America's Women

by Gail Collins

  Pauline Kael… Terkel, Hard Times, p. 51.

  One of Lillian Wald’s… Sternsher and Sealander, eds., p. 38.

  “THE MOST LIBERATED WOMAN OF THE CENTURY”

  There is a library’s worth of biographical work on Eleanor Roosevelt; a reader with plenty of time might want to start with Blanche Wiesen Cook’s two wonderful volumes on Mrs. Roosevelt’s life up to World War II, move on to Doris Kearn Goodwin’s No Ordinary Time for the war years, and then to Joseph Lash’s Eleanor—The Years Alone. For a very quick first immersion, try the essay in Susan Ware’s Letter to the World: Seven Women Who Shaped the American Century.

  one cousin called it… William Chafe’s profile in Barbara Sicherman and Carol Green, Notable American Women, The Modern Period, p. 595.

  “I was your real…” Ware, Letter to the World, p. 10.

  “The bottom dropped…” Joseph Lash, Eleanor and Franklin, p. 220.

  “Eleanor, I think she’s…” Terkel, Hard Times, p. 448.

  “My dear, if…” Ware, Letter to the World, p. 5.

  The gossip about her was vicious… Collins, pp. 148–50.

  One historian… Joseph Lash, “Eleanor Roosevelt’s Role in Women’s History,” in Clio Was a Woman: Studies in the History of American Women, Mabel Deutrich and Virginia Purdy, eds., p. 244.

  “I DIDN’T LIKE THE IDEA OF BEING IMPEACHED”

  “Twelve appointments…” Ware, Beyond Suffrage: Women in the New Deal, pp. 89–90.

  Florence Allen… See her autobiography, To Do Justly.

  “When I wanted help…” Ware, Beyond Suffrage, p. 10.

  Mary McLeod Bethune… See Elaine Smith’s “Mary McLeod Bethune and the National Youth Administration” in Deutrich and Purdy, eds.

  Frances Perkins: This section is based on information from Frances Perkins: Champion of the New Deal by Naomi Pasachoff.

  “It was always up and down…” Pasachoff, p. 39.

  When Perkins was honored… Ware, Beyond Suffrage, p. 28.

  On April 12… Ware, Beyond Suffrage, p. 131.

  “A MENACE TO SOCIETY”

  In 1932, Fortune, in a peculiar… Bird, p. 279.

  Pollster George Gallup… Ware, Holding Their Own, p. 27.

  Usually, the issue… Mary Hargreaves, “Darkness Before the Dawn: The Status of Working Women in the Depression Years,” in Deutrich and Purdy, eds., p. 181.

  “I think the single girl…” Gerald Moskowitz and David Rosner, Slaves of the Depression, p. 154.

  Even Frances Perkins… Woloch, p. 452.

  Eleanor Roosevelt called the law… Lash in Deutrich and Purdy, eds., p. 249.

  More than three-quarters… Penny Colman, Rosie the Riveter, pp. 24–25.

  Despite all this… Winifred Bolin makes this point in “The Economics of Middle-Income Family Life: Working Women During the Great Depression,” Journal of American History (June 1978).

  The hopes that female fliers… Ware, Holding Their Own, p. 177.

  The New York City board… Bird, p. 53.

  “NOT A BIT OF DUST FOR THIS GREAT 4TH DAY OF FEB.”

  In 1935, more than… Robert Caro, Lyndon Johnson: The Path to Power, p. 516.

  Only 20 percent… Green, p. 101.

  A researcher visiting… This is drawn from Margaret Jarman Hagood, Mothers of the South: Portraiture of the White Tenant Farm Woman.

  The New Deal program… Robert Caro has a riveting description of the coming of electricity to the Texas hill country in his first Johnson book, pp. 502–15.

  “Just at noon…” Joan Ostrander, Bits and Pieces of Way Back When, pp. 36–37.

  “Not a bit of dust…” Riney-Kehrberg, p. 117.

  “GOODNESS HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH IT, DEARIE”

  This section is based on Marybeth Hamilton’s When I’m Bad, I’m Better.

  “I HAD A WIFE ONCE BUT SHE VANISHED

  INTO THE NBC BUILDING”

  she was, as one critic pointed out… Haskell, p. 125.

  Margaret Mitchell, the author… Pierpont, p. 93.

  As novelist Bobbie Ann Mason… Mason, pp. 52, 67.

  Dorothy Thompson… This section is based on Susan Ware’s portrait in Letter to the World: Seven Women Who Shaped the American Century.

  CHAPTER 17: WORLD WAR II

  “I AM GOING TO ASSIST IN BUILDING A PLANE TO BOMB HITLER”

  But their meals… This note introduces one of my all-time favorite books on life on the home front during World War II—Amy Bentley’s Eating for Victory.

  Women who failed… Leila Rupp, Mobilizing Women for War, p. 156.

  One of the many… Rupp, Mobilizing Women, p. 157.

  Constance Bowman… Bowman and Allen, Slacks and Calluses, p. 31.

  Copywriters for public… Straub in Deutrich and Purdy, eds., p. 215.

  The government and the media… Bentley, p. 137.

  In Atlanta, Helen Dortch Longstreet… Paul Casdorph, Let the Good Times Roll, p. 137.

  “A WOMAN’S ARMY…THINK OF THE HUMILIATION”

  American historians are obviously doing a good job of preserving the oral histories of women who took part in World War II, either in the military or on the home front. One of my favorites, done by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, is Women Remember the War, Michael Stevens, ed., and as a result the voices of women from Wisconsin get what is probably more than their share of space in this book.

  “By voting for me…” N. Smith, p. 176.

  Congresswoman Rankin rushed… Smith, pp. 183–85.

  Two months after… D’Ann Campbell, Women at War with America, p. 7.

  She had gone overseas… Lisa Meyer, Creating G.I. Jane, p. 11.

  For a while, the War Department… Meyer, p. 55.

  Officials also stressed… Susan Hartman, “Women in the Military Service,” in Deutrich and Purdy, eds., p. 196.

  Frieda Schurch… Stevens, ed., pp. 56–57.

  There was a widely reported… Helen Rogan, Mixed Company, p. 142.

  The FBI was called… Campbell, p. 37.

  “A woman’s Army…” Meyer, p. 13.

  “The efforts of…” Meyer, p. 40.

  A WAC in Birmingham… Stevens, ed., p. 53.

  But Evelyn Fraser… Studs Terkel, The Good War: An Oral History of World War II, p. 123.

  “THREE HOLES IN THE TAIL, BOYS, THAT’S A LITTLE TOO CLOSE”

  My single best source of information on women who served overseas during the war was Helen Rogan’s Mixed Company, which is, alas, out of print. If you want to read more about the WASPs, try Sally Van Wagenen Keil’s Those Wonderful Women in their Flying Machines. The part of this section on the WASPs is based on that book unless otherwise noted.

  The first five WACs… Rogan, p. 133.

  More than 5,000 women… Rogan, p. 143.

  “Three holes…” Keil, p. 269.

  An army flight surgeon… Keil, p. 169.

  It wasn’t the only theory… Campbell, p. 28.

  Jill McCormick… Keil, p. 303.

  “LITTLE DID I DREAM THAT WE WOULD BE

  ALWAYS HUNGRY, ALWAYS FRIGHTENED”

  A very thorough recounting of the story of the Bataan nurses is We Band of Angels, by Elizabeth Norman. Helen Rogan also has interviews with a number of the survivors in Mixed Company.

  Toward the end of the war… Doris Weatherford, American Women and World War II, pp. 19–20.

  one nurse in training… Campbell, p. 57.

  “We lived high…” Rogan, p. 260.

  “Little did I dream…” Weatherford, American Women and World War II, p. 3.

  As Japanese warships… Norman, p. 43.

  “I can remember…” Rogan, p. 262.

  “I was continually amazed…” Weatherford, American Women and World War II, p. 63.

  Brunetta Kuehlthau… Norman, p. 55.

  Most of the nurses… Thousands of American civilian women and children were interned in Japanese camps in the South Pacific, including missionaries, wives of businessmen, and
teachers. Theresa Kaminski collected information about them for her book Prisoners in Paradise: American Women in the Wartime South Pacific.

  General Jonathan Wainwright… Norman, p. 238.

  “SHE’S MAKING HISTORY, WORKING FOR VICTORY”

  “While other girls…” Colman, pp. 15–16.

  Ladies’ Home Journal ran a story… Rosenthal, p. 127.

  Peggy Terry… Terkel, The Good War, pp. 105–6.

  As a result of the great migration… Colman, pp. 42–43.

  “Darlin, You are…” Judy Barrett Litoff and David Smith, Since You Went Away, p. 146.

  Rose Kaminski… Stevens, ed., pp. 11–12.

  The Office of War Information… Colman, p. 51.

  The owner of the Chicago Cubs… The story of the All-American Girls League is told in Sue Macy’s A Whole New Ballgame.

  Ads and movie newsreels… Colman, p. 10.

  nearly 90 percent of the housewives… William Tuttle, Daddy’s Gone to War: The Second World War in the Lives of America’s Children, p. 71.

  Congress didn’t appropriate money… Woloch, p. 474.

  Agnes Meyer… Tuttle, p. 74.

  In 1943, two San Diego high school… Constance Bowman and Clara Marie Allen, Slacks and Calluses: Our Summer in a Bomber Factory. This little book, which is still in print, gives you a very good feel for what defense work was like for two middle-class women.

  “I was tireder…” Bowman and Allen, p. 42.

  “It was a great shock…” Bowman and Allen, p. 69.

  When four WASPs… Keil, p. 259.

  “Whether they are…” Bowman and Allen, p. 67.

  “VARIETY MEATS: THEY ARE GOOD,

  ABUNDANT, HIGHLY NUTRITIOUS”

  Except where otherwise noted, the information in this section comes from Amy Bentley’s Eating for Victory.

  “Never in the long…” Bentley, p. 3.

  A government-issued… Bentley, p. 97.

  “My mother and all…” Terkel, The Good War, p. 234.

  “Give us housewives…” Bentley, pp. 106–7.

  It was in World War II… Bentley, pp. 67–68.

  “WE WOULD GO TO DANCES

  AND GIRLS WOULD DANCE WITH GIRLS”

  A Seattle paper… There’s a reproduction of this cartoon on p. 98 of Colman’s Rosie the Riveter.

  Dorothy Zmuda of Milwaukee… Stevens, ed., p. 47.

  “The pressure to marry…” Terkel, The Good War, p. 114.

  Dorothy Zmuda was casually… Stevens, ed., p. 45.

  “The girls that I knew…” Stevens, ed., p. 35.

  The Baltimore Sun noticed… Bentley, p. 44.

  “It was very important…” Stevens, ed., p. 36.

  Jean Lechnir… Stevens, ed., p. 84.

  “WELL OF COURSE, SO WERE THE JAPANESE”

  One good memoir of life in the relocation camps is Farewell to Manzanar, by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston.

  Anne Dinsmore… Stevens, ed., pp. 92–94.

  Earl Warren… Casdorph, pp. 27–28.

  “These poor women…” Lawson Fusao Inada, Only What We Could Carry, p. 61.

  JeanneWakatsuki was seven… Wakatsuki Houston and Houston, pp. 14–15.

  Yoshiko Uchida… Inada, pp. 69–80.

  The Department of the Interior… Bentley, p. 121.

  When one of the first groups… Meyer, p. 67.

  “HITLER WAS THE ONE THAT GOT US OUT

  OF THE WHITE FOLKS’ KITCHEN”

  a young Maya Angelou… Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, pp. 265–69.

  In New York, other black women… Karen Anderson, Wartime Women, p. 84.

  In 1943, at the height… See Karen Anderson, “Last Hired, First Fired: Black Women Workers During World War II,” Journal of American History (June 1982).

  “Despite all…” Brenda L. Moore, To Serve My Country, to Serve My Race: The Story of the Only African American WACs Stationed Overseas During World War II, p. 19.

  Pauli Murray…Bitter Fruit: African American Women in World War II, Maureen Honey, ed., pp. 277–79.

  Elsie Oliver… Moore, p. 18.

  Despite its grave… Campbell, p. 64.

  Major Harriet West… Meyer, pp. 90–93.

  At Fort Devens… Meyer, pp. 97–99.

  “My sister always…” Sherna Berger Gluck, Rosie the Riveter Revisited, p. 23.

  “IT JUST ENDED OVERNIGHT”

  “Ohh, the beautiful…” Terkel, The Good War, p. 109.

  “They always got priority…” Stevens, ed., pp. 23–24.

  “It just ended…” Gluck, p. 65.

  William Mulcahy… Colman, pp. 21–22.

  “I happen to be a widow…” Colman, pp. 97–98.

  Peggy Terry, the Kentucky woman… Terkel, The Good War, p. 107.

  “We got a chance…” Terkel, The Good War, p. 112.

  “They realized that they were…” Terkel, The Good War, p. 119.

  CHAPTER 18: THE FIFTIES

  “I DREAMED I STOPPED TRAFFIC IN MY MAIDENFORM BRA”

  My two favorite books on women in the 1950s are Stephanie Coontz’s The Way We Never Were: American Families and the Nostalgia Trap, and Jessica Weiss’s To Have and to Hold: Marriage, the Baby Boom and Social Change.

  “In order to wear…” Benita Eisler, Private Lives: Men and Women of the Fifties, p. 120.

  Women looking for a more modern… William Chafe, The Unfinished Journey: America Since World War II, p. 126.

  But plenty of women worked… Coontz, The Way We Never Were, p. 31.

  Then suddenly, 60 percent… Coontz, p. 24.

  Ebony enthused… “Hello Mammy, Good-bye Mother,” Ebony (March 1947), p. 36.

  “I MADE TERRIFIC FRIENDS RIGHT AWAY”

  “Our lives are held…” K. Jackson, p. 235.

  “I made terrific…” Eisler, pp. 212–16.

  In Levittown, outdoor… K. Jackson, p. 236.

  “IF MY WIFE HAD HER WAY I THINK WE’D ALL BREATHE IN UNISON”

  “Emphasis on family…” Dorothy Barclay, “Family Palship—With an Escape Clause,” The New York Times Magazine, November 18, 1956, p. 48.

  Dr. Bruno Bettelheim… Bettelheim, “Fathers Shouldn’t Try to Be Mothers,” Parents (October 1956), p. 40.

  “Adventure is a father’s…” Weiss, p. 90.

  Betty Furness… David Halberstam, The Fifties, pp. 498–500.

  “ALL THE GANG HAS STARTED THEIR OWN SETS OF STERLING”

  Like almost half… Brett Harvey, The Fifties, p. 70.

  “Not so long ago…” Weiss, p. 123.

  “All the gang has…” Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique, p. 220.

  Suzie Slattery… Eisler, p. 104.

  Once married… Harvey, p. 70.

  The proportion of women… Harvey, p. 70.

  a professor at Smith complained… Friedan, The Feminine Mystique, p. 152.

  “The thing you didn’t do…” Harvey, p. 61.

  A survey in 1958… Bailey, p. 132.

  The wife of a college… Elaine Tyler May, Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era, p. 71.

  “I felt increasingly…” May, Homeward Bound, p. 71.

  The male president… Harvey, pp. 46–47.

  “YOU’RE NOT GOING TO LIKE IT, GEORGE.

  SHE’S AN OLD MAID.”

  In one much-quoted… Coontz, p. 25.

  The 1947 best-seller… Ferdinand Lunberg and Marynia Fannham, Modern Woman, the Lost Sex, pp. 364–65.

  The National Woman’s Party… Leila Rupp, Survival in the Doldrums, p. 19.

  An editor at Mademoiselle told… Friedan, The Feminine Mystique, p. 56.

  “Except for the sick…” Douglas Miller and Marion Nowak, The Fifties: The Way We Really Were, p. 152.

  A study in one Pennsylvania… Bailey, p. 48.

  Carol Cornwall… Eisler, p. 129.

  “No boy—no matter…” Bailey, p. 90.

  In 1953, he released… Kinsey et al., Sexual Behavior in the Human
Female, pp. 287, 416.

  “It is impossible…” Halberstam, p. 280.

  “To go out and actually…” Harvey, pp. 11–12.

  As a result, an estimated… May, Homeward Bound, p. 136.

  “IT WAS…SO OUT OF CONTROL”

  In 1956, the average teenager… Stuart Kallen, The 1950s, p. 61.

  Back in the nineteenth century…Banner, p. 179.

  The sixteen-year-old Fabian… John Jackson, American Bandstand, pp. 137–38, 145.

  “SOME VERY SENSIBLE GIRL FROM A NICE FAMILY”

  A great book on the media’s view of young women in the fifties and sixties is Susan Douglas’s Where the Girls Are.

  In 1946, there were only… May, Homeward Bound, p. 153.

  I Love Lucy: Halberstam, pp. 196–20.

  When her husband asked… Halberstam, p. 509.

  Father Knows Best: Douglas, Where the Girls Are, pp. 37–38.

  “WOMEN CAN STAND THE SHOCK AND STRAIN

  OF AN ATOMIC EXPLOSION”

  A great book about women and the Cold War is Homeward Bound, by Elaine Tyler May.

  Jean Wood Fuller… Fuller, “L.A. Woman in Trench at A-Blast,” Los Angeles Times, May 6, 1955, p. 2.

  Fuller’s mission in life… May, Homeward Bound, p. 91.

  “You all know women…” Shapiro, pp. 214–15.

  The first elected official… The information on Senator Smith comes from

  Janaan Sherman’s No Place for a Woman: The Life of Senator Margaret Chase Smith.

  Betty Friedan theorized… Friedan, The Feminine Mystique, p. 54.

  The heroine in one… Josephine Bentham, “I Didn’t Want to Tell You,” McCall’s, January 1958.

  “THEY’VE MESSED WITH THE WRONG ONE NOW”

  Anyone interested in the role of women, black and white, in the civil rights movement in the South should read Lynne Olson’s Freedom’s Daughters.

  it was the Montgomery, Alabama, bus system… The two women most centrally involved in the Montgomery bus boycott have written their accounts of what happened: Rosa Parks’s My Story and Jo Ann Robinson’s The Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Women Who Started It.

  “Some drivers made…” Parks, p. 77.

  She was “happy as I…” J. Robinson, pp. 15–16.

  “The only tired…” Parks, p. 116.

  “My God, look…” Parks, p. 125.

  “They’ve messed…” Parks, p. 133.

  “You’ve said enough…” Parks, p. 130.

  King urged one old lady… Howell Raines, My Soul Is Rested, p. 61.