World War and the Growth of Global Power 269emphasized that workers were not meant to replace the male labor force.
They were needed as industrial workers during an emergency, and once the
war was over, they were expected to return home and allow men to once
again take their factory jobs. Women were certainly not meant to replace
men, crowd the labor market, and push wages down once the war ended.
They simply had to sacrifice their roles as wife and mother temporarily as a
patriotic duty.
The government and American society did not necessarily change their
values regarding women and equality in the workplace; women were still
considered to have primary roles as mothers and wives. Though millions of
females migrated to industry centers like Detroit, Seattle, and Baltimore to do
wartime manufacturing work, at wages that averaged 40 percent more than
those who worked in other industries, they were still considered temps who
would soon leave the workforce. Consequently, the government initially
hesitated to recruit women. To discourage permanent employment of women,
the factories did not provide childcare centers, even though one-third of the
female workers had children under the age of 14 [factories in England, on the
other hand, provided such service]. The U.S. Children’s Bureau reminded
women, “a mother’s primary duty is to her home and children. This duty is
one she cannot lay aside, no matter what the emergency.” Although govern-
ment agencies ordered that women receive pay equal to men for equal work,
lax enforcement and employer tactics such as placing females into different
job categories ensured that women received lower wages and it discouraged
them from seeking permanent employment. Worse, African-American women
more often than not were paid much less than white women, if they were
even hired. It was customary to hire White women and African-American
men first. If hired, Black women were usually assigned low-level manufactur-
ing jobs.
When the war ended, so too did the incredible influx of women into the
American workforce. Many high-paying industries simply laid off their female
employees; many other women voluntarily quit to reassume their domestic
duties. The auto industry that produced tanks and trucks, for example, saw a
decline in female employment from 24 percent in 1944 to 7.5 percent in 1946.
At the end of 1946, 2 million women voluntarily left the labor force and
another million were laid off. The May 1946 New York Times Magazine head-
line asked, “What’s Become of Rosie the Riveter?” Just as the federal propa-