THE HOUSEWIFE’S BATTLE ON THE HOME FRONT: WOMEN IN WORLD WAR II ADVERTISEMENTS By Caroline Cornell A 1944 advertisement for Swift’s Beef in Good Housekeeping boldly

A 1944 advertisement for Swift’s Beef in Good Housekeeping boldly proclaimed, “Her SEVEN jobs all help win the war!”1 The seven “jobs” were tasks that the Swift Company—as well as the U.S. government— believed that women on the home front should perform in order to aid their country during World War II. Among the tasks promoted by the advertisement were rationing, the growing of “victory gardens,” salvag­ ing and recycling, and the purchasing of war bonds. Though the advertisement claimed that these responsibilities “all help win the war,” each of the jobs described centered around household activities. Despite the fact that the Swift’s Beef advertisement gave agency to American women by claiming they could impact the success of the war, it still emphasized their femininity by giving primacy to the roles of wife and mother and by utilizing an image of a Red Cross volunteer as their “war worker,” not a woman working in the war industry.