Elizabeth’s Letter: Women in the Workforce

Hi Darling.

How I miss you! I hope this letter finds its way to your hands and heart and that you are safe.

My sister Martha and I are good. You won’t recognize us a single bit when you come home. Such a scandal! I reworked your old suit pants to fit us. Both of us are wearing trousers. Can you imagine? Please don’t worry; it’s done now. We needed clothes for our work in town and your trousers aren’t in style anymore anyway. No one wears cuffs or vests or patches on his elbows. They are considered almost treacherous!

Martha is going to the Ford plant here in Dearborn every day with me. I know she should be in school, but very few young people still are. The young men have all dropped out to enlist and the young women are needed in the factories. There was a federal inspector at the plant recently and even he turned a blind eye on the children who were working the lines. Ford is no longer making cars. There aren’t tires for them anyway. We spoke to Uncle Barney yesterday and he told of how he had to bolt a piece of one tire onto another to use his automobile. Oh, we aren’t complaining. We make do. Barney allowed that he didn’t have any more gas coupons in his ration booklet anyway, so he didn’t see why a bolty, bumpy ride should bother him. How we did laugh. He told us that there is now a national speed limit of 35. Gasoline is in such short supply that I can’t imagine it matters. We don’t go anywhere now without taking a neighbor or two along. I’d be completely shamed to be seen riding alone in the car!

Martha works on a line that produces tanks. They are terrifying things, but we both know that if we pitch in and get them made, they will bring you home all the sooner. Almost all of the people in her area of the plant are ladies. They are even hiring Negro women now. It seems remarkable to me that just a few years ago no one could find a job and now no one is out of work. I wonder who is tending the farms. Barney said the Negro people are being hurt by this war. I cannot imagine that that is true. It seems that everyone has jobs and every day we see more posters and flyers telling us to go to the employment agencies to do our share. But Barney says that Mr. Roosevelt has to tend to war matters so his New Deal programs will fall away and there won’t be help for the poor.

I was over to see your mother last weekend. She has your and all of your brothers’ stars hung in her front parlor window. It made me proud to see it. She and your Aunt Margaret were listening to Mr. Godfrey on the radio and canning their green beans. They’ve had such a nice crop from their victory garden. I picked rhubarb for them (we are learning to enjoy it without sugar) and then took their bacon fat with me because I was on my way to the butcher. We turn in all of our cooking oil now.

I must close this Dear. Your sister is coming tonight so that we can help with a scrap drive being sponsored by the church. We are collecting tin and paper, although I imagine there is precious little left of either in this town. Isn’t it funny how I now have money to spend but nothing to spend it on? I did write my first check recently to buy a war bond. You will be proud of your little housewife when you come home. I pray for you each night and ask the good Lord to bring you home safely to me. Until that day I remain your loving Elizabeth.

Elizabeth’s Letter: Women in the Workforce (PDF File)