Many of the code-breaking women helped advance the feminist movement—through their postwar employment, but also, sometimes, their postwar dissatisfaction. One woman I interviewed, whose mother worked at Arlington Hall, always sensed something was missing in her mother’s life, something she had had, once, and lost. This awareness, she said, “seeded feminism in our house.” But other women felt left out by the feminist movement. Erma Hughes Kirkpatrick, the bricklayer’s daughter, became a mother, housewife, and volunteer, and enjoyed it. She always felt feminism disrespected her contributions,
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