the Women's Land Army in World War II
- Categories
- Book/Boek
- Creator
- Carpenter, Stephanie A.
- Publish Year
- 2003
- Shelfmark
- B4761 - B
- Thesaurus
- tweede wereldoorlog, vrouwenorganisaties, plattelandsvrouwen, agrarische beroepen, vrijwilligerswerk, voedselproductie, Verenigde Staten
- Description
- In World War II three million women served on America's agricultural front. The Women's Land Army sent volunteers to farms, canneries, and dairies across the country, where they accounted for a great proportion of wartime agricultural workers. Formed in 1943 as part of the Emergency Farm Labor Program, the WLA placed its workers in areas where American farmers urgently needed assistance. Many farmers in even the most desperate areas, however, initially opposed women working their land. Rural administrators in the Midwest and the South yielded to necessity and employed several hundred thousand women as farm labourers by the end of the war, but those in the Great Plains and eastern Rocky Mountains remained hesitant, suffering serious agricultural and financial losses as a consequence. When the WLA officially disbanded in 1945, many of its women chose to remain in their agricultural jobs rather than return to a full-time home life or prewar employment.