A Mouthful of Rivets: Women at Work in World War II

By 1943, two million American women had replaced WWII's fighting men in blue- and white-collar jobs. Freelance writer Nancy Wise, who held a variety of office positions during that era, and her daughter, a freelance journalist, record the contributions of these women to the war effort, the ``brief point in history when women rose to unexpected and surprising heights of achievement, then returned to more traditional roles, usually without protest.'' First-person narratives recount the home front's social upheaval and vividly portray the often difficult job conditions-including sexual harassment-women faced. Their occupations ranged from welder to personnel administrator. Although men displaced them at war's end, the authors posit that these women paved the way for their offspring in the workplace. Photos. (Nov.)