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How Did American Women Act? Heroism on the Home Front

Public Program
Women attend an airplane construction class at a vocational school in DeLand, Florida, in April 1942. Courtesy of the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, DC 

Women attend an airplane construction class at a vocational school in DeLand, Florida, in April 1942. Courtesy of the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, DC
 

Women’s roles changed significantly in World War II America. Many joined the war effort and wielded new power through jobs outside the home.

But, their influence wasn’t limited to factory floors. Some women used their social and political positions to fight back against isolationism and sound the alarm about the plight of Europe’s Jews. A select few even put their lives at risk to organize acts of rescue.

Join us to explore the role of the everyday woman during this era, as well as the mindset and motivations of a few extraordinary individuals who dared to act, including Lois Gunden, Edith Rogers, and Eleanor Roosevelt.

Speakers
Denise Kiernan, Writer, producer, and author of the New York Times bestseller The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II

Gretchen Skidmore, Director, Education Initiatives, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Moderator
Kristin Roberts, Vice President of News, The McClatchy Company

As part of this program, we would like to learn about local stories that involved women and their families in South Florida at this time. McClatchy and the Miami Herald will collect these stories as part of the “Flashback Miami” series. A selection of responses and images may be shared during the public program or on social media.

Please share how American women you are familiar with contributed to the war effort and/or helped to rescue European Jews at hrld.us/awa.

This program is free and open to the public.

For more information, please contact the Southeast Regional Office at 561.995.6773 southeast@ushmm.org.