You have not been recognized as a subscriber to Indiana Magazine of History online. About 223 words from this article are provided below; about 413 words remain.
 		 
If you are a individual subscriber to Indiana Magazine of History, you may:
• login here if you have already registered for online access.
• Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
• Set up your online account for the first time.

If you are not a subscriber to Indiana Magazine of History, you can:
• subscribe here.
• Purchase a research pass to gain two hour access to the entire History Cooperative web site. You will have full access to current issues of Indiana Magazine of History.

Instititutions can:
• Subscribe to this journal and receive print and electronic issues.
• Activate your existing subscription so that we recognize your IP number ranges.
| Book Review | Indiana Magazine of History, 102.4 | The History Cooperative
102.4  
Journals link Search link Partners link Information link
December, 2006
Previous
Next
Indiana Magazine of History

Table of Contents
List journal issues
Home
Get a printer-friendly version of this page
 

Reviews

On the Farm Front
The Women's Land Army in World War II

By Stephanie A. Carpenter
(DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2003. Pp. viii, 214. Illustrations, appendix, tables, notes, bibliography, index. $40.00.)

Stephanie A. Carpenter succeeds admirably in her stated purpose with On the Farm Front. She rightly perceives an oversight in writing of previous agricultural historians who organized their examinations of farm work according to separate spheres, confining women to "the house, garden, and chicken coop" (p. 3). Historians who discuss working women during World War II have focused on industry rather than agriculture. Women working in agriculture during the war, at least those working under the auspices of the federal Women's Land Army, now have a historian who fills the gap and makes the WLA salient. Carpenter interprets their experience "in the context of regional differences and with regard to class, gender, and race" (p. 5). She concludes by arguing that "World War II increased the number of women in farming, as in the national workforce as a whole" (p. 156). 1
      The WLA organized in the spring of 1943 under the leadership of extension career woman Florence L. Hall. Its workers, recruited through state extension organizations, were supposed to wear blue uniforms—overalls, shirt, jacket, and cap. Most, however, disdained the denim and dressed as they pleased. . . .
There are about 413 more words in this article. Please log in (or, if you are not yet an authorized user, please go to the User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.