American HistoryChapter 14 Section 3

Life on the Home Front

Women in the Workplace • Before the war, most

Americans believed married women should not work outside the home.

• However, the labor shortage during the war forced factories to hire married women. “Rosie the Riveter” was the symbol of the campaign to hire women.

• Images of Rosie appeared on posters and in newspaper ads.

Rosie’s Effect

• It is estimated that about 2.5 million women worked in factories, shipyards, and other manufacturing plants during World War II.

• Although most women left the factories after the war, their work permanently changed American attitudes about women in the workplace.

African Americans at home

• Many factories did not want to hire African Americans.

• A. Philip Randolph was the head of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters—a major union for African American railroad workers.

Executive Order 8802• He told President Roosevelt

that he was going to organize a march on Washington.

• Roosevelt responded by issuing Executive Order 8802 and it’s purpose was to end discrimination in the employment of workers in the defense industry.

• He created the Fair Employment Practices Commission to enforce the order.

Bracero Program

• To help farmers in the Southwest overcome the labor shortage, the government started the Bracero Program in 1942.

• It arranged for Mexican farm workers to help in the harvest.

Moving to the Sunbelt • The wartime economy created

millions of new jobs. • However, people who wanted

them did not always live near the factories.

• Many workers moved to the Sunbelt, a region including southern California and the Deep South.

• Many African Americans moved north in the Great Migration. – They were often met with

suspicion and intolerance.

Zoot-Suits

• In California, zoot-suit wearers—often Mexican American teenagers—faced prejudice.

• The baggy zoot suit used more material than the victory suit.

• Some thought that wearing it was unpatriotic.

Zoot-Suit Riots

• In June of 1943, 2,500 soldiers and sailors stormed Mexican American neighborhoods in Los Angeles.

• They attacked Mexican American teenagers. – Police did not intervene.

Japanese Internment Camps • After Japan attacked Pearl Harbor,

all people of Japanese ancestry on the West Coast were ordered to move to internment camps.

• Many people demand (thought) that all people of Japanese ancestry needed to be removed from the West Coast because they felt Japanese Americans would not remain loyal to the U.S. during a war with Japan.

• In Korematsu v. the United States, Fred Korematsu argued that his civil rights had been violated.

Korematsu v. U.S.

• He took his case to the Supreme Court, but he lost. – U.S. Supreme Court ruled that

the relocation was Constitutional because it was based not on race but on “military urgency”

• After the war, the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) tried to help Japanese Americans who had lost property during the relocation.

OPA & OES• At home in the U.S., wages and

prices rose quickly during the war. • To stabilize prices, President

Roosevelt created the Office of Price Administration (OPA) and the Office of Economic Stabilization (OES).

• The OES regulated wages and the prices of farm products.

• The demand for raw materials and supplies created shortages.

• To keep products available for military use, the government begin rationing consumer goods?

Items that were rationed

• Spare rubber• Tin• Aluminum• Steel pots• Tires

• Tin cans • Car bumpers • Broken radiators• Rusting bicycles • Oils• Animal fat (bacon

grease and meat drippings)

Conserving Resources

• Households received ration coupons each month that limited the amounts of rationed goods they could purchase.

• Americans also planted victory gardens to produce more food.

• The government ran scrap drives to collect the spare rubber, tin, aluminum, and steel the military needed.

Funding the War

• The United States raised taxes to help pay for the war.

• Because most Americans opposed a high tax increase, the taxes raised during World War II paid for only 45 percent of the war’s cost.

• People bought bonds issued by the government as a way to make up the difference.

Government Bonds

• The government promised to pay back the money, plus interest, at a later date.

• Individuals bought nearly $50 billion worth of war bonds.

• Banks, insurance companies, and other financial institutions bought the rest—more than $100 billion worth of bonds.