me welders, bus drivers, train conductors, mechanics, bellhops, nurses and day-care providers. Women comprised a third of the workers in aircraft plants and about 10 percent of the workers at the shipyards and steel mills were women. Although most war work was in factories, many women found work elsewhere. Many became secretaries and clerks in Washington D.C. and more than 200,000 women entered the special branches of the military. Such branches include Women’s Army Corp (WAC), Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES), and Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS). These military positions allowed women to take over tasks for soldiers so they could be free to go to combat. Although women participated in jobs extremely similar to men, they were not treated equally. For the long hour’s women put in, their salaries averaged only 60 percent of men’s. However, the greatest struggle for American women throughout the war was not simply the issue of money. The working life was difficult for these women. They would work eight to ten hours, often on a night or overnight shift and there were long rides home. When many of these women returned home from work they had to worry about their families and children. There were lines to buy food and other products and very appliances in their households to help with cooking and cleaning. World War II gave women a patriotic excuse to leave their homes. A Department of Labor poll found that 85 percent of women in the United Auto Workers union wanted to keep their jobs after the war ended. However, after the war more than 1.3 million women were released in late 1945. ...
