Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• James, Pamela Fielding

Titel

Wartime on the homefront: Women in New Mexico, 1939–1945

Ort / Verlag

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses

Erscheinungsjahr

2001

Quelle

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses A&I

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Women in New Mexico, like other American women, assumed important roles and made valuable contributions to the war effort during World War II. This dissertation focus on women in New Mexico during the war years. Moving beyond the popular image of “Rosie the Riveter,” it examines the lives and experiences of women in the military, on the home front, and in the labor force, placing them all within a larger context of a nation at war. On the national level, the controlling assumption of this work will be that women were supportive of the war effort on one hand but were, at times, also in conflict with wartime America. Women supported the war effort by going to war “with” the state and America, while at the same time being “at war with” America because of various government policies, shortages, rationing, loss of loved ones, and often poor working conditions. Was this true in New Mexico as well? While women in New Mexico were seldom at the highest governmental decision-making levels, they did influence what went on in their communities largely through their female-based clubs and organizations. Whether they entered the job market for the first time, joined a woman's club, participated in Red Cross or the American Women's Voluntary Services, or enlisted in the newly formed Women's Army Corps, New Mexico women shaped and were shaped by the experience. Two themes are central in this study: volunteerism and the fact that women joined together to achieve wartime goals. Volunteerism played a major role in the lives of the women included here and it took on a dual meaning for the war years. Women volunteers continued with their prewar agenda, while simultaneously adding completely new wartime activities. “Wartime on the Homefront: Women in New Mexico, 1939–1945” examines this unique and important time period for New Mexico, assessing how women in the state fit within, and differed from, the national picture. By examining the role of local women from 1939–1945, this study fills a void in women's history, New Mexico history, and the history of the World War II years.