Primary Sources:

Twentienth Century

View a 1943 bulletin of the Women’s Bureau entitled “Choosing Women for War Industry Jobs” at http://www2.smu.edu/cul/ww2/choosewomenhome.htm. 

See the original book by the Department of Labor, If Your Baby Must Travel in Wartime, at http://www2.smu.edu/cul/ww2/babyhome.htm. 

Read the Department of Labor’s pamphlet on women working nights in war plants at http://www2.smu.edu/cul/ww2/nightworkhome.htm.  

See a World War II pamphlet of the Women’s Bureau entitled “Women’s effective war work requires time for meals and rest” at http://www3.bfn.org/t/tvh.bfn.org/women.html. 

Look at a slide of three women working inside the circular structure of a fuselage of a B-17 bomber in 1942 at http://rs6.loc.gov/pnp/fsac/1a35000/1a35300/1a35337r.jpg. 

See a poster from the Office of War Information that encourages women to fill men’s jobs during the war at http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pnp/cph/3b40000/3b45000/3b45100/3b45153r.jpg and another at http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pnp/cph/3g00000/3g05000/3g05600/3g05603r.jpg.

View a 1944 poster claiming that “women have met the test” at http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pnp/cph/3g00000/3g05000/3g05500/3g05597r.jpg. 

Look at the World War II political cartoon titled “And then in my spare time…” at http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pnp/cph/3b40000/3b43000/3b43700/3b43729r.jpg. 

Look at a photo collage from Good Housekeeping in the 1960s depicting homemakers of the era at http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/wlm/fun-games2/fun-games2-photos-72.jpeg. 

Published in 1963, Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique shocked society and provided a voice of reason and encouragement for unhappy homemakers.  Read chapter one, “The Problem With No Name,” at http://coursesa.matrix.msu.edu/~hst203/documents/friedan1.html. 

 Look at No More Fun and Games: A Journal of Female Liberation, which was published in 1969 with essays on liberation for black American women at http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/wlm/fun-games2/.

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