At the Agricultural Front: the Women's Land Army During World War II Stephanie Ann Carpenter Iowa State University

Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Retrospective Theses and Dissertations Dissertations 1997 At the agricultural front: the Women's Land Army during World War II Stephanie Ann Carpenter Iowa State University Follow this and additional works at: https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd Part of the United States History Commons, Women's History Commons, and the Women's Studies Commons Recommended Citation Carpenter, Stephanie Ann, "At the agricultural front: the Women's Land Army during World War II " (1997). Retrospective Theses and Dissertations. 11964. https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd/11964 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Dissertations at Iowa State University Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Retrospective Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Iowa State University Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMH films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter fece, while others may be from any type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand comer and continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. Each original is also photographed in one exposure and is included in reduced form at the back of the book. Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6" x 9" black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. UMI A Bell & Howell Information CompaiQr 300 North Zed) Road, Ann Arbor MI 48106-1346 USA 313/761-4700 800/521-0600 At the agricultural front: The Women's Land Army during World War II by Stephanie Ann Carpenter A dissertation submitted to the graduate faculty in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OP PHILOSOPHY Major: Agricultural History and Rural Studies Major Professor: R. Douglas Hurt Iowa State University Ames, Iowa 1997 Copyright ® Stephanie Ann Carpenter, 1997. All rights reserved. UMI Number: 9814624 Copyright 1997 by Carpenter, Stephanie Ann All rights reserved. UMI Microform 9814624 Copyright 1998, by UMI Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48103 ii Graduate College Iowa State University This is to certify that the Doctoral dissertation of Stephanie Ann Cai^jenter has met the dissertation requirements of Iowa State University Signature was redacted for privacy. ofeasor Signature was redacted for privacy. For t, Maj Program Signature was redacted for privacy. For the Graduate College iii TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER 2. PRE-WAR PRECEDENTS 20 CHAPTER 3. AND ON THE FARM: PRECEDENTS TO THE WLA 45 CHAPTER 4. THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT AND THE WLA 86 CHAPTER 5. MONEY, CLOTHING, HEALTH, AND HOME 130 CHAPTER 6. PITCH IN AND HELP: THE WLA CALLS WOMEN TO THE FARMS 174 CHAPTER 7. REGULAR FARM GIRLS: WOMEN IN SERVICE ON THE COASTS 209 CHAPTER 8. WOMEN IN SERVICE, THE MIDWEST: IN THE HOUSE OR IN THE FIELDS, THE DEBATE REGARDING NONFARM WOMEN 240 CHAPTER 9. WOMEN IN SERVICE, THE SOUTH: WHAT HAPPENS WHEN RACE AND CLASS GET IN THE WAY 270 CHAPTER 10. CONCLUSIONS 295 APPENDIX 320 BIBLIOGRAPHY 326 1 CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION The Women's Land Army (WLA) of World War II helped bring to the United States agricultural front the needed labor for the country's farms. Established during a time of national emergency, the WLA placed more than three million women on farms. And while the WLA operated only from mid-1943 to the end of the war, its significance to American fairming and agricultural labor is multifold. The use of farm and nonfarro women, including middle-class, urban white women and women of color, initiated a change in the manner that the nation viewed the farm labor force. By accepting all available women as agricultural labor, farmers in the 1940s abandoned accepted labor practices and adopted wartime measures. This action by the nation's farm sector differed from earlier decades. Svibsequently, after World War II, farm labor practices in the country experienced change as more women remained in agriculture than had been present before World War II. The 1940s would become the watershed for major changes in American women's lives, including farm women. With the onset of world war, women faced the possibility, and then the reality, of entering the defense and manufacturing industries and the military. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, the federal government recognized the need for women in the work force. Women became war workers as a result of a national effort to win the war. Although the number of women who had worked in industry or had been members of the military previously, had not been prominent, in 1942 the federal government began actively recruiting women for defense manufacturing and military positions. Posters depicting Uncle Sam and "I Need You!" and similar advertisements such as "Women Wanted!" became common sights. By the end of 1942, two million American women had joined war industries in efforts to provide goods and services required for a country at war. Images of women in military dress xiniform and in defense- 2 manufacturing uniform appeared in the media. The WACS, WAVES, and "Rosie the Riveter" became symbols for American women. These images alone, however, do not tell the complete history of American women during the Second World War. For millions of women, military and industrial or defense manufacturing positions did not encompass their assistance to the war effort For many American women, the cultural, economic, and social characteristics so often identified with the Second World War do not represent the total experience. More than three million women participated in a defense industry that has not received the publicity or attention that military or industrial service garnered. Beginning in 1943, and continuing through the end of 1945, women worked as agricultural laborers, assisting farmers to increase production and reach quotas established by the federal government. This wartime practice established a precedent that allowed women in the 1950s and beyond to justify the changing structure of American female employment that had been taking place since the onset of the twentieth century. The impact of World War II on American society brought great change to people's lives. As women prepared to enter the defense job market, they made changes that would radically alter their lives. It is within wartime that the role of American women in society transformed from the 1930s, allowing as well a change in society's perception of women. Federal administrators, assuming that women were content with their lives and that they were not needed for defense work, did not immediately recruit women for war work. Subsequently, women arrived late to positions in the defense industries, but more so to agriculture. With defense recruitment, manufacturing and industrial interests received the labor needed to continue operation. In terms of agriculture, however, the federal government hesitated and did not implement a comprehensive labor policy until mid-1943 when the situation had become 3 extreme. The hesitation to set in motion a farm employment plan at the same time as the industrial recruitment measure, coupled with the "unglamorous" nature of agricultural work, forced WLA, Extension Service, and United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) administrators to work hard to recruit female labor later in the war. Regardless of federal action at the time, or perhaps because of it, the historical study of female agricultural labor during the Second World War is an underdeveloped sxabject. While historians have long debated the military and social aspects of World War II both on the home front and overseas, the examination of agricultural labor has not received similar treatment. In the work that has been cotr^jleted regarding farm labor during the war, the main body of scholarship has concentrated on the analysis of work performed by convicts, interned Japanese Americans, Mexican nationals, and prisoners of war. Even so, more publications exist that deal with the social and cultural characteristics and actions of these groups then of their experience as farm laborers. In terms of American women, however, the examination of their contribution to agricultural labor during World War II has been almost nonexistent. Thus, a study of the WLA provides a worthy subject.^ A survey of the available literature, including contemporary farm and government publications, national media, and WLA annual reports, allows conclusions to be drawn concerning the status of women in agriculture and society during the early 1940s. Within this analysis, the relationship of the WLA to federal agencies and organizations illustrates the in^jortance of the group to the overall war effort. With the millions of women participating, the WLA effectively recruited, trained, and placed its labor on national farms. The continuation of this agency past its initial year relied on the farmers, federal government, and women to establish and maintain a successful program.

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