Table of Statistics on Women in the World War II Era Workforce

Before World War II (1941-1945), when women worked outside the home it was usually in jobs traditionally considered to be “women’s work.” These included teaching, domestic service, clerical work, nursing, and library science. During the war, the nation needed more airplanes, ships, trucks, and other military hardware, and had fewer men available to work in the factories to make them. The federal government encouraged women to join the industrial workforce as a patriotic duty, and many women did take the highly skilled and better paying factory jobs usually held by men. By 1944, women held one third of all manufacturing jobs in the U.S.

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