After Pearl Harbor, the whole country went to work for the war. More than 16 million Americans served in the armed forces. At home, factories, farms and families were reorganized in months.
Key idea
Factories switched to war production; millions of women took industrial jobs ("Rosie the Riveter"); rationing, war bonds and scrap drives involved everyone. A. Philip Randolph's planned march on Washington won Executive Order 8802 (1941), banning discrimination in defense industries, and Black Americans pressed a "Double V": victory abroad and at home.
| Change | Facts |
|---|---|
| Production | Car plants built tanks and bombers; the U.S. made about 300,000 military aircraft from 1941 to 1945; unemployment fell from about 14 percent (1940) to under 2 percent |
| Women | Women's share of the labor force rose from about 24 percent to 36 percent (1940 to 1944); over six million women took war jobs; about 350,000 served in uniform |
| Daily life | Ration books for sugar, coffee, meat, gasoline and tires; war bonds; victory gardens; scrap metal and rubber drives |
| Workers on the move | Millions moved to war plants in California, Michigan and the South; the Bracero Program (1942) brought Mexican farm workers |
Why it works
Why did civil rights leaders press so hard in wartime? The country was fighting a regime built on racism while practicing segregation at home. In 1941 A. Philip Randolph, head of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, threatened a march of tens of thousands on Washington. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8802 in June 1941, and Randolph called off the march. In 1942 the Pittsburgh Courier, a Black newspaper, launched the Double V campaign. About a million Black Americans served, in segregated units; the Tuskegee Airmen flew fighter escorts in Europe, and Navajo code talkers sent messages in the Pacific that the enemy never broke.
Tension came with the change. In 1943 riots broke out in Detroit, and in Los Angeles servicemen attacked young Mexican Americans in the "Zoot Suit Riots." Wartime labor shortages also opened doors that did not fully close after the war.
Work it through
Worked example: Change and continuity
Did women's new jobs last after 1945? Use evidence for both sides.
- Change that faded: many women were laid off or left factory jobs as veterans returned in 1945 and 1946.
- Change that lasted: women's paid work kept rising over the following decades, and many stayed in clerical and service jobs.
- So the war was a turning point for some, a pause for others.
Answer: Factory jobs mostly ended; the long rise in women's paid work continued.
Common mistake
Many students think women stayed in factory jobs after the war. Many were laid off or left as veterans returned, though women's paid work kept rising over the following decades. A second slip: the armed forces were not integrated in World War II. Desegregation came by Truman's order in 1948.