If the Depression kept male workers in bread lines, New Deal programs (i.e., a broad set of social programs initiated during the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt to address the severe economic problems of the day), combined with the expansion of the economy during World War II, created a labor shortage. The war not only brought large numbers of women into the work force, it induced a new group of women to work outside the home. Before 1940, most employed women were young and unmarried. Now, for the first time, more than half of America's women workers were older, married women entering or reentering the labor force. Between 1940 and 1945, the number of working mothers of small children jumped by 76%.

The government provided a large shift in attitudes toward the employment of married women by financing child care centers for mothers working in defense industries.

When war production ended and men came back to their homes and factories, women were urged to leave their jobs to make room for returning veterans. Those who did not quit voluntarily were discharged. For a short period, the general pattern of employment returned to prewar status. But most women did not lose their jobs permanently; by the end of 1947, the rate of female employment began to climb again.