Steven Lim, The Effect of Veterans' Reemployment Rights, Veterans Preference Laws, and Protective Labor Laws on the Status of Women Workers in the World War II Period , 2 Hofstra Lab. L.J. 301 (1985)

During World War II, women's presence in the work force grew dramatically, especially in manufacturing jobs. Their numbers dropped drastically following the war. The labor shortage during the war led to protective labor laws being dropped, enabling women to work for longer hours and in traditionally male jobs. After the war, a large number of returning soldiers sought to return to their old jobs, many women were pushed out of the work force or back into traditionally female jobs, and some protective labor laws were reinstated.

Section 8 of the Selective Service Act of 1940 allowed veterans to return to their jobs after the war and displace workers hired in their absence. When veterans exercised those rights, replacement workers, often women, were dismissed. The Veterans Preference Act of 1944 added points to veterans' civil service exam scores and reserved certain jobs for veterans. In some cases, age, height, weight and education requirements were waived for veterans. Employers were obligated to record their reasons for hiring non-veterans with the Civil Service Commission and allowed to designate higher paying jobs as "men only." The act also gave veterans seniority credit. States mimicked the federal pattern, with many adopting veteran preference laws. More women were displaced from state government jobs than from the federal civil service.

During the war, the labor shortage motivated the government to produce propaganda inducing women to work. Advertisements appealed to women's patriotism, played on fear that the Allies would lose, and promised high wages. Employers, who overcame their resistance to hiring women only when the war required the change, often tried to prevent women from joining unions. Many employers praised women during the war, only to dismiss them when veterans returned claiming they were inefficient, lowered morale and reduced morals in the workplace. Unions agreed to relax protective labor laws and allow the hiring of women as a temporary wartime measure, and then pressured women into leaving their jobs or ignoring grievances once hostilities ended.

Before World War II, protective labor laws regulated hours, wages, night work, and other working conditions for women. These laws effectively barred women from some traditionally well paid male jobs. Most of these laws were relaxed during the war. When they were reinstated after the war, some employers used them to justify firing women. This tactic often succeeded.

Even without § 8 of the Selective Service Act, veterans preference laws, and protective labor laws, it is unlikely that more women would have held on to their jobs after World War II. Employers, unions and the public supported rehiring men. The government took the stance that women were only temporarily replacing men during the war. Many women workers resisted the pressure to leave the job market. While the employment rate for women briefly dropped after the war, it then began a gradual rise not yet ended. But until recently most of the increase in women's employment occurred in traditionally female jobs. Because women were viewed as temporary replacements for men, not as people who had a right to work, their increased employment during World War II did not alter many traditional attitudes about the propriety of women in the workplace.

Revised July 23, 2003 (MD)