Double Victory: How African American Women Broke Race and Gender Barriers to Help Win World War II

Double Victory: How African American Women Broke Race and Gender Barriers to Help Win World War II — page 7
WAR WORKERS 7 domestics to be on call six days a week The job duties included cooking washing ironing cleaning and serving meals Some times domestics cared for the white families young children too The typical wage for a domestic worker was 7 a week Domestic workers in southern states made as little as 3 to 4 a week So when black women who worked as domestics heard about war jobs in defense plants that paid as much as 35 per week they were interested in applying for those positions The federal government created agencies to deal with issues related to war work The War Manpower Commission was formed to deal with the labor shortage caused by the large num ber of men entering military service The Office of War Informa tion relayed news and information about the war to the public The two agencies worked together to recruit women for the war industries A government official from the War Manpower Commis sion said in an interview with Time magazine that as the nation geared up for war it would need to look for workers in untapped sources He predicted that over 7 million people outside the paid workforce in the United States 92 percent of whom were women could be convinced to forsake kitchen or lounge for office and factory He warned that such a move would shake U S living habits He explained More women in the war effort means fewer women in the home as wives daughters or servants it means eating more meals out fewer socks darned fewer guests entertained at home and many another change in the American way of living The same official cautioned that the Negro problem was far from licked With so many white men entering the military and creating vacancies in the workforce he warned Employers had better get set for a big increase in pressure for jobs for Negroes And some white peo ple saw this as a problem Many white business owners would