Abstract
World War I opened up jobs in industry for women scientists for practically the first time and expanded women scientists’ employment opportunities in government, industry and academia. In 1920, women got the right to vote and in 1921, the “First Lady of Science”, Madame Marie Curie, came to the U.S. on tour. These significant events did not advance women’s career options in science significantly and were followed by The Great Depression. However, more women began working in the sciences and gaining notoriety as evidence by the editions of American Men in Science that showed 4.7% of the 9000 people listed in 1921 were women (450) increasing to 7.0% of 27,000 persons (1912 women) listed in 1938. World War II opened up significant opportunities for women scientists and women in general as personified by “Rosie the Riveter.” As during World War I, women scientists were needed in government, in industry, and on college campuses. But these women were expected to gracefully exit when the boys came home. It would take the launch of Sputnik and federal legislation before the number of women in the sciences would increase significantly.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
Louise McDowell, whose PhD was from Cornell University, spent her academic career at Wellesley. Frances Wick and Louise McDowell met at Cornell from which Wick also got her PhD. Wick’s academic career was spent at Vassar College. Louise Stevens Bryant was a physician.
- 2.
However, even Yost expressed surprise in her preface to American Women of Science that women had already done so much: But I had not the slightest idea that American women of science had achieved even a fractional part of what they have actually accomplished. I was completely unprepared for what a little specialized research began to uncover. So, it seems, was everybody else. When we signed the contract, both my publisher and I knew there was material available for a pretty good book but we had no idea the achievements recorded would be of the caliber they actually are.
- 3.
One ready source of female labor was from the curtailment of female-intensive industries unnecessary to the war effort, the largest being silk hosiery manufacturing. The Women’s Bureau of the U.S. Department of Labor developed a policy regarding the order in which women should be employed: unemployed women workers displaced by manufacturing changes, girls from high school and college, then homemakers (presumably meant to include older women), and finally mothers of small children as a last resort. By July 1943, there were 17.7 million women in the civilian labor force; there had been 13.9 million in June 1940.
- 4.
The Serviceman’s Readjustment Act of 1944 (commonly known as the GI Bill) included educational provisions offering honorably discharged veterans whose schooling, college, or professional education had been interrupted by military service up to five years of full tuition plus a subsistence allowance at the college of their choice (a very important provision, this last). The nation’s 400, 000 women veterans were also eligible for these benefits, but were often overlooked. In the post-World War II period, quotas and enrollment restrictions on women at colleges and universities enabled male veterans to displace female applicants. In a short period of time, men had also displaced female staff and faculty. For example, during the wartime, women had constituted 50% of enrollment at Cornell University. Through quotas, that number was pared to 20% of the 1946 enrollment.
- 5.
One dean of women at Indiana University, without warning or advance consultation, was simply ousted from her office, demoted, and given a much lesser title by the new dean, a former military officer. Nepotism rules that had been relaxed during the War were reinstated leading to the dismissal of employed spouses (almost always the wives) of university employees. Faculty women who married immediately lost their jobs.
- 6.
Her obituary read: “During the economy drives of the depression years between 1933–1936, her salary was reduced by half. Many considered this an unjustified discrimination against women in science, but Miss Allen accepted it as inevitable and without complaint.”
References
M.W. Rossiter, Women Scientists in America: Struggles and Strategies to 1940, vol 1992 (The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore)
E. Flexner, E. Fitzpatrick, Century of Struggle: The Women’s Rights Movement in the United States, Enlarged edn. (The Belknap Press of Harvard University, Cambridge, 1996)
M. Ogilvie, J. Harvey (eds.), The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science: Pioneering Lives from Ancient Times to the Mid-twentieth Century (Routledge, New York, 2000)
H.C. Hoerle, F.B. Saltzberg, The Girl and The Job (Henry Holt and Company, New York, 1919)
O. L. Hatcher (ed.), Occupations for Women: A Study Made for the Southern Woman’s Educational Alliance (L.H. Jenkins, Inc, Richmond, 1927)
W.K. LeBold, D.J. LeBold, Women engineers: a historical perspective. ASEE Prism 7, 30–32 (1998)
D.E. Fleischman, An Outline of Careers for Women: A Practical Guide to Achievement (Doubleday, Doran and Company, Inc., New York, 1929)
M.S. Leuck, Fields of Work for Women (D. Appleton-Century, Company, New York, 1938)
M.W. Rossiter, Women Scientists in America: Before Affirmative Action 1940–1972, vol 1995 (The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore)
B. Harris, Beyond her Sphere: Women in the Professions in American History (Greenwood Press, Westport, 1978)
A.M. Barker, Women in Engineering During World War II: A Taste of Victory, 21 Nov 1994, Rochester Institute of Technology (unpublished)
A.S. Bix, ‘Engineeresses’ ‘Invade’ campus: four decades of debate over technical coeducation. In: Proceedings of the 1999 International symposium on technology and society – women and technology: historical, societal, and professional perspectives, pp. 195–201, New Brunswick, 29–31 July, 1999
U.S. Department of Labor, Women’s Bureau, The Outlook for Women in Science, Bulletin of the Women’s Bureau No. 223-1, 1949
B. F. Shearer, B. S. Shearer (eds.), Notable Women in the Life Sciences (Greenwood Press, Westport, 1996)
P. Proffitt (ed.), Notable Women Scientists (The Gale Group, Detroit, 1999)
M.J. Bailey, American Women in Science: A Biographical Dictionary (ABC-CLIO, Denver, 1994)
B. F. Shearer, B. S. Shearer (eds.), Notable Women in the Physical Sciences (Greenwood Press, Westport, 1997)
M.B. Ogilvie, Women in Science: Antiquity through the Nineteenth Century, a Biographical Dictionary with Annotated Bibliography (MIT Press, Cambridge, 1993)
P.J. Read, B.L. Witlieb, The Book of Women’s Firsts (Random House, New York, 1992)
A.C. Goff, Women Can Be Engineers (Edwards Brothers, Inc., Ann Arbor, 1946)
Mary Swartz Rose Awards Honor Leaders in Nutrition Research. https://www.nutraceuticalsworld.com/issues/2013-06/view_people-in-the-news/mary-swartz-rose-awards-honor-leaders-in-nutrition-research, 24 Apr 2013. Accessed 6 Apr 2020
Women’s Land Army of World War I. https://www.womenshistory.org/resources/general/womens-land-army-world-war-i. Accessed 6 Apr 2020
S.B. McGrayne, Nobel Prize Women in Science: Their Lives, Struggles, and Momentous Discoveries (Carol Publishing Group, New York, 1993)
Ruth Allen Award. https://www.apsnet.org/members/give-awards/awards/RuthAllen/Pages/default.aspx. Accessed 6 Apr 2020
C. Morrow, T. Perl (eds.), Notable Women in Mathematics: A Biographical Dictionary (Greenwood Press, Westport, 1998)
G. Kass-Simon, in Women of Science: Righting the Record, ed. by P. Farnes, (Indian University Press, Bloomington, 1990)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Tietjen, J.S. (2020). War Brings Opportunities. In: Scientific Women. Women in Engineering and Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51445-7_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51445-7_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-51444-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-51445-7
eBook Packages: HistoryHistory (R0)