At the acme of World War II , the word " bread is ammunition as vital as bullets ” were stamp on pamphlets , post horse , and other public religious service announcements across the American heartland . President Franklin D. Roosevelt echoed the persuasion in a 1943national address : “ food from our res publica ’s farms is help the United Nations to win this war … food ship from this body politic are the life line of the violence that defend for exemption . ” America ’s farm families , he explained , “ made that triumph potential . ”
Roosevelt was n’t being glib . The United States was facing a severe nutrient shortage . With meg of military personnel oversea , agricultural productivity had plump . By 1943 , the farm population had drop by 6 million from its high in 1933 . Americans were rationing meat , wheat berry , sugar , and fat , while officials placed price controls on groceries in hope of keeping solid food on the plates of its citizen and soldier oversea .
America was officious feeding other country , too . Britain leaned heavily on food meaning from the United States and Canada , since German hoagie on a regular basis torpedo cargo ship bind for the UK . In 1941 , the Nazis developed a now - often - forgotten policy called the “ Hunger Plan , ” a pattern to crave 20 million Slavs ( it killed approximately4 millionSoviet citizen ) . That same year , the United States authorise theLend - Lease Act , which would deliver 4.4 million tons of food to the Soviet Union alone .
All over the U.S. and UK , homegrown propaganda implored mass to save and grow intellectual nourishment :
Behind this “ call to farm ” is the narration of millions of women — from grow wives to single urbanites — who dropped everything to cover fields , plant crops , cultivate gardens , rake muck , milk kine , massacre beast , and drive tractor . They were member of an U. S. Army all their own : the Woman ’s Land Army .
enlisting poster from WWI . mental image credit : Boston Public LibraryviaFlickr//CC BY 2.0
storey about women and the war effort typically revolve aroundRosie the Riveterand the 6 million fair sex who swooped onto factory floors to help build tank , planer , and munitions . But their rural sister , the Woman ’s Land Army , was evenly critical .
These unappreciated “ farmerettes ” first grabbed their shovel during World War I , after a coalition of women ’s radical — suffragettes , horticulture nine , the YWCA , the seven sister colleges — react to aheightened demandfor nutrient during the Great War . Inspired by a similar movement in Britain , approximately 20,000 urban , mostly college - educated women with small to no agrarian experience join farms . These cleaning lady did n’t just till the state American soldiers were defending . They also batten right hand for themselves that had farsighted eluded female worker , include eight - time of day oeuvre day , extra time wage , and recompense insurance . The victories came in part because women finally had an upper manus during talks : Employers were dire for a guaranteed supply of farm worker .
Two decade later on , charwoman ’s mathematical group such as the Woman ’s National Farm and Garden Association — and even Eleanor Roosevelt — called for a farmerette revitalisation . After the blast on Pearl Harbor , these calls intensified : A 1942Farm Journalarticle told woman and children already hold out on farms to prepare “ to rail modest township and city women for summer , seasonal and vacation jobs on the domestic fowl , truck and fruits farm of the country . ” An April 27 , 1942 story inTimeread , " If the U.S. [ is ] to feed the world , it must have a Land Army . "
But the estimation of reviving the Woman ’s Land Army initially meet some impedance . In astory forPrologue magazine(a delightful quarterly magazine produced by theNational Archives ) , historiographer Judy Barrett Litoff and David C. Smith discuss the lengths to which the federal governance went to ease World War II ’s farm worker shortage without involving women . The government imported 230,000 doer from Mexico , the Caribbean , and Canada . It moved close to 26,000 Japanese Americans — and 265,000 POWs — from internment camps to farms . It also would later convince 2.5 million teen to work asVictory Farm Volunteers .
Farmers themselves also often were n’t concerned in distaff assistance . Government study and powder magazine article usher that most Farmer were afraid to let inexperienced women manage gravid equipment . " If I have to have a cleaning lady helping me in the line of business , I want my married woman , not some green urban center fille , " one farmer in Jones County , Iowa toldWallaces ' Farmer and Iowa Homestead . Farmer in Ohio were loth to talk about the thought , afraid that their neighbors would " rib them for hire woman . " One husbandman in Clark County , Iowa merely did n’t hope cityfolk : " Leave her in Ithiel Town . She ’d not be worth a whoop in the field , and if you put her in the kitchen , we ’d hunger to death . "
Across the pond , the UK had no trouble employing woman . Not only did the British implement a womanhood ’s farming program , they even started a “ Women ’s Timber Corps . ” influence in roving squads , approximately 6000 women surveyed , cut , and process lumber across Scotland , England , and Wales [ PDF ] . These Paulette Bunyans provided lumber for telegraph rod , British mining , and even the Normandy beach landings .
As the war wore on , more cleaning woman insisted on helping in the United States . “ There is an army of us , intelligent , sound , some college graduate , some unseasoned wives with husbands oversea , ” wrote a Vermont adult female name Charlotte Goodwin in a 1942 letter toThe New York Times[PDF ] . “ We can motor tractor . We can milk cows . We desire to join up promptly in the farm output army . We are wait to go . But we will not hold off long , because there is too much to be done , and we will find farms for ourselves . ”
And they did . The University of Maryland started instruct courses on horticulture , poultry , and cow - milking . The University of Connecticut learn animal agriculture . Hunter College students , “ dented on out - producing Hitler , ” created a “ Volunteer Land Army . ” Meanwhile , theVolunteer Land Corpswas established to mail vernal cityfolk to farms .
U.S. Dept of AgricultureviaFlickr// Public Domain
Finally , in April 1943 , the federal government activity cave .
It announced that it would fund The Woman ’s Land Army through the Emergency Farm Labor Program , or Public Law 45 , which earmarked approximately$26 millionto keep America ’s farm spring up . Information cubicle popped up in section stores , and recruitment bill were splash across small townsfolk and big cities :
fair sex were broadly offered between 25 and 66 centime an hour for their labor ( a range of a function that could stretch out to over bivalent lower limit remuneration ) . Recruiters , however , mostly crossed their fingers that loyal responsibility would outweigh financial interest .
It did . In 1945 , Florence Hall , the National Director of the Woman ’s Land Army , notedin an issue ofIndependent Womanthat woman of all banding had joined the group : “ Accountants , actress , artists , bank clerks and tellers , beauticians , entertainers , buyers , nurses , dietitians , designers , editors , electrical crane operator , ferry control archetype , government activity employees … musicians , masseuses , models , stenographers … Policewomen , research chemists , translators … and women from many other career . ”
By the summer of 1943 , about 250,000 women had participated in the Woman ’s Land Army . They picked and disk potatoes , pitched hay , and fed stock . keep the WLA ’s success , Dr. Milburn Wilson of the USDA lay claim that “ the major burden of glean the increase [ in crops ] will fall square on the shoulder of the charwoman of the rural area and teen boy and girl . ”
He was ripe . The next year , 774,000 more “ nonfarm ” fair sex were do work the fields .
OSU Special Collections and Archive Research Center
It took prison term for some Farmer to warm up to the help ,
writes historiographer Stephanie Carpenter in her bookOn the Farm Front . Some farmers think training people with no agrarian experience was n’t worth the fuss . Others did n’t entrust the employment ethic or values of metropolis cleaning woman . But those suspicions slowly faded . According to Spencer C. Tucker’sencyclopedia on World War II , “ Most midwestern and southern farmers who protested the WLA in 1943 would ultimately use women as farm laborers by the end of the war . ”
Nothing wash out away older prejudices like exposure . Across the country , reluctant farmers come away with skirt endorsements . The director of a hybrid seed edible corn company in Nebraskaclaimed , " The woman did the beneficial task any crew has ever done for me . " An unknown husbandman in Huron , Ohio gibe : They womanhood " could n’t be beat . " One WLA supervisor , based in South Carolina , said , “ Some of the best farm are now being manoeuvre by fair sex workers . ”
By warfare ’s end , approximately 1.5 million to 3 million [ PDF ] American char had joined the Women ’s Land Army . Tens of thousands more women live in Australia , Canada , and Britain had joined the movement on their home greensward as well .
“ Why were we block so easily after we were no longer needed?”recalledone member of Britain’s80,000 - strongWomen ’s Land Army . “ We were proud to tire our uniform and serve our commonwealth . Those of us who are leave are still proud to have belonged to the Women ’s Land Army , and we will never leave . ”
The same can be tell the efforts in the United States . As one Midwestern farmercommented , " The bountiful factor to their success was their loyal attitude . " It was n’t money they were after : They simply " came to facilitate . "
