GREENWICH, N.Y. — Rosie the Riveter is an iconic image and persona from the World War II-era. With her determined expression, flexed arm, and exhortation of “We Can Do It!” she encouraged the women of the Homefront in the new jobs they found themselves doing to support the war effort. For many women one of these jobs was farming and the Women’s Land Army played a crucial role in keeping American agriculture operating during both World War I and World War II.
The beginnings of the Women’s Land Army started in 1917. The United States entered World War I in 1917, and with this entrance around 600,000 men who had jobs in agriculture were conscripted or enlisted into military service, or left the farm to take on industrial jobs. This left a void in American agriculture’s labor force. The food supply was already unsteady due to the war, so much so that food riots occurred in some cities in the winter of 1917.
To meet this issue some women’s colleges began agricultural training programs to teach women how to work on farms in the summertime. Barnard College in New York City established the Women’s Agricultural Camp. This program trained women for four months to help on local farms. Other east coast schools like Bryn Mawr in Pennsylvania and Mount Holyoke in Massachusetts adopted similar programs and worked in their own areas.
The Women’s Land Army of America (WLAA) was officially formed in December 1917 and was eventually working in 40 states and the District of Columbia in the 1918 growing season. The WLAA was based on Britain’s Women’s Land Army which had been in operation since the war began in 1914. While in Britain workers were referred to as “Land Girls” or “Land Lassies,” the American workers came to be called “Farmerettes” being compared to the suffragette movement at the time.
Farmerettes came from various backgrounds, but a great many of them were college-aged women working on farms during their summer breaks, or middle and upper-class women who would have had more time to work on farms and the funds to pay for any training. Many of the farmerettes came from more urban settings introducing them to life and work outside the city. Members needed to be at least eighteen years old and deemed fit enough for agricultural work. They worked eight-hour days and demanded to be paid the same wage as men. While uniforms varied many farmerettes wore a blue or khaki-colored smock which made them recognizable.
Farmerettes were placed on individual farms or worked in more community agricultural settings. While many farmers were skeptical or resistant to having women work their lands, the farmerettes were able to show themselves capable workers helping perform a variety of tasks from tilling fields to harvesting fruit crops to working with livestock and more.
It is estimated that between 15,000-20,000 women worked as farmerettes during World War I. The WLAA never received federal funding relying on donations from individuals and corporations, and through fundraising methods. The war ended in 1918 and WLAA was disbanded in 1920. Nevertheless, the contribution of the farmerettes helped keep American agriculture running and producing more for the war effort. It is also believed that the contribution of the farmerettes, and women in all wartime efforts, helped persuade President Woodrow Wilson to pass the 19th Amendment granting women the right to vote in 1920.
Following the “Roaring” 1920s and the Great Depression of the 1930s the specter of war overcame the globe again with outbreak of World War II in 1939. The United States entered the conflict in 1941 the labor issues that were around during WWI arose again. Between April 1940 and July 1942 two million men left jobs in American agriculture for military service or wartime industrial work. By the end of the war this number would increase to six million. The U.S. government sought to fill these jobs through a variety of means including the enlisting foreign labor, and using prisoners of war and interned Japanese-Americans for agricultural work. Another option that was employed was the resurrection of the Women’s Land Army of America.
In the 1942 growing season there were calls for women and children to pitch in with farm work and many non-farm women did. Groups like universities and the Young Women’s Christian Organization (YWCA), and individual citizens helped recruit, train, and deploy women to help in emergency farm work. Seeing the success of their efforts was a push from civilians and government officials to form the WLA. While it took some convincing, Secretary of Agriculture Claude Wickard did allow for the creation of a program and the Women’s Land Army was officially reestablished in 1943.
Unlike in WWI, the program was directed and supported by the government with Florence Hall named chief of the program. The WLA was a segment of the U.S. Crop Corps, a program that encompassed wartime agriculture labor services. In addition to the WLA the U.S. Crop Corps included the Victory Farm Volunteers, a program in which teenage boys and girls could volunteer to perform farm duties at local farms.
The WLA worked closely with state agricultural colleges and their home demonstration Extension services to help recruit and train women for farm work. They also relied on women’s volunteer groups and clubs to spread the word and recruit workers. Women again needed to be eighteen or older and fit enough in order to join. At first only “non-farm” women were allowed to join, but it was eventually opened to women from more rural settings. For women that enrolled trainings were available in many topics like dairying, livestock husbandry, poultry husbandry, gardening, and more. While these trainings existed, most women learned farm skills “on-the-job.” The WLA also offered blue denim uniforms with its most recognizable feature being the overalls. However most women did not end up purchasing one using their own work clothes instead.
Answering the call women of all kinds joined the ranks of the WLA. Students and teachers used their summer breaks to work in the fields. Urban women who may have been beauticians, bank tellers, office workers, or department store clerks found themselves harvesting orchards or milking cows. Others were trucking wheat and corn from fields, picking cotton, or pulling vegetables during harvest time.
On the East and West coasts more urban women were employed and often traveled in units going from farm to farm while living in camps or on the farms where they worked. These areas offered more orchard and field work. Meanwhile in places like the Midwest local women were more often relied upon. Women in rural towns would take buses, often given names like “the Housewives’ Special,” to local farms to work for the day and then return home to take care of their own homes. WLA members also helped farm wives with the tasks of the home such as cooking, cleaning, and child care. This enabled farm wives, who would have had better understanding of and experience with farm chores and machinery operation, to help with farm duties.
There was some aversion at first by farmers to having women work on their farms. This was particularly true in the Midwest where agriculture was more dependent on machinery. Farmers were hesitant to let ladies, some of which had never used farm machinery before, to operate them. However, by the end of the war perceptions were often changed and farmers had more respect for what women could do. One Midwest farmer said at the war’s conclusion, “I will say that they were eminently successful and helped me get the job done…They drove tractors for me on side rake, pick-up baler, rotary hoe and trucks to pick up hay in the field…The boys in the armed forces should know the remarkable work done by these women and farmer’s wives.”
For many women joining the WLA was a way for them to support the war effort and an exciting experience for them. Although the work was hard many felt it was something that they owed to the country to do. One WLA member said, “I would not have been happy had I not done this work or something like it…We had long hours to work, but I was glad of that because it made me feel like I was helping the war effort that much more.” Similarly in describing her work trucking grain in the WLA an Iowa woman named Leslie Tresham wrote, “…Tired? Of course, I get tired, but so does that boy in the foxhole. That boy, whose place I’m trying so hard to fill.” For others it was more personal. In a New York Times article one woman explained why she joined saying, “My fiancé was killed in this war and I feel that perhaps that I, by helping to produce the food so vitally needed by our soldiers, can in part make up for the loss of at least one fighting man.”
The WLA lasted until the war ended in 1945. Throughout the WWII years approximately 1.5 million women served in the Women’s Land Army in various capacities. Their efforts helped produce record output of crops like corn and wheat in 1944 and provided food for the nation and soldiers worldwide.
While Rosie the Riveter and women’s wartime efforts in industry are more recognizable today, the Women’s Land Army’s support to American agriculture during this uncertain time in American history was just as crucial. While they came from different walks of life and joined for different reasons, the women of the WLA were able to fulfill a need, support their country, and share the burden of the soldier overseas.
Chandler Hansen grew up and lives in Easton, NY. He is a graduate of Gordon College where he earned a bachelor’s degree in History. He serves as a writer and editor for Morning Ag Clips.
