(H)our History Lesson: Women’s Contributions to the Home Front in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, WWII Heritage City

The 1944 poster, “Soldiers without Guns,” includes a picture of a woman welder. Welding was one role women had in Pittsburgh.

Adolph Treidler, artist; Library of Congress.

About this Lesson

This lesson is part of a series teaching about the World War II home front, with Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania designated as an American World War II Heritage City. The lesson contains photographs, two newspaper articles, and an interview to contribute to learners’ understandings about the home front contributions of women in Pittsburgh.

Women worked and served in many ways in Pittsburgh during World War II. The lesson does not cover all roles but shares a variety through primary sources and photos for students to consider. The first two readings focus on women in industry, while the third shares about a woman in service. You may choose to divide the readings into two lessons to look at the types of work separately or use it to compare, in the same lesson, across the many roles of women in Pittsburgh.
Other lessons about women and World War II can be found on the theme page for Teaching with Historic Places.

Objectives:

1. Explain why women entered Pittsburgh’s industry workforce, and the importance of this to home front efforts.

2. Describe the experiences of women working on the home front in Pittsburgh, with details such as workplace safety, living conditions, types of jobs, challenges, and benefits.

3. Compare historical perspectives on women in the workforce during World War II.

Materials for Students:

1. Photos 1- 6 (can be displayed digitally)

2. Readings 1, 2, 3 (three primary)

3. Recommended: map of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to refer to throughout lessons

4. Extension: Civics and History Connection

Getting Started: Essential Question

How did women in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, contribute to the home front efforts?

Reading to Connect

Reading 1: Newspaper Excerpt

Teacher Tip: Help students compare the date of this article and its contents to the dates from the “By the Numbers” below the reading, and the next reading. How does the discussion continue to develop around women in industry? You may also choose to read one, or a combination of the three, newspaper excerpts. It may help to assign small groups each with one text to then report back on to the class. 

“Victory Belles” by Douglas Naylor 

The Pittsburgh Press, October 10, 1942, p.1 

Plans have been laid in Pittsburgh for large scale employment of women in war industry, if the government mobilization of fighting men approaches estimates of Maj. Gen. Lewis B. Hershey, director of Selective Service.  

He has said that between 10,000,000 and 13,000,000 men might be needed, a fighting force of such magnitude that war production industry would have to surrender every man that could be released. 

This eventuality has not been left to chance. When every available man can be tapped on the shoulder—without taking any chances of disrupting the rate of plant production. 

They will be able to pull out these men successfully by following a plant-by-plant job chart in process of creation in the office of the U.S. Employment Service, 526 Penn Ave. 

The charts are being made from a new survey by Alvin D. Snyder, staff technician for the Employment Service. 

Jobs Examined 

‘I am now making a survey of about 12 to 14 plants in the Pittsburgh district which will hire about 70 per cent of all future war industry labor needs here,’ Mr. Snyder explained.  

‘We are examining every job in these plants to determine the employability of women workers,’ he said.  

‘Several angles are taken into consideration to determine the suitability of women. For example, we must find out the worker characteristics required for success on the job, such as strength factors, and ability to stand for long periods of time. 

‘The limiting factors in the employment of women are principally confined to weight and lifting requirements. In some cases, these might be overcome by increasing the leverage. This would enable women to do many more heavier jobs. 

‘In respect to dexterity, if you take a group of 100 men and another of 100 women and test them for manual dexterity, they won’t differ on scores to any appreciable extent.’ 

Mr. Snyder said that when his occupational analysis is finished, ‘we will know how many women can be employed in each plant.’  

‘When the labor shortage becomes stringent enough,’ he added, ‘we can go to an employer and say:  

Tests Are Given 

'According to our analysis there are so many jobs in your plant that could be done by women. Why not hire them.’

Mr. Snyder pointed out that there is enough government training in the trades to fill all these vacancies with women capable of carrying on the work.  

To show how job specification is handled for the war crisis, Mr. Snyder referred to the physical requirements needed for woodworkers in aircraft manufacturing. His report – which indicates that women are employable at these jobs—carries these observations. ‘Applicants will be required to pass an aptitude test. Worker characteristics significantly required for satisfactory performance are: strength of hands, arms, dexterity of fingers, eye-hand coordination, co-ordination of independent movement of both hands, form perception, keenness of vision, touch discrimination, ability to work rapidly for long periods, understanding of mechanical devices and emotional stability.” 

Mr. Snyder has written a report on ‘The Influence of Women Workers on Labor Supply in the Defense Industries of Pittsburgh,’ published in mimeograph form. In this report he said: 

‘The importance of the woman worker as the potential bulwark of the labor supply is increasing daily. A voluntary registration of women is to follow the mass registration of male workers. It is estimated that eventually two and one-half million women will be recruited for war industries. 

Standards Changed 

‘It is because of this urgency that the Employment Service has made this preliminary survey of available women workers, problems confronting women workers, their influence on the labor market, training facilities for women workers and law regulating their work.  

‘Wage differentials between male and female workers will of necessity have to be broken down as the women are hired in greater proportions. Employer’s specifications that often restrict the woman worker from employment will have to be relaxed. 

‘Laws regulating the hours and conditions of the employment of women will have to be altered to meet the requirements of the times.  

‘In-plant training and upgrading for women within industry will become functions of all industrial concerns. Job simplification and job breakdown will follow as a procedure to introduce the woman worker to industry.  

Steps Necessary 

'All of these steps, and more, are necessary to keep industrial production on a level with military demands and the inevitable victory that we all hope will be ours at the end of this world-wide struggle.’ 

Mr. Snyder pointed out that industrial production areas like Philadelphia and the West Coast are able to employ a larger percentage of women in war work than Pittsburgh, because of the predominance of so-called “heavy” industries in this area requiring semi-skilled laborers with more strength than women possess. But he predicted that any abnormally big drainage of manpower for the armed forces might lead to the employment of women in more than half the jobs in the Pittsburgh district, and added that, as more production contracts flow to local plants, the number of employed women here might swing far above 50 per cent. 

Reading 2: Newspaper Excerpt 

“Basic Needs in Workers’ Togs Given” by Mary Anderson 

Excerpts from a discussion on ‘Putting Women to Work in War Industries’ by Mary Anderson, director, Women’s Bureau, United States Department of Labor. 

Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph, March 16, 1943, p.11 

The kind of clothes women wear on the job has come in for much more attention in recent months. Women’s ordinary street clothes are not practical for machine jobs in a plant. 

The Women’s Bureau has never encouraged a rule-of-thumb requirement for work clothes. We do say that clothes should be adapted to the particular job, with all the necessary safety precautions taken into consideration.  

The basic requirements for factory work clothes apply to both men and women: Not too tight to hinder free movement, not too loose to get caught in moving machinery; pockets only when they are not a hazard and then limited to certain types; no jewelry, including rings and watches; hair completely protected; and well-fitted shoes completely covering the foot, with extra toe or other protection where necessary.  

On some jobs trousers are most practical for women; on many other jobs women can wear a simple type of dress.  

Safe Headgear 

When intricate hair-dos the fashion, no article of personal protective equipment is of more immediate importance to women workers than the headgear designed for safety. It is necessary, if a hair covering is to be acceptable to the workers, that it be designed for comfort and attractiveness as well as safety. Fortunately, all of these can go together. Comfort means that the headsize will be generous, and that also means that the hat will be thrown off if a girl does strike a part of the machinery. 

Comfort means, too, that it will be possible to completely cover the hair without ruining the hair-do, and that is a guarantee that the hair will not get caught in moving machinery. A good work hat should also have enough height so that it does not touch the top of the girl’s head, and have enough stiffness so that it does not catch in revolving machinery. Hairnets alone do not meet these requirements either for safety or attractiveness.  

Training Needed 

The Women’s Bureau is frequently asked, ‘How can we enforce safety rules and the wearing of proper work clothes by women?’ The answer goes back first to training for the job, or introduction to the job. From there on the whole problem of safety of women workers hinges on supervision. The supervision of women presents problems little different from the supervision of men. However, if the foremen resent the introduction of women into the plant—whether consciously or unconsciously—or if the men themselves dislike the presence of women, there is not likely to be the smoothness of operation that results in adequate production and safe methods.  

Beyond the plant gate, unsatisfactory living conditions take a heavy toll in the health and industrial efficiency of women workers. Some women carry heavy home responsibilities in addition to full-time jobs. Women workers also have certain housing and recreation needs somewhat different from those of men.  

Crowded Quarters 

In some of our war industry areas, many workers are young women away from their homes and families, living in crowded rooms with several others, without adequate opportunities for good meals at reasonable cost, without opportunities for wholesome recreation. Such conditions make it likely that tuberculosis—to mention only one disease—will increase, as health authorities predict it will. Tuberculosis deserves special attention because large numbers of women workers are within that dangerous age range most affected by this enemy. Management, workers, local communities, state and Federal agencies, must combine forces in attacking conditions outside the factory which lead to illness, absenteeism, and less production.  

The important thing to keep in mind now is that women are on the job in the war industries; they are turning out the quality and quantity of work the war demands. The nation will need their particular strength and ability even more as time goes on. It is only sound sense to do everything possible, within the plant and beyond it, to safeguard their health and efficiency for victory. 

Reading 3: Interview

Interview of WAC recruiter Marcella Irene Martin (Excerpt) 

The interview of Marcella Irene (Jones) Martin is from the Library of Congress Veterans History Project. The interview was collected on May 27, 2015, when Martin was 91 years old. The interviewer’s name is Janet Player. The interview is available in MP3 format and the following is a transcribed excerpt, condensed for student readability. 

Background: Marcella Irene Martin started in the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC), mostly for training, and then served in the Women’s Army Corps (WAC). She served from 1943 – 1945.  She rose to the rank of Sergeant and spent time in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania as a recruiter, starting in spring of 1944. In her interview, she described some of the challenges of being a recruiter in Pittsburgh. 

Marcella Martin (MM): Well we got on the phone, and they gave us a phone book. And they had it all.. We was supposed to hit every single available woman that we could get. 

JP: and you were trying to recruit these women for what job? 

MM: the Blue Angels. They needed help in the hospitals, and they started this unit, the Blue Angels were … it was a short-lived thing, but the Blue Angels for Purple Hearts... it was supposed to be where you felt sorry for the boys that needed help... I liked the duty, because I knew every girl, I got to go in was going to help... it was a different kind of... I wasn’t replacing a man. I was getting somebody to help the ones that had been wounded. And that’s the thing that made it....  

JP: Very worthwhile.  

MM: Very worthwhile. 

JP: So, they gave you a list and you called these women, and so tell us what that was like. They had to answer, or their parents would answer. 

MM: We’d call. Is Mary there? Yeah, just a minute. Mary, this is Sergeant Jones from the Womans Army Corps. We’d like to talk to you about.... oh boy, they knew right then, you know. ‘I’m not joining the service.’ ‘Well, can I just talk to you? Can we come out to the house to talk to you?’ Well anyway, we managed with our ways to get to go out there. And then we got there, and there’s a little old house, and tromp up on the front porch and knock at the door. By that time parents were sitting there waiting for you. They open the door. Here you are in uniform, and they knew what you were there for. The girl had already said maybe I’ll join the service. And, ‘You’re not taking my daughter! You’ve got three of my sons. She’s not gonna go with a bunch of ---’… there’s nothing you could do, so after that started happening all the time, we decided we’d take a wounded soldier that was just one-legged … and of course, nobody argued with that. So he’d go up and knock on the door. And they would let us in. And with him there, he probably put a shame to the girl. It worked beautifully... so at least we got some of them to sign up and come in, but it was a tough go. See, in the morning we did all this phoning and then after lunch, they gave us a squad car and a driver and they took us all over Pittsburgh and they dropped us off here or there or there and … 

JP: So tell us what your spiel was. You had gotten in the house and you’re sitting around the table with the girl and her parents... so tell us what you’d say. 

MM: Well, you... People really have no idea what is going on in the hospital and we invite you to come down to the hospital anytime. There’s 28 boys laying there, maybe the 28th one is your son, and he wants his cigarette lit. He’s got to wait for 28 more boys for somebody to tend to him. We’re that short. If you’re not there helping and you’re behind a glass case selling nylons, we think you’d better rethink the thing. And we’re not asking to take your daughter to have her killed... This would be hospital duty.... They didn’t take the Blue Angels overseas. They needed them all there in Washington DC, all those hospitals. It’s amazing... that was the height of the... if you ever get any statistics on how many soldiers came back for a week... We're talking 100s of thousands and they can’t take care of them overseas. They had to bring them over in hospital ships and put them in wards. And there was nobody to take care of them once they got in the wards. It was a very bad situation. . . . 

JP: It was a very hard time... so the girls you got to sign up, what happened next after they signed?  

 . . . The girls you recruited to be Blue Angels, they had to have a physical exam... tell us about their physicals. 

MM: They were going to go to … it was the Army; it just wasn't regular Army. So, they had to pass all the physicals. The same thing that all the girls had. The only difference at all was no benefits. And after the thing got rolling and they found out how efficient and how good the women were. They were releasing boys working in post headquarters. They were releasing these boys that they needed to put a gun on their shoulder. And of course, we weren’t very popular with the soldiers. 

JP: Now being in Pittsburgh, you told us how dirty the city was - sooty and... You had cream-colored uniforms and had to wear cream gloves. And how hard it was to stay clean. 

MM: Oh, cream gloves, cream hat...  

JP: At the time you lived with a woman whose daughter was gone. Is that right? 

MM: Her daughter was a Navy WAVE.  . . . We paid her rent, and she made us oatmeal every morning. And she lived at the end of the streetcar track in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Way up, way up... So, we get on there, take off our gloves, hang on to the post. Wouldn't dare sit down because we had to... it was so dirty that you just had to stay spic and span clean. 

JP: And that effected the... for every 10 girls you recruited... How many of them passed their physical because of all the pollution... only 1 right? 

MM: Well, it was the same amount, because they hadn't cleaned up Pittsburgh yet...they didn’t clean up Pittsburgh until a few years ago, and you would go into the bathroom and wash your hands and go like this... (gesture with finger to look at nose) 

JP: So, a lot of the girls you recruited didn't pass their physical... is that right? ....1 out of 10 passed, So, 9 didn't. 

MM: Right, because of that, and well, a few other things, but mainly because of that. And so, the job was so devastating, because we had to work so hard, between the parents that didn't want their girls to go, and the girls didn't want to go, and their physical health was really bad. So... 

JP: So you said at this time, I think I asked you what you did for fun... and you said, well we really didn't. It was a very serious time, the country. 

MM: Yeah, all we did was go to a restaurants... In Pittsburgh, all the bars were open for us. You know, if you wanted to drink, after we saw the girl and did this, we’d all meet at the squad car and just go up the steps, and, ‘Come on in, girls.’ As long as you had a uniform on, that goes for men, too. So that restaurants … there was nothing to do, and then we were right back on it early the next day.  

JP: And you said everyone was focused on trying to get the war over... working just as hard as they could.  

MM: We didn't have tickets to this and tickets to that, and stuff. No, right in the middle of a big city. . . 

By the numbers:

• “In such traditionally masculine institutions such as blast furnaces, steel works and rolling mills, where only 1 per cent of workers were women in 1939, they now represent 6 per cent. In aircraft and parts factories the percentage of women employees jumped from 1 per cent in 1939 to 39 per cent in 1943. And in the production of aircraft engines the increase was from 1 per cent in 1939 to 28 per cent in the summer of 1943.” - “Background of News: Women Wage-Earners" by Burt P. Garnett (November 4, 1943, p. 16 in The Pittsburgh Press)

• By September 1943, more than 30,000 workers in U. S. Steel’s mills were women, approximately just under 9% of the workforce (340,000 U.S. Steel company workers)

Quotations to consider:

“I think they (men) resented us at first, but they knew that we were there to do a job until the men came back and they respected us. They just weren't ready for us. Like I said they didn't have bathrooms for us or make any accommodations.”

- Mary Jane Farrell Scherer, January 1993

“. . . the men would stand around and talk about you in groups or they would tell you, you weren't strong enough to do that job . . . The reason, I think the men resented us was the girls who had been there . . . had seniority and could be inspectors. And men resented this because that paid more than something else that they would do.”

-Leona Dobis Farmerie, August 1992

- Both quotations are sources from interviews in Pittsburgh, PA; Women in Steel Industry, Harrisburg, PA: Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.

“Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Lillie Smith, working as a car washer in a garage, earns fifty-five cents per hour. She formerly did housework but likes this much better; she has one brother in the U.S. Army,” June 1943

Marjory Collins, Library of Congress

Student Activities

Questions for Reading 1 and Photos 1-4

1. In the photos, what jobs are shown? Why were these positions important to the war effort?

2. In Reading 1, why was Snyder’s study conducted?

3. How does the reading describe why women working in industry was crucial to the home front efforts?

4. Do you think information like from Snyder’s study, was influential in providing women jobs in industry in Pittsburgh? Why or why not?

5. In the quotations to consider, both women speak about men resenting them for working at the steel mills. Why do the women think the men feel this way? What additional factors do you think may have caused resentment?
   

Questions for Reading 2

1. What considerations were there for women’s safety?
2. Why do you think the author refers to comfort and attractiveness with work clothes?
3. What are some of the challenges women faced working in this field, as described in the reading?

Questions for Reading 3, Photos 5-6

1. What was Martin’s work in Pittsburgh?

2. How did pollution in Pittsburgh at the time impact the recruits?

3. What made Martin’s service in Pittsburgh both, in her words, “worthwhile” for her and “devastating?”

Lesson Closing

1. Using the photos and readings from the lesson, make a list of some of the many jobs that women held in Pittsburgh to support the home front efforts.
2. Finally, answer the essential question with evidence: How did women in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, contribute to the home front efforts?

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This lesson was written by Sarah Nestor Lane, an educator and consultant with the Cultural Resources Office of Interpretation and Education, funded by the National Council on Public History's cooperative agreement with the National Park Service.