black and white women interacted in professional and recreational

arenas during the war, postwar cultural barriers remained intact. Because black

women mostly disappeared from government service and white women’s

migration out to the suburbs created a geographic boundary between races,

social relations between the two groups stayed limited. Even though boundaries

remained, some progress did result from wartime expansion. Yet, such cases

were far from common. D.C. did stand on the cutting edge of the fight for civil

rights. Washington’s black community continued its campaign for equality and

made several groundbreaking strides to end segregation through protests,

boycotts, and legal action in the late 1940s and 1950s.85 However, longstanding

contentions kept residential Washington functioning as two separate

communities.

The influx of Government Girls into wartime Washington contributed to far-

reaching physical, demographic, political, and social changes. The unique

composition of the city’s war workers- mostly young, single, female, and clerical-

created marked differences in postwar conditions compared to industrial

boomtowns. Eighty percent of American women on the job in 1945 remained in

the workforce after the war, an increase of 18 percent over the number of women

84 Marie McNair, “Easter Parade Bows Out As Capital Grows Up,” Washington Post, Times Herald, April 10, 1955, F1. 85 In 1949 the Catholic Archdiocese of Washington desegregated its educational institutions. In 1953 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that segregation in Washington was unconstitutional in District of Columbia v. John R. Thompson Co., and in 1954 the locally-based Bolling v. Sharpe became part of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision declaring separate education unconstitutional. Marya Annette McQuirter, African American Heritage Trail, Washington, D.C. (Washington: Cultural Tourism DC, 2003). See David A. Nichols, "The Showpiece of Our Nation': Dwight D. Eisenhower and the Desegregation of the District of

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working in 1940. The Women’s Bureau attributed the rise in female employment

to the expansion of traditional female occupations such as clerical work rather

than to a greater willingness of women to work or additional career options open

to them.86 Although local women received mixed messages from the media about

remaining in the workforce, both public and private sectors needed and utilized

female labor long after most blue-collar defense workers gave up their jobs to

returning veterans. The women’s continued presence in the region helped

transform the image and acceptance of single, independent women as well as

longstanding social and political practices. Government Girls contributed to

Washington’s postwar economic and cultural growth.

Columbia," Washington History Vol. 16, No.2 (Fall/Winter 2004-2005): 44-65 on local postwar civil rights gains. 86 Department of Labor, Women’s Bureau Bulletin No. 225 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1946), 1, RG215, Box 45, NARA; Department of Labor, Women’s Bureau Bulletin No. 253 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1946), 2, RG215, Box 45, NARA.

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CONCLUSION

“In a war there is no knowing, no guessing...So much is happening that it is possible to know only fragments. Tremendous changes take place and are hardly reflected on the churned up surface. We are all caught up in it, high and low.”1 Journalist Marquis Childs, I Write from Washington, 1942

In March 1943 a Government Girl sent one dollar and a suggestion to the

Washington Post. If her war agency colleagues would follow her lead and each

donate a dollar, they could raise enough money to buy an airplane for the Army.2

The newspaper printed the letter and joined with the Council of Personnel

Administration to organize the fundraising drive. Within five weeks the

“Government Girl campaign” surpassed all expectations and collected $159,000

to purchase and equip both an Army Mustang and a Navy Corsair.3 Immediately

after presenting the money to the military, women created a formal, permanent

organization called the “Government Girl Club.”4 The Club’s officers,

representing various government agencies, planned additional war drives as well

as programs such as fashion shows, career clinics, entertainment performances,

1 Marquis Childs, “I Write from Washington” in Katharine Graham, ed., Katharine Graham's Washington (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2002), 289. 2 Jerry Klutz, “The Federal Diary,” Washington Post, March 8, 1943, B1. 3 “Government Girl Workers To Assemble,” Washington Post, May 20, 1943, 11. 4 ‘“Government Girls’ To Set Up Formal Group Tonight,” Washington Post, June 30, 1943, 5.

207

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holiday teas, and lectures to benefit fellow workers.5 Government Girls officially

recognized themselves as a separate group with special interests. These and

other women who relocated to Washington during World War II did not simply

become federal employees. Government Girls, WACs, WAVES, SPARS, and

WRMs developed wartime identities that distinguished them from peacetime

workers and helped create a vibrant, if short-lived, professional community of

women.

Despite limits and difficulties, women's experiences in Washington were

important to them. Not only did women work in new and different jobs and earn

needed money, but, as they persevered and succeeded, they gained self

confidence and new perspective. Government Girl Grace Ridgeley Drew

summed up the transformative effect working during the war had for her: “My life

completely altered...! changed from being a housewife financially dependent on

my husband to a working woman earning as much as my husband earned.”6

Cecilia Campbell remembered her Navy service in Washington as enabling her

to gain exposure “to all cultures and all kinds of religions. Coming from a small

town where everyone was alike it was a wonderful experience for me.”7 Clerk

Mary Wright surprised herself by developing a friendship with a woman quite

different from her own southern background: “[Sylvia’d] proven to be a real friend.

She was a New Yorker, and I had often been told that people from New York

5 Bill Henry, “By The Way,” Los Angeles Times, August 6, 1945; “Government Girls Support Fund Drive,” Washington Post, February 12, 1946, 10. 6 Grace Ridgley Drew, "Everything was Segregated," in Pauline E. Parker, ed., Women of the Homefront (Jefferson, North Carolina and London: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2002), 75-76.

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were cold and unfeeling. To this day I feel good just remembering her.”8 And

Mary Metcalfe, a Red Cross worker, counts her time in the District as some of the

most valuable of her life: “We helped each other through some hard times, but

mostly we had fun together. We were making the break with our old lives and

starting new ones, we depended on each other. It was the beginning of a whole

new era.”9

Female war workers in the nation’s capital also felt a sense of pride in

their accomplishments and contributions to the national emergency. After more

than sixty years, WAVE Margaret Engelberg remembered, “I loved and respected

my uniform. It was the most rewarding experience that I’ve had, and one of the

best decisions I’ve ever made in my life and I say that today.”10 Mildred Joyce

Shafer similarly reminisced about her wartime service: “I like to think that the

work I did was important in those days during World War II. I shall never regret

that I chose to join the WAVES even though I still startle some people when I say

I was in the Navy.”11 Even without encouragement and support for their

endeavors, many women maintained a feeling of personal achievement.

Although Eleanor Brown’s husband demanded that she stop discussing her WAC

service after they married in 1946 (he viewed her military work as shameful

7 Cecilia Campbell interview with Wanda C. Driver and Fran Richardson, November 7, 2003, WIMSA. 8 Mary Wright, Far from Home: Memories of World War II and Afterward (Washington, D.C.: Gallaudet University Press, 2005), 119. 9 Oscar Whitelaw Rexford, ed., The Clubmobile Experiences of Mary Metcalfe Rexford- Her Journal (St. Louis, Missouri, 1989), 4. 10 Margaret Engelberg interview with Kate Scott, January 14, 2004, WIMSA Oral History Collection.

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because of the salacious rumors spread during the slander campaign), she

carefully preserved her meritorious service plaque, evidence of her swift

promotions in rank, and over 150 letters she wrote home describing her

experiences. Once her husband passed away decades later, Brown located the

memorabilia and shared her adventures with their only daughter.12

On a personal level, women found the knowledge that they could support

themselves empowering. Government Girl Charlotte Millan transitioned into the

private sector after the war and quit working altogether when she got married. A

few years later her husband had an extramarital affair. She packed up the

children, hauled the furniture out of the house, and found a job. Charlotte

eventually reconciled with her husband, but her ability to return to work proved to

both of them that, if necessary, she could survive on her own.13 Former clerk

Hope Nussbaum also found her ability to financially support herself and her

family essential to her successful postwar life in Texas. After Nussbaum’s

husband passed away in the late 1950s, she had to find work in order to care for

her three young children. She noted that her wartime experiences “gave me

confidence to walk into that first [job] interview.” Nussbaum worked for various

government and private agencies until her kids were grown.14

Government Girls participation in Washington’s wartime workforce also

impacted women on a broader, more communal level. After the war women’s

11 Mildred Joyce Shafer Hulse, “Life in the WAVES: 1943 to 1946” in Pauline E. Parker, ed., Women of the Homefront (Jefferson, North Carolina and London: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2002), 119. 12 Tamara Jones, “Her Mother, the Unknown Soldier,” Washington Post, April 23, 2006, D1-3. 13 Wayne Millan interview with author, September 22, 2006.

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employment possibilities continued to expand, political involvement increased,

and Washington society accepted single working women with greater alacrity

than ever before. Living without male supervision, securing a broad range of

work outside the home, and participating in public affairs became attributes of the

ideal patriotic American woman rather than suspicious feminine activity. A

resulting psychological shift regarding expectations of women changed the way

many men and women related to each other. It made it possible for them to

imagine social and economic possibilities less feasible before the war. WRM

Calista Wehrli enjoyed the sense of independence and acceptance that she

experienced in Washington during her military service. She made the conscious

decision to remain on her own and follow her career rather than seek out a man

to marry once the war ended. However, Wherli did date and maintained close

friendships with several men over the years.15 Some men who worked alongside

Government Girls in wartime Washington carried the new insight they gained

regarding women’s capabilities into their private lives. For example, Stephen

Kanyusik worked at the Naval Air Station photo lab with over four hundred

WAVES. Kanyusik’s remembered: “That was my first experience of working with

women, and they were better and more diligent, more orientated towards duty

and working than the men were. They were good....That’s why I firmly started in

marriage knowing the woman could do many more things than men could do.”16

14 Hope Nussbaum interview with author, August 8, 2004. 15 Calista Wehrli interview with author, July 7, 2003. 16 Stephen Kanyusik interview with author, August 3, 2004.

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World War II stretched the boundaries of gender expectations for the men and

women who lived in Washington.

These changes did not, however, amount to revolutionary advances in the

overall social, economic, and political status of women. The majority of women

in Washington did not experience the war as some kind of cultural atomic bomb

that shattered gender restrictions and awakened their determination to fight for

postwar equality. They experienced it more as a personal affirmation of their

strength, skills, and endurance. Government Girls and servicewomen’s

individual life-changing experiences did not represent an advance in the

collective social and economic status of all women locally or nationally. Most

additional jobs open to women were clerical; wide spread political influence took

decades; custom still dictated that women place priority on family over career

after a few experimental years in the workforce; and racial barriers prevented

black women from achieving even this limited upward mobility.

Academics debate whether or not World War II signified a defining

historical moment for women in American society. But that question cannot be

answered in one sweeping generalization. Historians need to recognize the

great variability in women’s experiences during World War II. The war did mark a

major turning point in the lives of local Government Girls and servicewomen.

Many women consider their time in Washington transformative. They took

advantage of opportunities to leave home, enter the workforce, and immerse

themselves in unfamiliar personal and professional situations. The women’s

experiences brought them in contact with classes, races, and cultures other than

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their own, many for the first time. In her influential work Gender and the Politics

of History, Joan Scott employs the widely accepted understanding that gender is

socially constructed. Each individual society’s concept of “woman” is determined

not solely by biological attributes but by changeable and contestable cultural

parameters.17 World War II changed the acceptable parameters for women’s

behavior in America. Government Girls changed them in Washington. However,

while the war jarred prewar patriarchal ideals assigned to these women, it did not

deeply shake, much less destroy them. Competing visions of women's place in

American society and the remarkable tenacity of traditional roles kept women’s

collective advances in World War II on the level of an accelerated evolution

rather than an explosion into a revolution of new gender roles.

Contemporary scholars of women’s history also seek evidence of

connections between World War II and the emergence of the so-called second

wave of feminism. The story of World War M’s Government Girls reveals no

direct link between Washington’s war workers and leaders of national

organizations campaigning for women’s rights two decades later. Pauli Murray

emerged as the most prominent leader of the Women’s Rights Movement with

connections to wartime Washington. Murray studied law at Howard University

during the war and helped organize student sit-ins to protest racial segregation in

area restaurants. Murray became a founder of the National Organization for

Women, professor, civil rights lawyer, college vice president, and deputy attorney

17 Joan Wallach Scott, Gender and the Politics of History (New York: Columbia University Press, 1988).

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general of California.18 Yet, it is impossible to determine how many former

Government Girls and servicewomen worked as organizers and activists for

gender, racial, and sexual equality or later became involved in local and state

politics and advanced women’s rights just by stepping into the political arena and

giving women a greater voice in the democratic process like longtime Maryland

state delegate Pauline Menes. The impossibility of determining the level and

quality of former Government Girls’ participation in political activism on the basis

of the evidence available today must not be construed as implying that these

women’s postwar activities were therefore similar to those of women nationally.

Local studies of women’s participation in public affairs, regional organizations,

and national causes are needed before solid conclusions can be drawn.

Government Girls and servicewomen functioned as valuable employees in

wartime Washington. The machinations of war consumed the city. Women

workers provided the labor for federal agencies to churn out paperwork and

orders controlling American military and civilian operations around the world.

Yet, from the beginning of the defense build-up, Washingtonians exhibited an

ambivalent attitude towards incoming female war workers. To local conservative

factions, the young, independent, ubiquitous “Girls on the Loose” symbolized

social disorder, improvidence, moral decadence, and the decline of the family

unit. Newcomers also entered and oftentimes exacerbated existing gender and

racial tensions. But most women persevered through negative reactions and

18 See Pauli Murray, Song in a Weary Throat: An American Pilgrimage (New York: Harper & Row, 1987).

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press and remained committed to their work and newly acquired community.

Their presence helped dictate the direction of the city’s postwar development and

contributed to the metropolitan region’s continued economic prosperity.

World War II was the single-greatest defining event in the lives of millions

of men and women. The fact that over sixty years after World War II ended,

Americans continue to celebrate, memorialize, and analyze the war in articles,

books, films, television programs, museums, monuments, and yearly tributes

illustrates the war’s importance to the nation, its people, and the shaping of its

contemporary identity. Men and women’s wartime contributions even prompted

newsman and author Tom Brokaw to label them “The Greatest Generation.”19

Government Girls and servicewomen did not necessarily think of themselves as

aiming for greatness. They chose to participate in the war effort in accordance

with their own needs, abilities, courage, and sense of duty. But by doing so they

gained more than just a job for the duration. As Ellen Stiles simply put it: “I was

proud to be a Government Girl...Washington holds a very special place in my

heart.”20 Government Girls in the nation’s capital did not deserve or earn the

flippant label “girls on the loose.” In fact, they were literally and figurately more

together than ever before.

19 Tom Brokaw, The Greatest Generation (New York: Random House, 1998). 20 Ellen Stiles interview with author, July 8, 2004.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Manuscript Collections

American University Library Special Collections, Washington, D.C.

The Eagle Collection Drew Pearson Papers Dorothy Gondos Beers Papers

Gellman Library Special Collections, George Washington University, Washington, D.C.

Washington Board of Trade Papers

Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Howard University, Washington, D.C.

AfraAmerican Journal Collection

Historical Society of Washington, Washington, D.C.

D.C. Social Hygiene Society Papers National Capital Housing Authority Records Records of the Alley Dwelling Authority for the District of Columbia Records of the D.C. Courts, Landlord and Tenant Division Washington Housing Association Records

Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington, Washington, D.C.

The Record Collection

National Archives of Black Women’s History- Mary McLeod Bethune Council House, Washington, D.C.

National Women’s Advisory Committee on Social Protection Papers Records of the National Council of Negro Women

216

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 217

National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Maryland

Committee on Women’s Defense Work Records Office of Civilian Defense, Public Housing Administration Records Office of War Information Records Records of the Washington Metropolitan Area Region- Rent Control Records of the Women’s Bureau War Department Records War Manpower Commission Records Washington, D.C. Government Records Washington, D.C. War Price and Rationing Board Records World War II Military Service Records Women’s Army Corps Recruiting and Training Records

Washingtoniana Division, Martin Luther King, Jr. Library, Washington, D.C.

Annual Reports of the Commissioners of the District of Columbia, 1938- 1955 Vertical Files Washington Afro American Collection Washington Star Collection

Interviews Conducted By Author

Bahny, Anne Treske. Telephone interview, October 7, 2004.

Connolly, Mary. Interview, Washington, D.C., June 24, 2005

Cooper, Guinn. Telephone interview, August 2, 2004.

Cozad, Elizabeth Delean. Telephone interview, June 14, 2004.

Crook, Margaret and Jim. Interview, Towson, Maryland, May 27, 2005.

Davis, Hope. Interview, Bethesda, Maryland, March 23, 2003.

deFranceaux, Barbara. Interview, Washington, D.C., August 6, 2003.

Dennison, Dorothy. Interview, Manassas, Virginia, July 19, 2004.

Fowler, Jane. Telephone interview, August 31, 2004.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 218

Kanyusik, Stephen. Telephone interview, August 3, 2004.

Lichty, Joanne. Telephone interview, July 29, 2004.

Menes, Pauline. Interview, College Park, Maryland, May 11, 2006.

McIntosh, Betty. Interview, Leesburg, Virginia, March 25, 2003.

Millman, Wayne. Telephone interview, September 7, 2006.

Nussbaum, Hope Ribbeck. Telephone and email interviews, July 20, 24, 31, August 2-7, 11-18, 2004

Pattison, Loretta. Interview, Catonsville, Maryland, June 25, 2004

Shrivener, Claire. Interview, Chevy Chase, Maryland, June 4, 2004.

Smith, Sibyl. Telephone interview, July 8, 2004.

Stiles, Ellen. Mail and emails interviews, July 4-11, October 14, 26, November 5- 6, 20, 2004.

Tamminga, Bill. Telephone interview, July 12, 2004.

Taylor, John. Interview, College Park, Maryland, March 11, 2003.

Weinberger, Shirley. Interview, Chevy Chase, Maryland, March 13, 2003

Wehrli, Calista. Telephone interview, July 9, 2004.

World War II Oral History Collection. Women in Military Service of America. Arlington. Virginia

Brogan, Dorris Adams. Interview with Mary Jo Binker, March 26, 2003.

Campbell, Cecilia. Interview with Wanda C. Driver and Fran Richardson, November 7, 2003.

Engelberg, Margaret. Interview with Kate Scott, January 14, 2004.

Forslund, Marilyn. Interview with Judy Bellafaire, May 15, 2003.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 219

Foulds, Lorraine. Interview with Wanda Driver and Ardith Kramer, November 21, 2003.

Loezere, Antoinette. Interview with Kate Scott, January 5, 2004.

Putney, Martha. Interview with Kate Scott, March 26, 2004.

Splaine, Elizabeth F. Interview with Kate Scott, April 16, 2004.

Updegraff, Margery. Interview with Wanda Driver and Ardith Kramer, November 19, 2003.

Wilde, Louise K. Interview with John T. Mason, Jr., December 2, 1969.

Wilson, Eunice. Interview with Judy Bellafaire, April 28, 2003.

American Red Cross Oral History Collection. Falls Church. Virginia

Colony, Helen Thompson. Interview with Brien R. Williams, December 11, 2000.

Duffy, Margaret Gooch. Interview with Brien R. Williams, May 30, 2001.

Laster, Lois I. Interview with Brien R. Williams, February 23, 2000.

Lewis, Eve. Interview with Brien R. Williams, November 16, 1999.

Pathe, Barbara. Interview with Brien R. Williams, August 5, 1999.

Veterans History Project. American Folklife Center. Library of Congress. Washington. D.C.

Bundick, Margaret. Interview with Peter Glyer, Collection #: AFC/2001/001/5891

Hibbs, Henrietta. Interview with James R. Kervin, Collection #: AFC/2001/001/6406

Johnson, Eethel. Interview with James R. Kervin, Collection #: AFC/2001/001/6405

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 220

Ludwig, Ann. Interview with Jennifer Leigh Herman, Collection #: AFC/2001/001/1544.

Murray, Ruth. Interview with Earl Orr, Collection #: AFC/2001/001/6181.

Stewart, Donald Holt. Interview with Amanda Colgate, Collection #: AFC/2001/001/8438.

Watkins, Elizabeth Law. Interview with James R. Kervin, Collection #: AFC/2001/001/5869

White, Joe L. Interview with James R. Kervin, Collection #: AFC/2001/001/5871

The Washington Press Club Foundation Women in Journalism Oral History Project

Bancroft, Jane Eads. Interview with Kathleen Currie, June 2-6, 1988. Available from http://npc.press.org/wpforal/bcs3.htm. Internet; accessed March 25, 2004.

Nash, Ruth Cowan Nash. Interview with Margot H. Knight, September 26, 1987 and March 21, 1988. Available from http://npc.press.org/wpforal/bcs3.htm. Internet; accessed March 25, 2004.

Short, Beth Campbell. Interview #3 with Margo Knight, August 17, 1987. Available from http://npc.press.Org/wpforal/bcs3.htm.lnternet:accessed March 25, 2004.

The Rutgers Oral History Archives of World War II

Elling, Clifford. Interview with G. Kurt Piehlerand Eve, November 12, 1997. Available from http://oralhistory.rutgers.edu/lnterviews/. Internet; Accessed September 13, 2004.

Leuser, Kurt Leuser. Interview with G. Kurt Piehler and James Bongi, October 27, 1994. Available from http://oralhistory.rutgers.edu/lnterviews/. Internet; Accessed September 13, 2004.

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MacDougall, Robert. Interview with G. Kurt Piehler and Robert Lipschitz, July 27, 1994. Available from http://oralhistory.rutgers.edu/lnterviews/. Internet; Accessed September 13, 2004.

Stier, Theodore. Interview with Althea E. Miller and Sebastian Bernheim, March 17, 1997. Available from http://oralhistory.rutgers.edu/lnterviews/. Internet; Accessed September 13, 2004.

Films

Dmytryk, Edward. Tender Comrade. RKO Radio Pictures, 1943.

Humberstone, Bruce. Pin Up Girl. Twentieth Century-Fox, 1944.

Kern, James V. The Doughgirls. Warner Brothers Pictures, 1944.

Nichols, Dudley. Government Girl. RKO Radio Pictures, 1944.

Sandrich, Mark. So Proudly We Hail. MGM, 1942.

Selznick, David O. Since You Went Away. United Artists, 1944.

Sewell, Leslie. Government Girls of World War TheII. History Project, 2005.

Stevens, George. The More the Merrier. Columbia Pictures, 1943.

Thorpe, Richard. Cry “Havoc!”. Paramount Pictures, 1943.

Newspapers and Periodicals Consulted

American Magazine

American Mercury

Atlantic

Architectural Forum

Business Week

Chicago Daily Tribune

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Christian Science Monitor

Ebony

Good Housekeeping

Harper’s Magazine

Independent Woman

Ladies Home Journal

Life Magazine

Los Angeles Times

Monthly Labor Review

Nation

National Geographic Magazine

Newsweek

New York Times

Reader’s Digest

Saturday Evening Post

Time

Vogue

Washington Afro American

Washington Post

Washington Star

Washington Times-Herald

Woman’s Home Companion

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Government Publications

Committee on Washington Metropolitan Problems, Transportation Plan For The National Capital Region. Washington, D.C., November 1959.

Office of War Information, Government Information Manual for the Motion Picture Industry. Washington, D.C., 1942.

Recreation and Housing, Women War Workers: A Handbook on Standards, Bulletin No. 190. Washington, D.C.: Women's Bureau of the U.S. Department of Labor, 1942.

U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Statistical Abstract of the United States - 1940. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1940.

U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Statistical Abstract of the United States - 1948. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1948.

U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Statistical Abstract of the United States - 1950. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1950.

Women's Bureau of the Department of Labor. Negro Women War Workers. Bulletin No. 205. Washington, D.C.: United States Department of Labor, 1945.

Women's Bureau of the Department of Labor. Recreation and Housing, Women War Workers: A Handbook on Standards. Bulletin No. 190. Washington, D.C.: United States Department of Labor, 1942.

Women's Bureau of the Department of Labor. Women’s Bureau Bulletin No. 209. Washington, D.C.: United States Department of Labor, 1946.

Women's Bureau of the Department of Labor. Women’s Bureau Bulletin No. 225. Washington, D.C.: United States Department of Labor, 1946.

Women's Bureau of the Department of Labor. Department of Labor, Women’s Bureau Bulletin No. 253. Washington, D.C., 1946.

Articles

Anderson, Karen Tucker. "Last Hired, First Fired: Black Women Workers during World War II." The Journal of American History. Vol. 69 Issue 1 (June 1982), 82-97.

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Buchholz, Margaret Thomas. “Josephine: The Washington Diary Of a War Worker, 1918-1919.” Washington History, Vol. 10, No.2 (Fall/Winter 1998- 99), 4-23.

D’Ann Campbell, “Women in Uniform: The World War II Experiment.” Military Affairs, Vol. 51, Issue 3 (July 1987): 138.

Davol, Leslie T. "Shifting Mores: Ester Bubley's World War II Boarding House Photos." Washington History Vol. 10, No. 2 (Fall/Winter 1998-99): 50-52.

Gillette, Jr., Howard. “The Wartime Washington of Henry Gichner.” Washington History, Vol. 7, No. 2 (Fall/Winter 1995-96), 36-53

Horne, Frank S. "The Significance of Post-War Housing Plans to Negroes in the United States." Quarterly Review of Higher Education Among Negroes Vol. 11, No. 3(1943): 9.

Horowitz, Roger. "Oral History and the Story of America and World War II." Journal of American History, Vol. 82, No. 2 (September 1995): 617-24.

Koppes, Clayton R. and Gregory D. Black, “Blacks, Loyalty, and Motion-Picture Propaganda.” Journal of American History, Vol. 73, No. 2 (September 1986): 383-406.

______. “What to Show the World: The Office of War Information and Hollywood, 1942-1945.” Journal of American History, Vol. 64, No. 1 (June 1977): 87-105.

Leff, Mark H. “The Politics of Sacrifice on the American Home Front in World War 11.” Journal of American History, Vol. 77, No. 4 (March 1991): 1296-1318.

Myerowitz, Joanne. “Beyond the Feminine Mystique: A Reassessment of Postwar Mass Culture, 1946-1958.,” Journal of American History ol. V 79, No. 4 (March 1993): 1455-1482.

Nichols, David A. "The Showpiece of Our Nation': Dwight D. Eisenhower and the Desegregation of the District of Columbia." Washington History Mol. 16, no.2 (Fall/Winter 2004-2005): 44-65.

Orbach, Barbara “The Mirror Image: Black Washington in World War II Era Photography.” Washington History, Vol. 4, No.1, Spring/Summer 1992, 7- 12, 20-21.

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Silverman, Roselyn Dresbold. "World War II in Washington: Life at Dissin's." The Record 22 [Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington] (1997), 42- 44.

Westbrook, Robert. “I Want a Girl Just Like the Girl That Married Harry James: American Women and the Problem of Political Obligation in World War II.” American Quarterly 42 (December 1990): 587-614.

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Anderson, Karen. Wartime Women: Sex Roles, Family Relations, and the Status of Women During World War Westport,II. Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1981.

Anderson, Madelyn Klein. So Proudly They Served: American Military Women in World War II, A First Book. New York: F. Watts, 1995.

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Fitzpatrick, Sandra and Maria R. Goodwin. The Guide to Black Washington. New York: Hippocrene Books, 1990.

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______. Undercover Girl. New York: The McMillan Company, 1947.

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