Editing World War II Home Front (section)

== Women in the Workforce ==

The war opened industrial jobs to women on an unprecedented scale. "Rosie the Riveter" was not just propaganda but reality: thousands of Philadelphia women took jobs in shipyards, arsenals, and factories that had never hired women before. They worked as welders, electricians, crane operators, and in other skilled positions. The Philadelphia Navy Yard, which had employed almost no women before the war, had over 4,000 female workers by 1943. Women proved capable of work that prejudice had declared them unable to perform, challenging assumptions that would be difficult to fully restore after the war ended.<ref name="anderson">{{cite book |last=Anderson |first=Karen |title=Wartime Women: Sex Roles, Family Relations, and the Status of Women During World War II |year=1981 |publisher=Greenwood Press |location=Westport, CT}}</ref>

The entry of women into industrial work created practical challenges and social tensions. Factories built facilities for women workers—restrooms, changing areas, first aid stations—that had not existed before. Day care for children of working mothers became a public concern for the first time. Some male workers resented female colleagues, while unions debated whether and how to organize them. Yet the war economy needed every worker available, and practical necessity overcame ideological objections. When the war ended, many women were pushed out of industrial jobs—but the demonstration that women could perform industrial work had lasting effects on assumptions about gender roles.<ref name="kennedy"/>