The more women at work the sooner we win! Women are needed also as [...] See your local U.S. Employment Service.

Title

The more women at work the sooner we win! Women are needed also as [...] See your local U.S. Employment Service.

Subject

Industrial labor

Propaganda poster

Gender and labor

Archival framing

Representation and bias

Institutional power

Class and labor

1940s

World War II period

United States

Home front worksites

Federal Office of War Information

Description

The 1943 Office of War Information poster features a woman in a bright red uniform working on what appears to be an aircraft canopy. Her calm and focused expression suggests confidence and skill. The bold title declares, "The more WOMEN at work the sooner we WIN!" Below, a list of occupations (such as farm worker, typist, bus driver, laundress, and others) encourages women to join many sectors of the wartime economy. The poster presents women's labor, whether in factories or service roles, as a patriotic act essential to victory.

Interpretation Note
This poster is a clear example of how state institutions actively shaped public memory of women's wartime roles by promoting certain stories about women's wartime labor while leaving out others. As Kenneth Foote argued, collective memory is built through selective emphasis, since societies often highlight specific events or meanings and downplay the aspects that do not fit the message they want to project. In this case, the Office of War Information presents women's work as a unified patriotic effort that is essential to national victory. The poster's clear slogan and orderly list of occupations support a motivating narrative. What falls outside that frame, such as the exhaustion, unequal pay, racial segregation, childcare struggles, or the abrupt layoffs women faced after the war, simply does not appear. Foote reminds us that this kind of selective emphasis is common in the formation of cultural memory, where representations produced by institutions determine which versions of the past circulate widely and which are allowed to fade. In choosing to emphasize patriotism, duty, and contribution over the difficulties and inequalities that shaped women's actual working lives, the poster helped define how an entire era would later be remembered.

Creator

Palmer, Alfred T., photographer

United States. Office of War Information. Bureau of Public Inquiries

Source

U.S. Government Printing Office; Farm Security Administration–Office of War Information Photograph Collection, Library of Congress

Publisher

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division

Date

1943

Contributor

U.S. Government Printing Office (printer)

Rights

No known restrictions on publication. Rights information available at https://www.loc.gov/rr/print/res/071_fsab.html

Relation

OWI Poster No. 52

Based on photograph by Alfred T. Palmer (LC-DIG-pmnsca-12895)

Library of Congress item record: https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/95504675/

Format

Photomechanical print, halftone, color; poster

Language

English

Type

Still Image

Identifier

POS – WWII – US .F34.J71 1943 (B size) [P&P]

LC-DIG-pmnsca-12895 (digital file from original print)

LC-USZC4-5600 (color transparency)

LC-USZ62-112283 (b&w film copy)

LC-USZCN4-203 (color film copy)

Coverage

United States

Alternative Title

OWI Poster No. 52: “The more women at work the sooner we win!”

Date Created

1943

Extent

1 photomechanical print (poster), color

Medium

Halftone photomechanical print; poster

Bibliographic Citation

Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, “The more women at work the sooner we win! Women are needed also as […] See your local U.S. Employment Service,” POS – WWII – US .F34.J71 1943.

Spatial Coverage

United States

Temporal Coverage

1943

Provenance

Part of the U.S. Office of War Information and Library of Congress wartime poster holdings.

Original Format

Photomechanical print (poster); halftone, color

Physical Dimensions

Dimensions not specified