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"Jenny on the Job Wears Styles Designed for Victory"

This World War II-era poster is from the "Jenny on the Job" series developed by the U.S. Public Health Service and aimed at women workers. The series offered safety tips and advice for thousands of women thrust into the workforce during World War II, often in jobs requiring strenuous manual labor (not to mention the coveralls, work gloves, safety goggles and low-heeled shoes modeled by the series' heroine). While the posters reflected the newly important status of women who now occupied jobs previously reserved for men, as well as an advanced (for the period) graphic style, they nonetheless clung to a stereotypical view of femininity; in other posters from the series Jenny implores women to "keep fresh as a daisy" and "get [their] beauty sleep."

External Link: arcweb.archives.gov

Source | Office for Emergency Management/Office of War Information, "Jenny on the Job - Wears Styles Designed for Victory," poster, 1943, from National Archives, http://arcweb.archives.gov/arc/action/ExternalIdSearch?id=514684.
Creator | Office of Emergency Management
Item Type | Poster/Print
Cite This document | Office of Emergency Management, “"Jenny on the Job Wears Styles Designed for Victory",” SHEC: Resources for Teachers, accessed April 19, 2024, https://shec.ashp.cuny.edu/items/show/1206.

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