Beyond Rosie: Utah Women and the World War Two Home Front

Students will analyze the roles of Utah women during WWII by examining their contributions to the workforce, home front, and advocacy in order to understand how the war reshaped gender roles and civic participation in Utah.

Utah Core Alignment: Standard 4.4.6, UT. Studies Standard 3.2

This lesson focuses on a few Utah women who made a big impact on Utah during WWII in the workforce or who mobilized their communities for volunteer work or advocacy. Countless others went unrecognized who organized war support campaigns and rationing drives as well as community childcare efforts. Utah women’s leadership on the home front showed a commitment to service and their resilience and ability to adapt. They refused to be passive supporters but instead embraced roles as active and capable leaders. And they kept the home front going.

As thousands of Utah men left to serve in World War II. The demands of wartime production increased and community care fell on the shoulders of women. Utah women joined the paid workforce in record numbers. By 1944, women comprised 37% of Utah’s workforce (compared to 18% in 1940). Utah saw a notably higher increase in women’s employment compared to the national average (which went from 28% in 1944 to 34% in 1945). This was in large part due to Utah’s factories and other industries that opened their doors to women in order to fill jobs. Women worked in factories, agriculture, and government offices. They took on jobs as welders, clerks, inspectors, and drivers. Many of these roles were previously closed to women. Read our article here to learn more about Utah women in the workforce during the war.

Utah women jumped into the workforce while also maintaining their homes, rationing supplies, and caring for their children. They led scrap drives, volunteered for Red Cross programs, and some became vocal advocates. This period was transformative for Utah women. Many of them had held traditional domestic roles and now were thrust into a newfound public responsibility. Their efforts on the home front laid groundwork that opened up more ways for women to contribute to public life in the future.

Women in the Workforce: This lesson’s slides introduce students to some of the ways Utah women contributed to the paid workforce during the war. Ruby Timms Price came to Utah in order to work at Hill Air Force Base after her brother in the military went missing. She took a government exam and joined an aeronautics class, but as a woman and especially as a woman of color, she was unable to become a fighter pilot as she had hoped. Undeterred, she found other ways to work and make an impact. She later recalled,”I didn’t know how to give up.” At Hill, Ruby worked as an embarcation specialist, served on the cafeteria committee, directed the Gargoyle Dramatic Club, and organized social events. Anna Belle Weakley also came to Utah during the war and worked at Hill – learn more about her story here.

Other Utah women took advantage of new jobs that opened up in their areas as war industries came to Utah. Zola Anderson worked in the Manti Parachute Factory sewing life-saving parachutes for U.S. airmen, often folding encouraging notes into the parachutes to send personal lifelines from home to the soldiers abroad. The factory was staffed by hundreds of local women ages sixteen to forty. While many were young single women like Zola, many others were married and often had to balance their full-time factory work with all the housekeeping and childcare responsibilities. With the support of family, friends, and federally-financed nursery schools, these women juggled their many obligations and forged a new path for working women in their community. The factory’s owner and manager, Colonel Cedric Errol Fauntleroy, boasted: “There are no better national defense workers anywhere in the country today.”

Utah women took on jobs previously reserved for men when they operated heavy machinery or factory equipment. Women worked at all of Utah’s military facilities. Many Americans had concerns about what would happen when women worked outside the home, especially in ‘masculine’ professions. So both employers and the U.S. government sought to portray ‘Rosie the Riveters’ as strong, yet feminine, wearing makeup and lipstick along with their work uniforms and bandanas. one newspaper article described Utah rail yard worker Ruth Olsen in this way: “Engines hold no terrors for her as she gives a house wifely polish to a huge glass eye. Heavy gloves help her to keep her nail polish intact in spite of harsh labors.”

Women on the Home Front: Explain that while many Utah women joined the workforce, others contributed to the home front communities through organized volunteer efforts, civil defense, and support networks. Thousands of Utah women supported the war effort through community-based organizations like the Relief Society of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Minute Women of America, and the Ogden Chapter of the American Red Cross. In these groups they organized relief efforts, rationed supplies, knitted clothing, rolled bandages, and boosted morale in their neighborhoods and towns. Here are a few examples fro Utah:

Amy Brown Lyman became President of the LDS Relief Society in 1940 and led women in this organization to help individuals and families during the difficult war years. They also worked together to aid the war effort by assembling first aid kits, donating blood, purchasing war bonds, and sending hygiene items to war-torn Europe. The Relief Society Magazine reported that during 1944, these women contributed 139,338 hours of sewing for the Red Cross.

Bertha Stevenson led the Salt Lake City Minute Women, a women-run home front salvage organization that collected materials needed for the war. By the end of the war, Bertha oversaw 1,778 Minute Women and 2,000 Paper Troopers (children who collected waste paper). In addition to conducting drives for paper, silk, and nylon hosiery, Salt Lake’s Minute Women also collected millions of pounds of household fats, tin cans, rubber, and scrap metal. They were recognized nationally for exceeding every quota and for being one of the most successful Minute Women organizations in the U.S.

Maude Dee Porter worked for the Nurses Auxiliary Corps and was a member of her local Red Cross Committee in Ogden. She believe that “anyone who engages in public work has the satisfaction that this is one way of paying her rent in the world.” During WWII, women living near railroad hubs often organized canteens to feed soldiers traveling through and boost their morale. The average canteen served between 500,000-1 million soldiers during the war, but Maude’s Ogden station served 1.6 million soldiers. They provided food and a little piece of home to the soldiers on their way to their next assignments.

Women as Advocates: Beyond working in factories or volunteering locally, many Utah women took on the role of advocates. They raised their voices for justice, peace, and the protection of civil rights during the war.

Esther Landa and Jewish Advocacy: Esther was known for her saying, “The time for equity and justice is now.” After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, she put her belief into action and moved to Washington D.C. to work as a mail sorter, stenographer, and information specialist for the Office of War Information. When the war ended, Esther was devoted to Jewish causes throughout her entire life but particularly after the atrocities of the Holocaust became well known. She worked with Hadassah (a Jewish women’s philanthropic organization) and the United Jewish Appeal. She was also in leadership within the National Council of Jewish Women. She went on to form Esther’s Circle, a politically active and service-oriented organization that is still operating in Utah today. 

Elise Furer Musser emigrated to the United States when she was 19 years old from Switzerland. Before WWII, Elise had already served as a State Senator, Utah State Chairman of Democratic Women, and an interpreter and teacher at Neighborhood House (an organization supporting working immigrant mothers with daycare, English lessons, and other resources). Elise spoke fluent French, German, Italian, English, Swedish and Spanish and was appointed by President Roosevelt to serve as a delegate to two major international peace conferences that sought to prevent the breakout of war in the 1930s. During WWII, Elise advocated for services for war refugees and served as President of the British War Relief Society of Utah leading relief efforts for Russia, Belgium, and Greece. Elise’s legacy is on of working for peace, and uplifting immigrants’ and refugees’ voices.

During WWII, Alice Kasai’s husband Henry was incarcerated at a detention camp for two-and-a-half years. Alice was moved to action during this time and her home became the headquarters of the Japanese American Citizens League in Salt Lake City. She served as the first woman president of the JACL and advocated for the Japanese community in Utah. She especially worked to coordinate help for families in incarceration camps like Topaz, near Delta, Utah. After the war, Alice and her husband lobbied for citizenship and various other civil rights for Japanese immigrants. They were involved in establishing the International Peace Garden in Salt Lake City and the Sister City Project between Salt Lake City and Matsumoto, Japan. She continued to advocate for peace and intercultural understanding for the rest of her life. 

You will need a projector and screen, the Beyond Rosie: Utah Women on the WWII Home Front slides, and art supplies for the class (paper, pencils, markers, paints). Use the slides to share this material with your students and introduce the activity.

1. Introduction to Utah women on the home front during WWII (5-10 minutes)
   • Explain that during World War II, women across Utah were stepping into new roles in their communities, their families, and the paid workforce, and reshaping traditional expectations. They contributed significantly to the war effort.
2. Utah Women in the Workforce:  (10 minutes)
   • Explain that during World War II, Utah women entered the workforce in record numbers, stepping into industrial, agricultural, and professional roles traditionally held by men.
   • Introduce students to the stories of Ruby Timms Price, Zola Anderson, and Utah’s Rosies.
3. Utah Women on the Homefront (10 minutes)
   • Explain that while many Utah women joined the workforce, others contributed from home and in their communities through organized volunteer efforts, civil defense, and support networks.
   • Introduce students to Amy Brown Lyman and the LDS Relief Society, Bertha Stevenson and the Utah Minute Women, and Maude Dee Porter and the Ogden Red Cross Canteen.
4.  Utah Women as Advocates (10 minutes)
   • Explain that beyond working in factories or volunteering locally, many Utah women took on the role of advocates. They raised their voices for justice, peace, and the protection of civil rights during the war.
   • Introduce students to Corinne Sweet’s advocacy for Jewish causes, Elise Musser’s advocacy for peace and relief, and Alice Kasai’s advocacy for Japanese Americans.
5. Activity: Creating WWII “Rosie” Posters: Redesigning the Narrative (20-30 minutes)
   • Objective: Students will create WWII-style posters inspired by Utah women’s real-life contributions. Reimagine classic propaganda art through a local lens. 
     1. Set the Stage: Show a couple of iconic WWII posters (“We Can Do It!”, “Buy War Bonds”)
        • “What messages were these posters sending? Who’s represented? Who’s missing?”
     2. Create: Have students create their own WWII-style poster with the provided art supplies but with a Utah twist. Possible themes:
        • Women working at Hill Air Force Base
        • Relief Society canning or Red Cross drives
        • Utah women advocating for civil rights or aid for refugees
        • Encourage students to include: 
          • A bold slogan
          • Powerful imagery
          • Utah-specific references or symbols (state symbols or landmarks)
     3. Share: Have students do a quick gallery walk or present their poster to the class, or a group or partner. Prompt reflection:
        • What story are you telling? Why was this work important during the war? Why is this still important today?