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Book Review
| On the Farm Front: The Women's Land Army in World War II. By Stephanie A. Carpenter. (DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2003. viii, 214 pp. $40.00, ISBN 0-87580-314-8.)
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| Recent scholarship has interrogated closely the usefulness of the concept of separate spheres in women's history. On the Farm Front by Stephanie A. Carpenter makes it abundantly clear that Americans were profoundly concerned about the proper role of women during World War II. The Women's Land Army (WLA), a United States government program to use women to replace male agricultural laborers gone for military service, crystallized many arguments against the use of women as agricultural labor. |
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While some states, notably New York and Vermont, instituted programs to hire women as farm laborers as early as 1942, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which had opposed women working in the fields for many years, did not mobilize a national policy until early 1943. Once given the opportunity, women rushed to farm work. Many came from nearby urban areas and served as seasonal or emergency laborers, helping with limited activities such as harvest. Even with such restricted service, they provided valuable assistance to beleaguered farmers. |
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