American Women and World War II
Units:
Interdisciplinary
Framework
Rosie the Riveter
GI Jane
"Good Girls"/"Bad Girls"
"Our Girls"/"Their Girls"
Post-War Postscript
Issues in “American Women and World War II” Scholarship
Historians of U.S. women are locked in debate over whether or not the labor crisis wrought by U.S. entry into World War II represents a moment in which American women achieved significant gains in status, labor options, and/or consciousness.
While some argue that some groups of women especially experienced lasting gains (including working class women, African American women, daughters of women who worked during World War II), others argue that women's labor and status in the post-war years represents continuity of pre-war patterns.
Some scholars argue that, in fact, the popular image of Rosie the Riveter as a patriotic pinch-hitter made it easier for women's status to plunge in the post-war period; that despite apparent gains for women in the defense industries, military, universities, baseball teams, and other fields, the ideal woman of the war-time imagination was the "sweetheart" waiting faithfully "under the apple tree" for GI Joe.
Still others argue that images of wartime women do not only reveal truths or mistruths about the women represented, but helped (and to continue to help) to shape national identity and public opinion about U.S. participation in global wars.Interdisciplinary Approach Taken in this Course
The interdisciplinary approach of this course involves examining two very different forms of evidence: popular culture (sometimes called mass culture, or even propaganda—and indeed most forms of popular culture were heavily censored by the U.S. government during World War II) and oral history, or the oral testimony of eyewitnesses to history as they remember and narrate themselves in the past. The interdisciplinary overlap facilitated by this approach will allow us to ask questions not possible when studying only one or the other of these forms of documentation.
How did Hollywood cinema, recruitment films, advertising, songs, magazines, comic books, etc.--all tightly monitored by the Office of War Information—portray/create such figures as Rosie the Riveter, GI Jane, and the Sweetheart at Home? And how do women whose lives were supposedly represented by these figures remember the war years? Who was excluded by these representations (interned Japanese American women, for instance; Nisei WACs; sexually non-traditional women; pacifist women; Rosie's who had worked before; Rosies of color, etc.)? How do women excluded from the most widely circulated images remember themselves in the war years?
As you can see, this course is not a traditional history course, but draws from methods used in interdisciplinary fields such as American Studies and Women’s Studies to ask such questions as: What is the relationship between the images we consume and our sense of ourselves as subjects? What is the relationship between popular culture and war? How do images of women interact with U.S. involvement in wars, past and present?Goals
In addition to learning more about representations of women during World War II, and learning how various women remember and narrate their World War II experiences, students will gain skills in the following areas: 1) the experience of working from a clearly defined interdisciplinary framework; what it means to overlay more than one discipline and to work from the combined methods, theories, and insights of those disciplines; 2) exposure to comparative theories of how popular or mass culture works–from the Frankfurt School and Cultural Studies; and 3) introduction to theories and methods of oral history as a form of historical and cultural evidence; what are its strengths and limitations?
In order to pass this course, you must fulfill the basic requirements of punctual and regular attendance, completing assigned readings on time, and participating in discussions. Other requirements are as follows:
(1) Unit Papers: Each student will be responsible for the timely completion of five papers (4-7 pages each) at the end of each of the following units: “Rosie the Riveter,” “GI Jane,” “Good Girls/Bad Girls,” “Our Girls/Their Girls,” and one on a topic to-be-announced. Grad students are required to complete the first four “unit papers,” but will submit a research paper on a pre-negotiated topic instead of the fifth “unit paper.” See "Requirements" on Blackboard for more details. (50% of grade).
(2) Group Assignment: Each student will participate in a small group that will contribute to a study of women in Lawrence, Kansas, during World War II. Findings of the research groups will be reported periodically in class, and will result in a poster display posted in a public location. Each student will also hand in a brief report (2 pages) detailing her/his contributions to the group. See "Requirements" on Blackboard for details. (30% of grade).
(3) Class participation will count for the remaining 20% of the grade. Participation includes attendance, promptness, alertness, preparedness, and participation in discussions. If any of these criteria poses a problem for you, let me know immediately.Attendance Policy
Attendance is mandatory. You may miss two meetings without contacting me and without penalty, but you are responsible to get caught up on what you missed. If you have an emergency or you are sick, you must let me know so that I can mark you down for an excused absence, but, once again, you are responsible for catching up with what you missed. Each unexcused absence beyond the first two will cost 5 points off your final grade.
Adams, Michael C.C., The Best War Ever: America and World War II. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999
Honey, Maureen. Creating Rosie the Riveter. Amherst: University of Mass, 1984
Meyer, Leisa D. Creating GI Jane: Sexuality and Power in the Women's Army Corps During World War II. New York: Columbia University Press, 1996
Moore, Brenda, L. Serving Our Country: Japanese American Military Women During World War II. New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 2003
Tanaka, Yuki, Japan’s Comfort Women: Sexual Slavery and Prostitution During World War II and the US Occupation. London and New York: Routledge, 2002
Articles on E-Reserve (available from the KU Libraries website, under Course Reserves. The password for this course is: AMS696.)
RECOMMENDED TEXTS
Erenberg, Lewis A., and Susan E, Hirsch. The War and American Culture: Society and Consciousness during World War II. University of Chicago, 1996.Moore, Brenda, L. To Serve My Country, to Serve My Race: The Story of the Only African American WACs Stationed Overseas during World War II. New York: NYU Press, 1998
Aug. 18 Introduction
to the course: assignments, goals, and scope. Preliminary introduction
to three figures–Rosie the Riveter, GI Jane, and the Sweetheart
at Home–to illustrate the interdisciplinary methodology used in
this course. How will we analyze these figures that were both propaganda
and real women? Aug.
23 National Memory and World War II. One of
the challenges of studying World War II popular culture is to figure
out what to make of the thick layer of nostalgia that pads most of what
we see and hear about that era in the U.S. We will discuss WWII nostalgia
in the U.S., and what we might learn from studying an era that continues
to resonate in the present. Reading:
The Best War Ever (1-90) Aug.
25 Film: Since You Went Away (David O. Selznick,
1944) (Part I). Reading:
The Best War Ever (91-155) Aug.
30
How does Culture Work?--Mass Culture Theory Readings
(E-Reserves): Max
Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno, “The Culture Industry: Enlightenment
as Mass Deception,” (1944) Walter
Benjamin, "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,"
(1936) Magazine
Stories (to be posted on Blackboard): Gertrude
Schweitzer, “My Own Money,” Saturday Evening Post,
May 6, 1944 Anonymous,
“Education of John Manley--By a Girl,” True Story,
September, 1943. Sept.
1 Film (in class) Since You Went Away (David O. Selznick, 1944)
(Part II). We will continue to view this academy award nominated film
from 1944, thinking about how mass culture theorists would analyze its
effects on its audiences. Sept.
6 How does Culture Work?--Cultural Studies Readings
(E-reserve): Janice Radway, “Reading is not Eating: Mass-Produced
Literature and the Theoretical, Methodological, and Political Consequences
of a Metaphor,” from T. Lovell, ed., Feminist Cultural Studies
(1995) and others to be announced. Sept.
9 (in class): Since You Went Away (David O. Selznick, 1944)
(Conclusion)
View for class: Channel 6 News clips, Dole Center Opening,
KU, July 21-23, 2003 (on Blackboard)
Introduction
to mass culture theory of the philosophers known as the Frankfurt School.
How would their approaches lead us to understand the effects of mass
produced culture on the people who consume it? What would these assumptions
about mass culture tell us about images of Rosie the Riveter, for example?
Why was she constructed as she was: a white woman with muscles and lipstick,
wearing overalls, wielding her acetylene torch or rivet gun? Were American
women duped or empowered by these advertising images? How compatible
was the image of Rosie the Riveter with concurrent dominant definitions
of "normal" womanhood, needs and desires of diverse groups
of American women, and with national defense industry needs during the
war?
Introduction to another school of thought about how people interact
with popular culture. Discussion of the differences and similarities
in the assumptions of the Frankfurt School and Cultural Studies
and their implications for studying women and World War II.
ASSIGNMENT POSTED on Blackboard for Unit Paper #1 (due 9/22)
Sept. 11 Introducing Rosie Discussion of images of Rosie the Riveter.
Film(in class): Women in Defense(1941);The Hidden Army(1944)
Reading: Maureen Honey, Creating Rosie the Riveter, Parts I and II
How was the invention of a new kind of female worker represented in popular culture during the war, and how did these representations differently affect American women across lines of race and class? How did these representations operate politically and socially?
Popular culture: Preview the song and posters about Rosie the Riveter archived under the menu listing "Popular Culture" on the Blackboard site.Sept. 15 Reading: Maureen Honey, Creating Rosie the Riveter, Parts III and IV
ROSIES REMEMBER
Sept. 20 Introduction to Oral History
Film (in class):The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter.
Turning to the oral histories of women who took defense jobs during World War II, what insights do we glean about the lasting impacts of the labor crisis and the invention of the figure of Rosie the Riveter? How successful was the advertising image in creating a temporary workforce? What are the benefits and pitfalls of relying on oral narratives in which subjects reconstruct and interpret their pasts?
Readings (E-Reserve):
Sherna Berger Gluck, “What Did ‘Rosie’ Really Think? Continuity, Change, and Subjective Experience: Lessons from Oral History,” Southwest Economy and Society 1983 6(2): 56-68
Susan Armitage and Sherna Berger Gluck, “Reflections on Women’s Oral History: An Exchange,” Frontiers 1998 19(3): 1-11
Karen Anderson, "Last Hired, First Fired: Black Women Workers During World War II," Journal of American History 69(1982): 82-97.Sept. 22 Readings (E-Reserve):
Excerpts from: Sherna Berger Gluck, Rosie the Riveter Revisited: Women, The War, and Social Change (New York: New Meridian Books, 1987): “Foreword” (xi-xv), “Chapter 2: Fanny Christina Hill” 22-49, “Chapter 5: Betty Jeanne Boggs” (102-123), “Chapter 6: Juanita Lovelace” (124-150).
ASSIGNMENT DUE in class 9/22: Unit Paper #1 "Rosie the Riveter"
GROUP SIGN-UPS—be thinking about what kind of evidence you would like to research under the umbrella topic “Women in Lawrence in World War II.” Possibilities include, but are not limited to, Lawrence Journal World; KU yearbooks (Spencer); Haskell yearbooks (Haskell Cultural Center archives); Kansas State Historical Society in Topeka (many possible directions, including materials on the Sunflower Plant); oral histories (either conducting them or studying archived collections of oral histories), etc. I’m looking for variety of evidence for our website that help to put into dialogue the kinds of representations of wartime women that circulated in Lawrence in the 1940s, and the kinds of experiences and memories of wartime women in Lawrence in the 1940s.
ASSIGNMENT POSTED on Blackboard for Unit Paper #2 (due 10/11)
CONSTRUCTING GI JANE
Sept. 27 Film excerpts (in class): Here Come the Waves (Mark Sandrich, 1944)
Readings: Leisa D. Meyer, Creating GI Jane (selected chapters)
Why were the women's branches of the Armed Forces formed? How were women recruited? What efforts were taken to assure the public that the presence of women in the military didn't feminize the armed forces or masculinize American women? Rather than being portrayed as patriotic, military women found themselves portrayed variously as hyper-sexual camp followers or masculine women.
Sept. 29 Film (in class): Coming Out Under Fire (71 minutes)
Readings: Leisa D. Meyer, Creating GI Jane (selected chapters)JANE'S WAR STORIES
Oct. 4 How did military women from World War II narrate their experiences in oral histories decades later?
Films (in class): videotaped oral histories of military women (TBA)
Reading: Brenda L. Moore, Serving Our Country: Japanese American Military Women During World War II.Oct. 6
Reading (E-Reserves): excerpts from Brenda L. Moore, To Serve My Country, To Serve My Race (Introduction, Chapter 3)Oct. 11 MEET AT SPENCER RESEARCH LIBRARY
Deborah Dandridge will work with us on how to conduct research at the Spencer for the group project.
ASSIGNMENT DUE in class 10/11: Unit Paper #2 "GI Jane"
ASSIGNMENT POSTED on Blackboard for Unit Paper #3, due Oct. 27Oct. 13 NO CLASS TODAY
SWEETHEARTS AND CAMP FOLLOWERS: THE FUZZY BUT CONSEQENTIAL LINE BETWEEN “GOOD GIRLS” AND “BAD GIRLS” DURING WORLD WAR II
From October 17-31, there will be a special showing, especially for this class, at Spencer Art Museum of Varga Pin-ups, from the controversial Varga Show the museum held in 2001. We will have a guided class walk-through on October 20, but you are also expected to visit the exhibit on at least one other occasion.
Oct. 18 Good Girls and Bad Girls during World War II
Film excerpts: Hollywood Canteen, Two Girls and a Sailor
Gender reorganization during the war didn't mean that the good girl/bad girl dichotomy was obliterated. How/why was this binary maintained? What was the political/social/military function of "sweetheart," as well as the "camp follower" she was constructed in opposition to?
Readings (E-Reserve):
Robert B. Westbrook, "'I Want A Girl, Just Like the Girl That Married Harry James': American Women and the Problem of Political Obligation in World War II." American Quarterly 42(4):587 (December 1990)
Mark Jonathan Harris, Franklin D. Mitchell, and Steven J. Schechter, The Homefront: America During World War II (New York: GP Putman's Sons, 1984): Chapters 9 and 10, 168-205.10/20 VARGA EXHIBITWALK-THROUGH
MEET IN THE LOBBY OF THE SPENCERART MUSEUM TODAY. WE WILL WALK THROUGH THE VARGA PIN-UP EXHIBIT WITH MEGAN WILLIAMS, GRADUATE STUDENT, AMERICAN STUDIES, WHO IS WRITING ABOUT WORLD WAR II PIN-UPS.Oct. 25 "Good Girls"/"Bad Girls"continued
E-Reserve: Sherrie Tucker, Swing Shift: "All-Girl" Bands of the 1940s (Duke 2000), Chapter 7, 227-258.Oct. 27 Film (in class): The International Sweethearts of Rhythm
Readings (E-Reserve):
Sherrie Tucker, Swing Shift: "All-Girl" Bands of the 1940s (Duke University Press, 2000), Chapter 9, 291-316.
ASSIGNMENT DUE October 27: Unit Paper #3
ASSIGNMENT POSTED on Blackboard: Unit paper #4 (due 11/17)
“OUR GIRLS”/”THEIR GIRLS”: CONSTRUCTING THE NATION
Nov. 1 Radio Representations: Reveille With Beverly and Tokyo Rose
Readings:
E-Reserve: John Dower, Chapters 1, 2, and 7, from War Without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War, New York: Pantheon, 1986).
Plus, visit web-sites TBA on BlackboardNov. 3 No class today—use this opportunity to meet with groups
Nov. 8 "Our Girls"/"Their Girls" cont.
Representations of women and national identity; race, gender, and belonging; ideology of white womanhood, racialized gender and Japanese internment.
Film (in class) newsreels
Readings (E-Reserves):
John Tateishi, And Justice for All: An Oral History of the Japanese American Detention Camps (Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, 1984), "Preface to the Original Edition" (xi-xii), "Introduction" (xiii-xxvii), "Mary Tsukamoto" (3-15), "Yuri Tateishi" (23-26), "Helen Murao" (38-50), "Mabel Ota" (108-112), "Violet de Cristoforo" (124-140), and "Theresa Takayoshi" (213-221).
To be posted on Blackboard: Assorted primary source newspaper accounts of Japanese internment.Nov. 10 "Our Girls"/"Their Girls"cont.
Representations ofwomen and national identity; race, gender, and belonging; ideology of white womanhood; racialized gender on the home front; contested national notionsof"Our Girls" and"Their Girls."
Film (in class) Zoot Suit Riots
Readings (E-Reserves):
Eileen Boris, "'You Wouldn't Want One of 'Em Dancing With Your Wife': Racialized Bodies on the Job in World War II," American Quarterly vol. 50, no. 1, March 1998, 77-108
Margaret Halsey, "Color Line and Stag Line," and "Southern Discomfort" from Color Blind (Simon and Schuster, 1946), 21-48
Brother Blue, "The Angel"Nov. 15-17 Comfort Women
Reading:
Yuki Tanaka, Japan’s Comfort Women: Sexual Slavery and Prostitution During World War II and the US Occupation, 84-166.
ASSIGNMENT DUE: Unit Paper #4 11/17
Nov. 22
Readings (E-Reserve):
Elena Creef, “Discovering My Mother as the Other in the Saturday Evening Post,” Qualitative Inquiry, vol. 6, no. 4, 2000, 443-455
To be posted on Blackboard: Smith, J.W., and Wordon, W.L. (1952, January 19), They’re bringing home Japanese Wives,” Saturday Evening Post, 224(29), 26-27, 79-81.Nov. 24 NO CLASS
Nov. 29
Readings: (E-Reserve):
Joanne Meyerowitz, “Chapter 1, Introduction: Women and Gender in Postwar America,” Ruth Feldstein, “Chapter 12: “I Wanted the Whole World to See: Race, Gender, and Constructions of Motherhood in the Death of Emmett Till,” Wini Breines, “Chapter 16: The ‘Other’ Fifties: Beats and Bad Girls,” from Meyerowitz, Not June Cleaver: Women and Gender in Postwar America (Philadelphia: Temple, 1994).Dec. 1 Group ResearchAssignment Due
Details to be posted on Blackboard.IMPLICATIONS FOR CONTEMPORARY TIMES
Dec. 6 Anaylzing gender, nation, and war in our own times.
Made-for-TV-movie (in class): Saving Jessica Lynch
Readings:
Articles to be posted on Blackboard.Dec. 8 Wrap-up. What have we learned?
ASSIGNMENT DUE: Unit paper #5 due 12/8(EXCEPT FOR Graduate Students, whose research papers are due DECEMBER 13, 12:00 Noon)
