SECTION 2: The Home Front
WITNESS HISTORY 
AUDIO
Rosie the Riveter
Who was Rosie the Riveter? The image of a muscular, determined worker, hair tucked under a kerchief, graced countless magazines and posters. And several real-life Rosies won nationwide publicity, including Rose Hicker, a worker in a Tarrytown, New York, aircraft plant, who set a record for driving rivets into the wing of a bomber. But, in fact, Rosie was not based on one woman. The name was first used in a 1942 song:
“All the day long, whether rain or shine, She’s a part of the assembly line. She’s making history, Working for victory, Rosie the Riveter.”
—Redd Evans and John Jacob Loeb, “Rosie the Riveter”
Objectives
- Explain how World War II increased opportunities for women and minorities.
- Analyze the effects of the war on civil liberties for Japanese Americans and others.
- Examine how the need to support the war effort changed American lives.
Terms and People
- A. Philip Randolph
- Executive Order 8802
- bracero program
- internment
- 442nd Regimental Combat Team
- rationing
- OWI
NoteTaking
Reading Skill: Identify Main Ideas As you read, identify the major effects of World War II on the home front.
Why It Matters World War II engaged the peoples and resources of the countries involved. The war effort stirred patriotism and promoted economic recovery. And, while wartime fears and tensions tested civil liberties, new opportunities for women and minorities would spur stronger efforts to ensure equal rights after the war was over. Section Focus Question: How did the war change America at home?
New Economic Opportunities
American industry quickly converted to war production to meet the nation’s military needs. Once industry exhausted the available men, women found more jobs for the taking. Government and industry launched an all-out publicity campaign urging women to do their part to meet wartime production quotas. In time, women made up one third of the wartime workforce.
Women Work for Victory
A woman working outside the home was nothing new, but wartime pressures created two sharp breaks from the past. Many women found jobs, especially in heavy industry, that fell outside the traditional realm of women’s work. The need for labor also weakened the common practice that a woman quit her job once she married. Three fourths of women working in war industries were married, and 60 percent were older than 35 years.
The image of Rosie the Riveter’s rolled up sleeves, red kerchief, and rivet gun gave Americans an enduring image of women in wartime production. Still, women labored in both blue-collar and white-collar jobs. Most factory owners expected women to step aside
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