World War II was a watershed in the lives of many American women. Although many men earned draft deferments as essential workers, numerous women replaced men on America's assembly lines during the war. Many returned to more traditional roles after the war. Others continued to work outside the home to afford better lives for their families.

Between 1941 and 1945, some 6.5 million women entered the work force because of the large number of men in the military and the need for increased production. Many were employed in jobs women had traditionally done; however, great numbers of women worked defense jobs in order to earn better pay and more prestige despite the fact that they were paid less than men. The number of women in the labor force increased from 28 percent in 1940 to 36 percent five years later. Women worked as welders and mechanics. They produced munitions and weapons and proved equally able at industrial tasks previously denied to them. Numbers of women joining the work force stopped growing by 1947, but these wartime workers paved the way for new opportunities for women.

Edith and Victor Speer of Cleveland were married in June 1942, just before he left for service in the army. She went to work. Near the end of the war she wrote to her husband, "I'm not exactly the same girl you left. I'm twice as independent as I used to be… I've been living exactly as I want to and I do as I damn well please. You are not married to a girl that's interested solely in a home. I shall definitely have to work all my life. I get emotional satisfaction out of working; I don't doubt that many a night you will cook the supper while I'm at a meeting. Also dearest, I shall never wash and iron. There are laundries for that." (Timeline, Nov/Dec 1993)

The biggest obstacle to women working was childcare. This cover for a booklet published in Columbus listed three board of education nursery schools and six-day nurseries scattered around the city during the war. In addition, some companies offered childcare to induce homemakers to come to work for them.

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