CONTENT WARNING
Materials in the Library of Virginia’s collections contain historical terms, phrases, and images that are offensive to modern readers. These include demeaning and dehumanizing references to race, ethnicity, and nationality; enslaved or free status; physical and mental ability; and gender and sexual orientation.
Context
After the United States entered WW I in 1917, young men who worked in agriculture left to join the military or find better jobs working for the government and the burgeoning defense industry. The departure of them men left farms without enough people to work the fields and tend the crops. Although the government offered incentives to encourage men remaining in the US to work in agriculture the effort was not successful.
Britain also struggled with food insecurity for the same reasons. The government created the Women’s Land War Army to recruit and train women to work in agriculture. In this capacity, women would provide needed food to their communities and nation. Inspired by this effort, several women’s colleges in the US began to train women to work in agriculture to meet the growing demand for food.
In 1917, the Women's Land Army of America (WWLA) was formed in order to provide essential labor to American farms and farmers. The director of the WWLA was Harriet Stanton Blatch, the daughter of Elizabeth Cady Stanton who was a leader of the suffrage movement. A number of the WWLA members were also suffragists who believed that their patriotic act of working in agriculture would bring attention to the suffrage movement. From 1943 to 1945 the Women's Land Army recruited, trained, and placed millions of women on American farms. This program sent both rural and urban women to the farms, where they assisted in providing the necessary food products and commodities for a nation at war. Women working outside of the home led to major changes in the societal roles of men and women which would be felt for years to come.
Inspirational, informative, instructive, imploring—posters were a major part of the war effort. Virginians would have seen many of these posters. The most common place to see such posters in Virginia would have been in train stations and other areas of transportation. Other types of posters in the period would have encouraged saving scrap materials, following restricted diets, contacting servicemen, and supporting the war effort through war bonds.
Standards
Art: 4.18, 5.19
Suggested Questions
Preview Activity
Look at It: Look at the way the women are depicted in the poster. Why do you think the women portrayed in this image look the way they do? What are they doing?
Post Activities
Analyze: Women were not encouraged to work outside of the home before the war, but they became a critical part of the workforce during the war. Why would women, particularly those in college, choose to receive training in agriculture? What did they hope to gain?
Social Media Spin: Create a social media post in which you encourage women to be trained in agriculture to support the war effort. Be sure to include references to the WWLA and their mission.
Form an Opinion: Write a journal entry in which you describe how you would have felt if you were a woman recruited from the city to move to a rural agricultural community. What challenges might you face?