ABSTRACT
The War Production Board devised various procedures to allow businesses to combine patriotism with high profits. In the depression, opinion polls had reflected antipathy to the working wife; now business magazines praised women's skill at precision work and repetitive tasks. The Women's Advisory Committee to the War Manpower Commission (WMC), formed at the end of 1942, had little leverage. Although the National War Labor Board (NWLB) called for equal pay for equal work women were often classified as "helper trainees". Reversing the policies of the 1930s, when women were urged to stay home, the Office of War Information (OWI) and the WMC joined forces to lure women into the defense industry. Most civil rights activity during the war, however, was channeled through the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Relying on the traditional means of protest-exposure, propaganda, political pressure, and legal action, the NAACP greatly expanded its membership and influence.
