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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 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 Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, DC

11:30 a.m.: Reception
Noon: Program

Women’s roles changed significantly in World War II America. Many were conscripted to join 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, Producer and Writer (author of The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II and The Last Castle: The Epic Story of Love, Loss, and American Royalty in the Nation’s Largest Home)
Gretchen Skidmore, Director, Education Initiatives, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Moderator
Lori Ann Terjesen, Director of Education, National Women’s History Museum

Join the conversation online using #AskWhy and #USHMM

This program is free and open to the public but reservations are required.

For more information, please contact the Museum's Northeast Regional Office at northeast@ushmm.org or 212.983.0825.

Co-presented with the Park Avenue Synagogue Women's Network

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