School Library Journal Review
Gr 6-9Colman chronicles the drive to get women to enter wartime industries, providing insight into the federal government's propaganda campaign and incentives. She also supplies the facts and figures: many more women than one might suppose had full-time employment before the war, and many continued to work after it, sometimes in positions that were considerably less important and less lucrative. The author also discusses the sexual harassment and racial discrimination women experienced while doing their patriotic duty. The compromises they had to make in order to manage child care and to prove to men on the job that they were their equals are frequently ignored in other historical treatments of the Rosie-the-riveter phenomenon. From Colman's point of view, the experiences of stateside workers led the way to some of the more liberal reforms later in the century, especially for women and minorities. The abundant black-and-white photographs included are a real treat. An excellent addition.Ruth K. MacDonald, Bay Path College, Longmeadow, MA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Colman (A Woman Unafraid: The Achievements of Frances Perkins) here turns her attention to the forced entry of approximately 6.2 million women into the labor force during WWII. While the text is less than polished, the author does a good job of explaining the events surrounding the war and the economic conditions that temporarily produced a female-dominated work force. Incorporating many first-hand accounts, she evenly explores the resistance, both internal and external, that many women had to overcome in taking on traditionally male jobs. Most interesting is a discussion detailing the highly organized government campaign that sought first to make the notion of women in the workplace seem both acceptable and patriotic, but later, at the end of the war, strove to erase that image as men returned to claim their jobs. Unfortunately, Colman does not take her investigation very far-she fails to measure the effects of this vital period on industry, on politics and, particularly, on the lives of American women. Numerous well-captioned period photographs depict a range of ``Rosie''s (including some women of color), and examples of propaganda posters are especially illuminating. Ages 9-up. A Junior Library Guild Selection. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
Setting her study in the context of political events and using as her focus a real person -- a young girl named Dot Chastney -- Colman evokes the lifestyle of the era from a child's perspective. Black-and-white photographs of women in traditional male occupations, from assembly-line worker to physicist, underscore the diversity of opportunities that were made available. A thoughtfully prepared look at women's history and wartime society. Bib., ind. From HORN BOOK 1995, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
With this year's flurry of interest in WW II brought on by a succession of 50th Anniversary celebrations, many will be looking for serious social histories to round out the study of this period. This well-researched, perfectly pitched, and completely involving entry will more than fit the bill. Colman (A Woman Unafraid, 1993) expertly explores the enormous changes in the lives of women in their own homes and beyond. She delineates how the far-reaching power of such agencies as the War Production Board coupled with the intense ``propaganda'' efforts of the Office of War Information (``Women in the War: we can't win without them'') converged with the draft and economic pressures on families just emerging from the Depression to bring women into the workplace. Women braved the challenges of strenuous, often dangerous ``men's work,'' coped with prejudice and sexual harassment, and contributed mightily to the war effort. Children may find echoes of the problems faced by their own working mothers while they read of the valuable roles of their grandmothers. The strengths of this book are in the happy combination of abundant primary source material, a clear narrative style, and effective, well-placed photographs. An important contribution. (statistics, chronology, bibliography, index) (Nonfiction. 9+)
Booklist Review
Gr. 6-12. Readers picking this up for a biography assignment will be in for a surprise. The muscular, red-haired woman presented so formidably on the jacket (it's a reproduction of a Norman Rockwell painting) represents many women, not just one. What Colman actually offers is a solid overview of the role women played in the wartime workplace. Black-and-white photos, including many posed public relations shots, and quoted material drawn from magazines of the period lend a wonderful flavor to the portrait of stateside World War II America. Colman looks at the jobs women took, the impact women had on the workplace, and what happened to working women at war's end, but what's most interesting is her discussion of the public relations campaign that not only "wooed" women into the workplace, but also sought to change firmly entrenched attitudes about women's role in society. A chronology and an extensive bibliography are appended. --Stephanie Zvirin
