War Manpower Commission

Since 1940 the Selective Service under Lewis Hershey had registered 43 million men 18-65, but the army sought only the 30 million under 45. The Service was administered by 6443 local draft boards, allowed 37,000 COs for noncombat duty including 12,000 sent to Public Service Camps, but 5000 Jehovah's Witnesses sent to jail. The Tydings Amendment in Nov. 1942 exempted all agricultural workers and essential occupations. Cadet training programs and Special Training Program and Navy V-12 exempted 140,000. Married men were exempt until 1944, then 1 million fathers drafted. On Dec. 5, 1942, Selective Service was placed under Paul McNutt, head of WMC, who issued in early 1943 "work or fight" order and ended deferments for fathers, but defied by Hershey and manpower authority remained divided. When labor unions went on strike, the WLB threatened to draft strikers. By the end of the war, Hershey drafted 7.5m into army, 2.8m into navy, total 16m men and women served in uniform.

Deferred from Look magazine

"Stars over Berlin and Tokyo will soon replace these factory lights reflected in the noses of planes at Douglas Aircraft's Long Beach plant. Women workers groom lines of transparent noses for deadly A-20 attack bombers." by Alfred Palmer, Oct. 1942, from Patch-NA

"Chippers" - Women war workers of Marinship Corp. from NA

Women workers chart from Newsweek 1943/09/06

Mary Purdue, parachute maker from Look magazine

NWHM exhibit

Resources:

• Clark, Marilyn N. "Women Aircraft Workers in San Diego during the Second World War." M.A. Thesis, San Diego State University, 1977.
• Lichtman, Sheila T. "Women at Work, 1941-1945: Wartime Employment in the San Francisco Bay Area." Ph. D. Thesis, University of California, Davis, 1981.
• Perrett, Geoffrey. Days of Sadness, Years of Triumph. The American People 1939-1945. Penguin, 1973.
• Skold, Karen B. "Women Workers and Child Care during World War II: a Case Study of the Portland, Oregon Shipyards," Ph. D. Thesis, University of Oregon, 1981.
• Mobilization and Women in Army History from the Center for Military History
• Partners In Winning the War: American Women in World War II from the National Women's History Museum
• Rosie the Riveter Trust and National Park and Exhibit
• Rosie Pictures: Select Images Relating to American Women Workers During World War II from PPOC
• Women in the Weather Bureau During World War II
• Women of Redstone Arsenal 1941-2005
• Workers' War: Home Front Recalled in Britain

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