We Are a College at War: Women Working for Victory in World War II

4. Home-Front Activism

90 4. Home-Front Activism In an age when comic strips were read widely by the American public, the introduction of the fantasy character Wonder Woman in 1941 was part of a turning point in the popular representation of females in the media. The answer to the problems of “a world torn by the hatreds and wars of men,” Wonder Woman was described as a heroine “whose sensational feats are outstanding in the fast-moving world.” “As lovely as Aphrodite—as wise as Athena—with the speed of Mercury and the strength of Hercules,” her identity was known to no one. Her first adventure found her alongside another attractive woman as they discovered, on the “shores of an uncharted isle,” the downed plane of a serviceman whom they saved from his burning craft. Wonder Woman was the answer to the world’s problems: a woman who could mend a world that men had broken apart.1 No doubt, American females—and young ones, in particular—were meant to see their own potentials in Wonder Woman. Like her, American women answered the call in full force to help “save” their men serving in the armed forces. The popular media showed images of everyday women working in defense factories and Hollywood stars like Rita Hayworth donating their car bumpers to scrap metal drives. Popular women’s magazines printed articles detailing ways to conserve food products and to write upbeat, encouraging letters to servicemen . Like other Americans on the home front, Rockford College women were bombarded with slogans printed in magazines and newspapers and broadcast on the radio meant to motivate them to action: “Every Minute Counts,” “Your Red Cross Needs You,” “America’s Answer: Production,” “Every Man, Woman, and Child a Partner,” “Fighting Dollars for Fighting Men,” “Kinda Give It Your Personal Attention, Will You?” American women expected to do their part fighting the war, and women everywhere quickly mobilized to take action. :%%)&KLQGG 30 HOME-FRONT ACTIVISM 91 The Chicago Tribune published photographs of Rockford College women effectively breaking gender barriers by working in a local defense plant and studying in the science classroom, part of a self-sustaining, independent community as they worked in their Victory Garden.2 In January 1941, Mary Ashby Cheek’s leadership in civil defense for students drew national attention. An article titled “College Girls Get Defense Training” published in the Los Angeles Examiner highlighted her work. “Already the shadow of war has crossed the campus of the woman’s college,” the article explained. “Courses in nutrition, food conservation, ambulance driving, aviation, home nursing, first aid, and other subjects related to national defense are enthusiastically being made part of the current curricula.”3 The activism of American women during World War II was astounding. Women had long played active home-front roles in support of American forces during previous wars, but not until World War II did women serve in such large numbers in skilled factory jobs and in the armed forces. Like many women across the country, Rockford College women gave blood, took first aid courses, worked as nurses in community hospitals, cared for children in day care centers provided for war workers, and prepared bandages, surgical dressings, and garments for use in field hospitals in war zones. They raised funds to bring refugee students to the college and to buy a jeep for the Army, collected scrap metal, participated in the “Knittin’ for Britain” program, and joined with faculty members to hold community forums that detailed ways to save grease and to salvage paper and metals. One student even teased that the most important contribution that she and her fellow students made to the war effort was attending dances at nearby Camp Grant, which at the height of the war served as the nation’s largest induction site for the U.S. Army, a POW detention center, and a training camp for medical personnel.4 Women on the Rockford College campus were called to volunteer by students like Aimee Isgrig Horton, who wrote in the school newspaper in 1943 about the college’s first students to complete a nurse’s aide course. The new nurse’s aides proudly wore the Civilian Defense insignia sewn on their sleeves, proclaiming, Isgrig noted, that these women had made intentional efforts to engage in the war effort. “Just remember,” Isgrig explained, “that it’s the girls in blue denim and the women who wear slacks who will help make the peace and not the...