A Woman is a Substitute like Plastic instead of Metal

  A war department brochure claimed “a woman is a substitute, like plastic instead of metal”.

As American males were being shipped overseas in 1944, nearly half of the women in the US were at work in factories supporting the war efforts at home. Women helped to assemble bombs, build tanks, weld hulls, and grease locomotives and broke the stereotypical molds they had previously been cast in. A muscular woman known as “Rosie the Riveter” was portrayed on a now famous propaganda poster in an effort to recruit more women in to jobs previously done by men. “We can do it” was the message sent to U.S. women.  While a popular song of the day contained the verse “that little frail can do, more than a man can do”.

As women began flooding the work place with what had been predominately male jobs, they found their incomes rose, although they earned only 60% of what a man would have been paid. Most female workers were married, 60% were over 35, and a third had children under the age of 14. Many faced harassment due to the social stereotypes that prevailed during that time. Often times women were told not to wear sweaters, which they were told were morally unacceptable. 

The contributions of working women during World War II were considered temporary.  Long hours of hard labor did little to gain women the respect they deserved for their efforts to support the war.  As the war began to come to a close, war related jobs came to a close and women and people of color were significantly reduced as jobs were reserved for returning servicemen. Propaganda messages after the war changed from asking women to go to work to telling them that their value was at home.

Thankfully, attitudes about the contributions that  “the little woman” made during the war have changed over the years. In the Fall of 2000, the town of Richmond, California erected a national memorial commemorating the sacrifices and contributions of the working women who supported the war effort here on the home front. 

For more information on Rosie the Riveter WWII Home Front National Historical Park click this link.

Women have proven to be more than a plastic substitute for metal and have served a vital role in America’s military history.

Currently:
· 350,000 women are serving in the U.S. military — almost 15 percent of active duty personnel.
· One in every seven troops in Iraq is a woman.
· 35 women soldiers have died as of March 2005.
· 261 U.S. military women have been wounded in Iraq.

Spanish American War: · 1,500 women served.

World War I:
· 21,480 in the Army Nurse Corps
· 2,000 in the Navy Nurse Corps
· 12,000 Yeomen
· 305 Women Marines
· 200 in Army Signal Corps
· More than 400 nurses died in the line of duty. 

World War II Era:
· 400,000 women served.
· More than 460 died.
· 88 female military nurses were captured and held as prisoners of war.

Korean War era:
· More than 50,000 served.

Vietnam:
· 265,000 women served.
· 7,500 women were deployed in theater, including 36 women Marines, 421 women in the Navy and 771 in the Air Force. The remainder served in the Army.
· Navy, Air Force and Army nurses accounted for 80 percent to 90 percent of the total number of women who served in Vietnam.
· Majority of U.S. women serving were in their early 20s. When they returned to the United States, they received the same hostile treatment as did men returning from combat duty.
· 48 percent of women Vietnam veterans are expected to experience post-traumatic stress disorder at some point.
· Many women have also encountered health problems from Agent Orange exposure and experienced suicidal thoughts.

Operation Desert Storm:
· In January 1991, more than 33,000 service women deployed to Southwest Asia during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm.

· 13 service women were killed and two were held as POWs.

Sources: Department of Defense; the Women For Military Service in America Memorial in the Arlington Cemetery.

 

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