Fruits of Victory: The Woman's Land Army of America in the Great War

by Elaine F. Weiss

Imagine a more controversial Rosie the Riveter—a generation older and more outlandish for her time. She was the “farmerette” of the Woman’s Land Army of America (WLA), doing a man’s job on the home front during World War I.

From 1917 to 1920 the WLA sent more than twenty thousand urban women into rural America to take over farm work after the men went off to war and food shortages threatened the nation. These women, from all social and economic strata, lived together in communal camps and did what was considered “men’s work”: plowing fields, driving tractors, planting, harvesting, and hauling lumber. The Land Army was a civilian enterprise organized and financed by women. It insisted on fair labor practices and pay equal to male laborers’ wages for its workers and taught women not only agricultural skills but also leadership and management techniques. Despite their initial skepticism, farmers became the WLA’s loudest champions, and the farmerette was celebrated as an icon of American women’s patriotism and pluck.

The WLA’s short but spirited life foreshadowed some of the most significant social issues of the twentieth women’s changing roles, the problem of class distinctions in a democracy, and the physiological and psychological differences between men and women.

The dramatic story of the WLA is vividly retold here using long-buried archival material, allowing a fascinating chapter of America’s World War I experience to be rediscovered.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, American History, World War I, Womens

352 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Elaine F. Weiss is a journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times, Atlantic Monthly, Harpers, Boston Globe, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and on National Public Radio. She is a correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor. She lives in Baltimore, Maryland.

Reviews

[Jennie]

This is a fascinating history of the Woman's Land Army of America, which mobilized when the US entered the First World War. Despite facing tremendous resistance from both the government and farmers, the group essentially saved the 1918 harvest in many states across the country. The women--called farmerettes--lived in camps funded by their state or county branch of the WLA (with the exception of California, where the farmers funded the camps) and performed all aspects of agricultural work--which was quite radical at the time, given assumptions about women's capabilities. Many of the leaders of the WLA were suffragists who believed that breaking down barriers around what work women could perform would provide yet another argument for achieving the vote.

[Carrie]

This book was kind of a disappointment. The topic, the nearly forgotten Women's Land Army of WWI, was fascinating, but the book itself was a let down, getting bogged down in repetitiveness and over-explanation. I do wonder if that was not, to some degree simply because there is not a lot of information that has been preserved on this topic.

[Diane]

I should have loved this book but I just could not contend with the author's very academic style which made an interesting topic a chore. Maybe in the winter when the outdoor world is not calling me, I will be able to read it. I made it only to about page 75.

[Stephen]

A lot of history. I would have preferred more information about some of the key players. The WPA during WWI did amazing things, but in the big picture, it seems it was a flash in the pan.

[Lynn]

The Woman's Land Army is a movement about which I knew nothing. It was created, organized and put into action by women whose ideas to help feed the nation and allies during WWI were snubbed by the government. In 1917 when the organizing and recruiting of "farmerettes" began, women were not considered to be independent no less able to handle the hard work of farm labor. Facing societal prejudices, totally negative attitudes of farmers and the sheer economics and logistics, several very special women recruited, trained and educated women mostly from cities and colleges to work in the fields.
Providing service to their country during the war was extremely important and that goal trumped many normally divisive issues including suffrage, temperance and a woman's place in society. Eventually, women from all walks of life became interested and applied. Unfortunately, at that time, societal norms meant that black women were not included.
It is an interesting, although sometimes repetitive, account of the trials and tribulations the women encountered. It is very straightforward and good use of personal journals, notes, and letters provides first-hand observations and feelings of those involved.

[Patricia]

Wonderful history of the women who volunteered during WWI, little known story of the women who were seeking the vote, turning their attention to the issues that were going to be of urgency during the war. They their talents toward making England a more economic base. Food would be in short supply, they plowed the farms, planted the crops, took first aids courses.

The American women soon also were motvated to do like wise, even tho we had not declared war. Farmers were not willing to accept female help, but soon learned that they needed them.

[Sharon Buxton]

C-. nonfiction, WWI, Land Girls, agriculture

[Stephanie Friant]

This is not a historical novel, and should not be approached as one, as it is rather more of a dissertation and report on the development of a new way of being for privileged white women of the early 1900's. It is not an easy read, but a very enlightening one. This book, if read with an eye on the present, opens us on critiquing on the social movements of today – just how effective are the social movements of the present run by the privileged? Just how effective is a government that is not taking into full account to the realities on the ground? Just how effective is an organization that

To learn just how amazing these women (and men) were to step up when they saw a problem, use their skills and put them to work. They chose to do something instead of sit back and wait for others. They chose to expand their horizons, and many did so permanently. I wonder what the lasting effect of so many daughters and wives of the nation’s most wealthy had after their involvement…were their family’s wealth directed into causes because of their experiences? What of the bridge building between the participants, the impact of the families, the daughters on the farms who spent summers with college girls…all the stories that we shall never know.

Gaining suffrage was difficult on many fronts, as women had many challenges based not only on their gender, but then they were divided by economic ability, race, country of origin, and moral standing. This is about one part of the movement towards women's ability to be equal with men, and that said, I believe, was eye opening not just for the male farmers who learned that even white, privileged women could get dirty and do diligent work, but also for the women who likely for the first time had the opportunity to truly get to know people who were not of their class (as essentially their society and cultural morals required them to stay within the bounds of what was proper).

This book reflects not only the prejudices of men, of the government (much of which is almost verbatim to what is spoken today for other causes), but also the women who were soaked in the standards of their social circles and far from the realities of the daily lives of most women. There are so many stories to tell, and this book could have been double it’s size by elaborating on the critiques of the YMCA, the departure of the Illinois contingent, and the infighting of the group.

I am thankful for having stumbled upon this book in a small bookstore, and for reading it.

[Will]

When World War I broke out, the US quickly discovered that there was a serioud labor shortage in agriculture. This book describes how American women answered the call, creating the Woman's Land Army of America.

The author assumes a certain knowledge of early 20th Century social history, primarily suffragist, but that does not detract unduly from her topic. And, while the book was a little dry on occasion, it was certainly a fascinating time. Who knew, for example, that there were food riots in American in early 1917! That was because so much food was being shipped to England to France.

What is interesting to me is how all of these women, so quickly, were able to organize, equip, train and get thousands of women into the field across America in 1917 and 1918. Consider that all of this was primarily done by letter and telegram, since telephones were still very scarce, and very expensive. The Land Army did not survive a year after the Armistice, which is not too terribly surprising, but also a little sad.

[Rabya]

haven't read it yet- but this event peaked my interest in the book:
http://www.wbez.org/Event_Detail.aspx...