The Extraordinary Women Who Helped Win WWII with Lena Andrews

Summary

Podcast Summary: "The Extraordinary Women Who Helped Win WWII with Lena Andrews"

Podcast Information:

• Title: Here's Where It Gets Interesting
• Host: Sharon McMahon
• Guest: Historian Lena Andrews
• Episode: The Extraordinary Women Who Helped Win WWII with Lena Andrews
• Release Date: May 26, 2025
• Platform: Audacy Podcast

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Introduction

In this compelling episode of Here's Where It Gets Interesting, host Sharon McMahon engages in an enlightening conversation with historian Lena Andrews. Released on Memorial Day, the episode focuses on the often-overlooked contributions of women in World War II, highlighting their pivotal roles in supporting the war effort and ultimately contributing to the victory.

Overview of Lena Andrews' Work

Lena Andrews introduces her book, Valiant Women, emphasizing the extensive and critical roles women played during World War II. She highlights that over 350,000 American women served in military uniforms, contributing across various services and combat theaters. Andrews remarks:

“They were in every service, every theater, every combat theater in operation. And so, you know, it was enormous what they were doing, but it wasn't just their numbers. It was the type of work that they were doing.” ([04:06])

Women’s Contributions Beyond the Battlefield

Andrews underscores that while stories like Rosie the Riveter capture the public imagination, the military contributions of women were equally, if not more, significant yet remain underappreciated. She explains that women were involved in critical support roles, such as map drawing for the Normandy invasion and maintaining aircraft essential for combat operations.

“There were women doing cool things, but there were women doing militarily important things.” ([05:49])

Individual Stories Highlighting Diverse Roles

Jessie Contrabecki and Mail Processing

One standout story Andrews shares is that of Jessie Contrabecki, who worked at Naval Air Station Jacksonville. Tasked with fixing altimeters and gauges on Navy planes, Jessie’s meticulous work ensured that aircraft were mission-ready, directly impacting the effectiveness of operations in the Pacific.

“They were dealing with racism and sexism, not just from run of the mill American GIs, but also from the local community.” ([08:00])

Charity Adams and the Postal Directory Battalion

Andrews also highlights Charity Adams, who led the 6644 Central Postal Directory Battalion—the largest group of black army women sent overseas. Their mission was to manage and clear a backlog of six months’ worth of mail, sorting over 65,000 pieces daily during a critical period like the Battle of the Bulge.

“They clear the backlog of six months of mail in three months, sorting over 65,000 pieces of mail during an 18-hour shift.” ([14:13])

Agnes Jensen, Army Flight Nurse

Another remarkable figure is Agnes Jensen, an Army flight nurse who demonstrated extraordinary bravery by crash-landing in enemy-occupied Albania and navigating back over several weeks, showcasing the perilous and hands-on roles women took on.

“They were flight nurses doing really dangerous work.” ([21:51])

Challenges and Societal Attitudes

Despite their contributions, women in the military faced significant sexism and discrimination. Andrews discusses the slander campaign against the Women's Army Corps in 1943, where unfounded rumors of women being prostitutes severely hampered recruitment and morale.

“There was a real obsession about preserving femininity, such as maintaining a pressed skirt and wearing makeup every day.” ([39:43])

This double standard is poignantly contrasted with the hidden vulnerabilities, such as military leaders fearing male soldiers might assault women, leading to restrictive and hypocritical regulations.

“The biggest example of how women were mistreated just for trying to do their jobs.” ([32:59])

Post-War Treatment and Legacy

After the war, many women veterans were denied the benefits and recognition they deserved. Initially classified as civilians, groups like the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) and Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) did not receive GI benefits until decades later.

“They were technically civilians, which created all sorts of problems with GI benefits and pension issues.” ([41:59])

Andrews expresses frustration over the lack of immediate post-war recognition, emphasizing the importance of recording and preserving these stories for future generations.

“Women veterans are as deserving of our admiration and of our attention as anyone else.” ([46:12])

Importance of Recording Women’s Stories

Both Sharon and Lena stress the critical need to document and honor the contributions of women veterans. Andrews advocates for platforms like the Veterans History Project by the Library of Congress to ensure these invaluable stories are preserved and accessible.

“Don't pass or protect it. If we need it, we need it for the world. History needs it.” ([49:04])

Conclusion and Call to Action

Andrews concludes by urging listeners to recognize and celebrate the indispensable roles women played in World War II. She encourages engaging with and supporting women veterans today, noting that their legacy continues in modern military operations.

“They are among the best of us.” ([47:49])

Sharon McMahon wraps up the episode by inviting listeners to further explore Andrews’ work and the broader narrative of women's vital contributions to history.

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Key Takeaways:

• Over 350,000 American women served in various military capacities during WWII, providing essential support that was crucial for the war effort.
• Women took on a diverse range of roles, from technical tasks like aircraft maintenance to frontline duties such as flight nursing, demonstrating exceptional skill and bravery.
• Despite their contributions, women faced significant sexism and discrimination, which hindered recognition and post-war benefits.
• The preservation of these stories is paramount to ensuring that the vital roles women played are acknowledged and remembered by future generations.
• Modern military operations continue to benefit from the legacy of these trailblazing women, highlighting the ongoing importance of gender diversity in the armed forces.

Notable Quotes:

• “[..] There were women doing cool things, but there were women doing militarily important things.” – Lena Andrews ([05:49])
• “They clear the backlog of six months of mail in three months, sorting over 65,000 pieces of mail during an 18-hour shift.” – Lena Andrews ([14:13])
• “They were part of the critical infrastructure that supported battlefield heroics.” – Lena Andrews ([09:49])
• “Women veterans are as deserving of our admiration and of our attention as anyone else.” – Lena Andrews ([46:12])

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Resources:

• Book: Valiant Women by Lena Andrews
• Website: lenaandrews.com
• Library of Congress Veterans History Project: www.loc.gov/vhp

Stay informed and inspired by subscribing to Here's Where It Gets Interesting on your favorite podcast platform. For more insightful conversations, visit Sharon McMahon’s website and follow the podcast’s updates.

Transcript

[Sharon McMahon]

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[Lena Andrews]

I was really excited to see your book come out because this is a topic that interests me greatly. I've produced a number of podcast episodes and series on this topic, and I just can't get enough. It's one of those things where it's like, if I could make 25 more episodes about it, I would. So I know so many people listening to this are going to be very, very interested in what you have to say today. So welcome. Thank you for your time, and I would love to have you give us just a little bit of an overview about what this book is about and how you even became interested in this topic.

[Guest Speaker]

Well, it's one of my favorite questions, so thank you for asking it. Thank you for having me here. I've listened to many of your podcasts on this very topic, so thank you for taking an interest in it. You know, I think so few people sort of understand the scope and magnitude, and you've done a lot of really great work to bring that to your listeners. So I'm delighted to be here is all it's all to say. So I think, as you probably know, and many of your listeners already know, we all know about Rosie the Riveter. But I think what's most interesting to me is that I consider myself a World War II expert. So I have a background in World War II. I've been studying it for a decade or more. And even someone like me was surprised at the scale and scope of women's contributions, particularly in uniform in World War II. And for whatever reason, even as we started to get a richer understanding of women's contributions In World War II, we have sort of, I don't want to say cut out women in uniform, but I don't think they've gotten as much of the credit that they've sort of deserved. Over 350,000American women served in military uniforms in World War II. They were in every service, every theater, every combat theater in operation. And so, you know, it was enormous what they were doing, but it wasn't just their numbers. It was the type of work that they were doing, they were in these critical support roles, like doing things as simple as drawing maps to help men get through Normandy or flying planes across the country to make sure they were at the right bases at the right times. And in all these critical support tasks, they were having a huge impact. So part of the motivation for the book was me as a. As both a military analyst and a woman trying to bring those things together to say not only were women doing cool things, but there were women doing militarily important things. And so that was a big motivation for me.

[Lena Andrews]

I mean, I think so much of, you know, of course, the world, especially America, very, very interested in World War II. It's like an unflagging level of interest, which is why there's basically entire TV channels devoted to it. You know what I mean? Like, there's tens of thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands of books written on World War II. It indicates the incredible level of interest in this topic. And so much of what gets the attention are the battlefield heroics, the race against the Nazis. Recently it's been more in the Oppenheimer camp of like, what were the Americans doing to try to beat Hitler, building the nuclear bomb, all of these things. And they tend to be, by their very nature, male focused stories. But guess what? Nobody was going anywhere without people in the background offering support. And I don't mean just like emotional support of like, oh, good luck. Best of luck to you.

[Guest Speaker]

Right, right, right.

[Lena Andrews]

I mean, I mean, like, someone needs to do all of the infrastructural work to make the entire thing go, because without it, there are no battlefield heroics. There are zero battlefield heroics. And I love the stories of the people in the background who make the heroics possible. And I'm sure you can relate to that, Lena.

[Guest Speaker]

Absolutely. That's good. We can just end the podcast there. This is perfect.

[Lena Andrews]

That is what we have to say.

[Guest Speaker]

We're done. Yeah, no, it's. It's a. Exactly right. I mean, you. You hit the nail on the head. And I think we see this not just in war, although it is particularly important in war, but in so many industries, the people in the background who are doing these support tasks, you know, we have like our administrative professionals days and things like that where you give your executive assistant a card. But what anyone who works in an office knows is without that executive assistant, the CEO doesn't get anywhere. They don't go anywhere. They don't do anything. They don't know where to go. They don't have their notes. And the same principle applies, but with much higher stakes in wartime and on a much bigger scale in World War II. So I like to point out the fact that, like, there were a lot of women, for instance, doing something as simple as filing paperwork in the book, I spend probably four or five full pages talking about the system for filing that the army used for the reason that they're filing millions of pieces of paper a day by hand. It was pre computers. So if a soldier's record is not in the right place, or if a battlefield report is not in the right place, or an intelligence report is not in the right place, a general has to go and find it, or someone has to go and find it, and it's a delay. Right. And delays in war are costly. And especially in a war like World War II, those delays compound over time and over space in ways that are just enormous. So it's exactly right. It's those little kind of unglamorous things that women were doing that all add up. But at the same time, you also make an excellent point, which is it's other sorts of non secretarial tasks at the time that people don't know as much about but are equally critical. So one of my favorite stories is of a woman named Jessie Contrabecki. I had the privilege of talking to her and she works at Naval Air Station Jacksonville. She's very, very detail oriented and she happens to have very small hands, which is not a material point, except that she is tasked with fixing altimeters and gauges for Navy planes that are being fixed and maintained at Jacksonville so that they can go back to the Pacific and fight in the offensive that ultimately ends the war in Japan. So if you don't think Jesse Contrabecki is important, you're missing the point of World War II. And the guys on the front line are the first to say this. It takes 10, 15, 500 people behind them to allow them to do their jobs. And they are often the most stalwart and loudest proponents of this. So I'm so glad you said it. I'm so glad you put it that way. I think we see it everywhere. And World War II is of course, no exception. It's in fact just a higher stakes, bigger scale scenario. So it's really a huge part of the book.

[Lena Andrews]

Yeah. Without the woman with the tiny fingers who can precision tune the altimeter, who knows what would have happened? Possibly mission failure for the pilot. Right. Like we're not winning anything, we're winning zero things. Without those kinds of critical infrastructure That a large portion of which was born on the backs of women. What kind of women decided, like, I'm going to see if I can get one of those uniforms. I'm going to sign up to do that unglamorous job that no one in history will remember me for.

[Guest Speaker]

Right, right, right, exactly.

[Lena Andrews]

I'm going to join whatever group in whatever branch of the military will have me. I'm going to do what they need me to do. What kind of women, by and large, were they?

[Guest Speaker]

I love this question because as a group, interviewing the women that I was able to interview, this was like, the most joyful and interesting and inspiring experience I ever had, because they are a inspiring group of women, but they're also sort of contradictory in some ways. So on the one hand, they're just kind of average women who wanted to do their part. And their brothers and their dads and their uncles and their cousins were all signing up. They all went straight to the recruiting station at Pearl harbor. And they similarly just wanted to participate, wanted to do their part. And so I think a lot of them had family who were in the services and so felt like they also wanted to participate in that way. So they're sort of ordinary in that respect. This is the 1940s. This is a very different time. So think about, in this context, being among the first women to say, I am going to sign up to put on a uniform, a military uniform, even though I know there will be extraordinary backlash and there will be probably a lot of sexism and discrimination and harassment, and I'm going to still do it anyway. So these are pretty plucky women as a group. They are very devoted and patriotic. I think almost all of them in After Action Reports said patriotism was their main motivation. But they are also pretty brave in that way. Not just sort of to say, I want to go and serve, but I want to be the first to serve in a uniform and be a woman. So I think they're sort of trailblazers in that respect. And you get a little bit of that sense when you're able to talk to them or read about them. But that's what makes them so interesting and I think is important for listeners to know is that they're pretty average women who did a pretty extraordinary thing at the time.

[Lena Andrews]

I love that these were not people who were like, I'm going to get into West Point. So one day when the world goes to war, I'll be first in line, like, nope. These were just ordinary products of their time. Middle of the road, normal People who were faced with a choice and made a choice that required a considerable amount of courage. They could have stayed home. Nobody was forcing these women to sign up. There was no like draft of like, you're coming with us. You know, like this was, this was a voluntary service. And they knew what they were up against. And they probably did not go into it feeling like, I got this, everything is going to be fantastic. I'll face no adversity because I already know what's expected. No, it required a tremendous amount of courage. They decided that it was the courage that was required, was something they could find and decided to move forward. Probably scared, but doing it anyway. And I love that about them.

[Guest Speaker]

And I have to say I'm just gonna, if I can. This is a perfect opportunity for me to highlight the thousands of women of color who did this also and did it in the face of knowing that they were gonna go into an army that was gonna be segregated and they were gonna be treated as second class citizens and still felt compell. Not just because it was the right thing to do, it was the patriotic thing to do, but because it was an opportunity for them to show that despite being denied sort of justice and fairness at home, they were willing to fight for it abroad. It was that important of an ideal. And my favorite, I have several women of color who are featured in the book. My favorite is Charity Adams. She's a becoming better known. She will be the subject of a Tyler Perry Netflix film, I am told in the coming months. So that's very exciting. But she led the six Triple eight Central Postal Directory Battalion, which was the largest group of black army women to be sent to overseas. And they were phenomenal at their jobs. And they were also. They were like, you know, they were.

[Lena Andrews]

It was amazing. Tell everybody the, the gist of the story because it is an incredible story.

[Guest Speaker]

So here's the deal. People don't think mail matters in war, like literal physical air mail, but it's a lifeline. And at the time, mail is the only way that soldiers are able to sort of communicate with home. It was such a big deal that when people got mail, they would read it aloud to their unit so that they could all feel connected to what was going on at home. So the first thing I like to sort of dispel is that mail didn't matter. Charity Adams is selected to take the six Triple eight, which is a unit of all black army women to Europe to basically sort mail and be in charge of mail. Now that again, doesn't sound like it's particularly a hard hitting job. But they arrive at the warehouse where all the mail is being sorted right at the, basically the start of the battle of the Bulge. Very important time. And it's backlogged, it's vermin infested, it's like not organized. And she and her unit clear the backlog of six months of mail. I think in three months they're able in a 18 hour shift to sort over 65,000 pieces of mail. That's incredible, right? They break every record and they do it despite the fact that they're serving in a segregated army overseas. So they're dealing with racism and sexism, not just from run of the mill American GIs, but also from the local community. So you have all these horrible stories of Charity Adams having to send her units out after midnight because they needed to prove to the local population that they didn't have tails that came out after midnight or being told that they weren't. The Red Cross told them they couldn't use the same recreation facility. So Charity Adams says, look, if your facility isn't good enough for us, then the equipment is like, we're not going to take it. We'll do our recreation somewhere else. So without fail, Charity Adams and her unit just respond with such incredible integrity while they're doing this incredibly important job. And to me it is such a, it's both such a contrast and such an inspiration. I think rightly, history is starting to remember what it should about Charity Adams in her unit, which is that she did something incredible. The unit just got the Congressional Gold Medal and we don't remember the people who thought they had tails after midnight. We remember Charity Adams and her unit and that, that is the key thing to me.

[Sharon McMahon]

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[Lena Andrews]

It's even difficult to quickly and easily verbalize what a true disaster that mail warehouse was when they arrived. This was not a like, wow, well, there's a lot of work to do. No, no, no, no. It was a six month backlog and we're talking about literal hundreds of thousands of pieces of of mail that were in complete disarray in horrible conditions. Like you mentioned, vermin infested. I mean like rat filled warehouse stacked to the ceiling basically with paper. And the women arrive and are told to make sense of it because the war effort depended on their work. As you mentioned earlier, getting mail was an enormous morale issue. And everyone who knows anything about the military will tell you that morale is incredibly important. It's incredibly important for unit cohesion and for, you know, following a chain of command orders. And there's all kinds of reasons why morale is incredibly important, why it cannot be overlooked. I really dislike people's attempts to minimize what a big deal it was that they came in and they were just like, we're fixing it. We're going to get this mail where it needs to go. Somebody has a new baby born in one of these letters. Somebody's grandma died. Like, they need to know. We got to get this stuff where it goes. I just love that story. I think it's such a good one. And the con. And like they were. It was freezing cold and full of rats and mail to the ceiling, and they just turned it around. Turned it around where no one else could.

[Guest Speaker]

Yeah. And I mean, think about the time in the war also, right. This is right before the Battle of the Bulge. This is like the final throes of Germany's last resort to try and get out of this war, you know, and so there. This is a critical inflection point in the war. And these women arrive and they have like, I think something. Charity Adams estimates that There were probably 700 John Smiths in. In one warehouse. And they've got to figure out where he is and tell him about his baby that was born or whatever, you know, whatever was happening at home. You're exactly right. I think they do this incredible work. And yet it's one that if you don't know the kind of full story of morale and cohesion and military support operations and how all these things work together, you can easily miss. And I think we often have missed. But fortunately, you know, it's starting. Like you said, people are starting to put all the pieces together and realize that war is actually a team sport. It's not just the guy at the front, it's the six or seven hundred women who are sorting his mail 50 miles down the road.

[Lena Andrews]

So we know women were serving overseas. They were doing things like working in mail processing facilities. What other kinds of jobs did these valiant women have in the military?

[Guest Speaker]

So all of them basically right. Aside from carrying the guns on the front lines, they were everywhere. I'll highlight a few that are, I think, particularly unexpected for people because I want folks to understand just how close they were to the action. I think many people can imagine a secretary in Wilmington, Delaware, putting together files. Critically important job, not to diminish it, but it's harder to imagine, say an army nurse or an army flight nurse who is on her way into Italy to pick up injured troops, gets stranded and has to crash land in enemy occupied Albania and make her way out over the course of the. Of several weeks behind enemy lines. That is a woman named Agnes Jensen who was part of the Army Nurse Corps and wrote a Whole memoir. So they were nurses, but not just your average nurse. They were flight nurses doing really dangerous work. They were. Like I said, Jessie Contrabecki is a favorite example. She's doing maintenance work. They were all over the maintenance establishment, both in the field and at home. They were pilots. So as I mentioned, the Women's Air Force Service pilots, which at the time were a civilian organization but were later recognized for their military service, were some of the most advanced and incredible pilots who were flying combat aircraft around the United States to make sure they were in the right places. This is women like Anne Baumgartner, who test flew the B29 Superfortress. So if anyone has seen Oppenheimer in the past several weeks, that's the Enola Gay. It's the one that the plane that drops the bomb on Hiroshima and then later Nagasaki. So they are literally everywhere, and they're doing sort of every imaginable military task. And I think at one point the army estimated that they were in two thirds of the available military occupations, which included things as insane as, like, pigeon trainers, you know, but they were doing it all. They were stuffing parachutes and. Which they called parachute rigging at the time. Like I said, they were flying. They were fixing the planes. They covered the whole waterfront. And that's what's so fun. And I hope that readers take away in the book, it's not like I'm focusing on just one woman. There are 30 veterans featured, so I can show that scale and that scope is enormous.

[Lena Andrews]

I especially love the stories of the pilots because first of all, there, as you mentioned, there was so much sexism when it came to women's ability to do these sort of, like, complex mechanical tasks. Women had been flying since the early days of the airplane, but it was still a rarity. It was still a kind of a sideshow of like, dang, look at that little lady flying those loop de loops. You know what I mean? Like, it was still like that kind of a vibe.

[Guest Speaker]

Yeah.

[Lena Andrews]

And these are tremendously widely varied planes. We were talking about, like flying a super fortress plane. Very, very different than flying other types of aircraft. And just because you have a pilot's license doesn't mean that you are an expert in all of the different types of aircraft most pilots specialize in, or they have to get special training on a specific aircraft in order to be familiar enough with it to fly it in all kinds of different circumstances. So the fact that women were able to master all of these different types of military aircraft, and then, of course, we're like Changing design During World War II, we're like, what we have now is not good enough. We need to make the following changes.

[Guest Speaker]

They.

[Lena Andrews]

They really had to keep up with technology in order to be successful at that job. And again, nobody's going anywhere if they don't have equipment on the ground, when and where they need it.

[Guest Speaker]

Yeah. And, I mean, the wasps are one of my favorite groups of women in many ways, because they are. It's so hard to explain that they were these sort of celebrities and sportsmen and also technicians, and they were everything. Brilliant. And they were super famous at the time. So Jackie Corcoran, who ends up running the WASPs, is an extremely famous pilot, probably second only to Amelia Earhart. And one of my favorite stories of the entire book is about how basically trainers, pilots would use the women very strategically to motivate other younger, specifically younger male pilots. So there was this one plane in particular called the B26 Flight Widowmaker. It was not called the Widowmaker. Its nickname was the Widowmaker because it was really hard to fly, and it was particularly hard to land, and so it would often crash and kill the entire crew. It was a really sad story. So men stopped wanting to fly it. And in an effort to get men back into the cockpit at one of the major Air Force training centers, they brought all the pilots out to the line, did a demonstration, had the B26 doing its loop de loos, and at the end of it, they land the plane, and two wasps, women walk out of the cockpit. And I'll tell you, one way to motivate a pilot is to show them that a woman can do their job and is not afraid of the plane. In after action reports, you know, they asked sort of, well, how'd you know how to land it? And the. The women responded, we just followed the instructions. It just turns out it's. It was like the perfect.

[Lena Andrews]

We read the manual.

[Guest Speaker]

We read the manual. We're really good at details. And so it was. It. To me, it's like the perfect epitomization of how women could be used in these really strategic and creative ways. And so I. You know, I really love that story for lots of reasons, but that one really stands out to me because it. It's just the perfect way of showing that women have these incredible skills and also these sort of sneaky little ways of motivating men. And I should add, right. Like, it's a very funny story, but it is also, in some ways, a really difficult story because a lot of the women would end up in these sort of operationally incomplete planes. So they were in a lot of situations where either the maintenance wasn't as good or the planes themselves were not up to snuff. And so they were often in some dangerous situations. So, you know, in this case, it was like a great little clever anecdote that they could get the guys to fly the B26. But in other cases, it really ended up like these women were taking extraordinary risks in order to do their jobs and really were not recognized for it. So It's a classic 1940s story where you're like, that's so funny. And also. Whoa. That is kind of horrifying. Yeah, yeah.

[Lena Andrews]

I've had that feeling many times about women in World War II where, like, just we're dropping her out of a plane via parachute in the middle of the night into occupied France, and she's gonna have to run, run through the field. She'll be fine and hope to not get caught. And hopefully she didn't break any bones on the way down. That happened for real many times. Just like, that's the plan. Wow. That's the plan, huh? You know, like, many times I'm sure you've had that reaction where you're like, that was the plan. Wow. That was the plan. Okey dokey.

[Guest Speaker]

Okay, we'll just run with it. I guess we'll just go with that, then.

[Lena Andrews]

Jump out of the plane. Yep. Okay. And I'm sure, I mean, as much as we two women in 2023 are like, wow, that was the plan. Imagine being in 1943 and being told, just jump out of the plane. That's the plan.

[Guest Speaker]

Yeah.

[Lena Andrews]

You know what I mean? Like, here we are in our. Like, with our microphones and our. You know, we're talking about it. Imagine that being, like, the actual plan, that people were like, that's what you're doing. And you actually have to do it right.

[Guest Speaker]

And I often tell my editor this when I'm having, like, a hard day or whatever. I'm trying to decide what bassinet for my child. I need to, like, order. I'm like, you know, it really puts it in perspective when I'm writing the story of Florine Miller, who, like, gets in a accident in a P47, has to crash land with no landing gear. I'm like, okay, I think I'll go with the upper, baby. You know, it really. It really changes, and she puts everything in perspective.

[Lena Andrews]

I feel that I have thought the same thing many times of, like, you know what? Given everything that other women have been through, I feel like either one of these choices, I'm gonna be okay.

[Guest Speaker]

Yeah, I'll survive.

[Lena Andrews]

I'll survive either one. Yes. What was the general public's attitude for these women in service? Was the general public like, yeah, good for you. Go for it, or did they face a lot of backlash? What was that like?

[Guest Speaker]

Yeah, you know, it was a mirror, I think, of the pre existing feelings that the population or the particular individual had at the time. So many women were fully supported by their families and they were excited to put another star in their window. And they were really progressive in that way of saying, everybody should serve, and my daughter's a person who can serve, so she should. At the same time, unsurprisingly, probably to many listeners and to you, that was not the only reaction that people had. And on the other side of the coin, there were equally strong reactions, negatively. You know, it's such an interesting contrast in some ways to, like, the Rosie the Riveter story, where there was this real honesty around women doing war work and being sort of like part of the machine. And they kind of had a bit of a harder image in some ways. You know, they were doing like, mechanical work. Whereas with the women in the military service, there's an obsession over keeping an image up of real poise and grace and always in a pressed skirt and doing, you know, wearing makeup. And like, there was a real femininity that they were always trying to convey, I think, because there was a big concern about the sort of masculinization of women by allowing them into the military. And so leaders, the military leaders were obsessed with this from the very start. So that undertone, I think, was warranted. And it reflected a sort of controversy that many military leaders saw coming about the femininity of these women. And that really hit crescendo in 1943 when there was a slander campaign essentially in the media against women in the army, the Women's Army Corps in particular, basically alleging that they were prostitutes and playing off of this sort of camp follower trope that wasn't true, of course, but was very easy for someone to take up if they were already skeptical of women serving in uniform. And so there was like an FBI investigation of all of this. Of course it wasn't true. Eisenhower comes out and says, it's not true. Marshall, Eleanor Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, all of them say, of course this isn't true. This is ridiculous. These women are patriots. They're doing good work. But it destroyed recruiting for the army midway through the war, which is devastating. You know, we're in the middle of this national crisis, and based on basically lies and rumors, we now have another manpower crisis, except this time it's a woman power crisis. And so, you know, I think it's this interesting tension because military leaders were very concerned with image. And it was sort of tricky in many ways, looking back on it historically. But it was also warranted because lots of the population took up this rumor so quickly and were so fast to believe it because they thought it could be true. And so, you know, that tension is something that I really try to address in the book, that people really impose. It was like a Rorschach test. You know, people really impose their own views about what women should be and should do on these women in uniform who are, by the way, just trying to do their jobs, trying to be patriots, trying to get the job done. But it is probably the. On the other side of the equation, the biggest example of how women were mistreated just for trying to do their jobs.

[Lena Andrews]

Yeah, they're over there like, listen, do you think it's really fun to sort mail 12 hours a day in an unheated warehouse with rats? I mean, how dare you? Nobody wants to be accused of that, no matter their profession. Right? Like that is. That's very offensive. And it had to be even extra offensive. When you are serving overseas, often very close to the front lines, depending on your job, there is in some cases very real danger to your life. And to have your contribution so questioned and to have so many people being willing to believe it so easily, that had to be really, really offensive. I would have been offended if I was. If I was them, I would have.

[Guest Speaker]

Been very offended on their behalf. We are both offended. Yes.

[Lena Andrews]

That's ridiculous.

[Guest Speaker]

It's offensive. It's ridiculous, and it's heartbreaking. And you're sort of like, what? You know, who could do this? Who could create this narrative in the middle of a national crisis? And then you realize, of course, we've lived through this many times. It sort of doesn't. In some ways, it's immaterial how big the crisis is if you have really strong views about what women should or should not be doing and some line in your mind gets crossed. And I think they, you know, the folks who believe this genuine believe they were protecting American womanhood and manhood. So that, I think, is the tricky part of it is just you can sort of both at once understand that if you believe that to be true, then of course, it would be really problematic. But the fact is, it wasn't. And they had to do an FBI investigation to confirm to folks that it wasn't, you know, an axis plot or whatever. So that was one of the more heartbreaking things to write out. But but I think is really important for people to understand about women's experiences. They were not easy at all.

[Lena Andrews]

They wanted to believe it and so they saw a straw and they grasped it because they wanted it to be true.

[Sharon McMahon]

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[Lena Andrews]

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[Lena Andrews]

I also think it's interesting, the point that you made that there was almost like a hyper fixation on women not becoming too masculine. Not a hyper fixation on like, hey, we got to make sure that our GIs are not sexually assaulting or harassing these women, but a hyper focus on, you need to look like a girl, you need to wear a perfectly pressed skirt, you need to do your hair every day and wear your makeup every day. This focus on this preservation of hyper femininity despite, you know, wearing a military uniform, I find very interesting. Like as though the worst thing that could happen to you is that you become too independent and too, whatever male characteristics you might adopt, too aggressive or too headstrong. That's the worst thing that could have happened to you, according to some people in the military, is that you would become too, too much like a man.

[Guest Speaker]

Yeah. And it's so I really try and lay out this contrast as best I can in the book itself. So you have all these memos of the women who run the women's programs being super concerned about like women, you know, kiss in public or God forbid they have a Drink. Those are the concern. Very bad. Like, gosh, how could they do that? Such a stain on womanhood or wearing pants to do something like be a mechanic. Like, those are the controversies over what women are doing. And at the exact same moment, you have memos from male commanders essentially saying, laying out what is like, the most absurd rules around how men will engage with women in the theater. So there was this. This really kind of appalling memo that I read in which one of the commanders is like, you know, women can't go to the same movie nights if they're on base, but outside of their barracks. They have to be escorted by a military police officer. They have to basically be under lock and key at all times. We have to know where they all are. Why? Because they were worried that gis would attack or assault the women who were like, sort of picked off from the group. And it's just such an extraordinary contrast to see the women's programs hand wringing about drinking in public or kissing in a park, and the men's programs actually preparing for violent assaults. And at the exact same moment, you know, and you're sort of like, didn't someone point out that that's a little contradictory? Like, aren't we. Are we more worried about the guys who apparently can't control themselves around women than the women just living their lives in uniform? And so it's something, again, that is really hard to think about, but also, I think, probably sounds pretty familiar to many women today. It's one of those that really still.

[Lena Andrews]

To this day, even, even women in the military today still sounds pretty familiar, that the onus, it has always been and is still in many ways on women to protect themselves. And the onus is not on men to control themselves.

[Guest Speaker]

Yep, absolutely.

[Lena Andrews]

What happened to the women who served after the war ended? You know, like, it wasn't the women who were getting the ticker tape parades and. And all of the, like, welcome home to our best ladies. But did they get pensions? Did they get, you know, all of the benefit? Did they get the GI Bill? Like, what happened after women returned?

[Guest Speaker]

So two points of fact in response to your question, then I'll answer it sort of more broadly. The points of fact are this. One, the Women's Army Corps, which became the WAC in 1943, didn't start out that way, Women's Army Auxiliary Corps, but that meant that they were technically civilians. So this created all sorts of problems with exactly what you just talked about. GI benefits, pension issues. And eventually the army gave in and said, okay, fine, we can just make them a part of the army, because the logistics of this are far too complicated. A similar sort of thing happens with the wasps, the Women's Air Force service pilots, but on a much longer timeline. So they were civilian, which means that if they died while training or doing a mission, they had to pay for their own funerals. That was not rectified until the 70s. They were not given military status and military benefits until much, much later, which is in and of itself a whole nother podcast episode. So that is a sort of troubling undercurrent of how all this happened. The Navy did sort of right in some ways by their women, and from the start, had them integrated fully. Now, what's really interesting, the broader sort of sense, aside from those two little points of fact, is that a lot of these women, like, I think a lot of people can relate to now after having been through a cataclysmic goal, global event like Covid, everybody just wanted to go back to normal, which today means, like, going to the movies and having dinner with friends. Then it meant for women going back to the home, becoming homemakers, having children. You know, one day they're briefing generals, the next day they're making pot roast. And there was really, I think, an undercurrent. One part is generational. Just this generation didn't want to talk about World War II, so that's fine. But I do think there is a sort of undercurrent in which we message to women that even if they served in uniform, their contributions were small, they were feminine, they were support, they weren't combat. And so they weren't really worthy of talking about or celebrating in the same way, especially when we all want to get back to normal and normal as a woman in the home. And so I think in a lot of ways, the larger narrative about sort of women's progress has cut out these women because they were quiet about the contributions that they made, in large part because they were told to be. So, you know, for me, a big part of writing this book was simply giving voice to the women who were told to be quiet. And I think now we can appreciate that was the wrong thing to tell them. And I wish they had been louder about it then. And if they can't do it now, you know, I'll do it for them.

[Lena Andrews]

I love that. It's almost like we learned nothing from World War I, where we did the exact same thing to women. It's almost like in the following almost 30 years, where we told women, you guys were civilians, Even though you wore a uniform. No, you're not entitled to any of those benefits. Even though you wore a uniform, the generals treated you like members of the military and gave you all kinds of military decorations. But you know what? You were civilians. You get nothing. And in some cases, the women of World War I waited until the 70s, waited until Congress was like, I guess we should fix this. It's almost like we learned nothing over those decades that wasn't gonna work out.

[Guest Speaker]

Yeah, well, and it's so interesting you say that because one of the greatest advocates in Congress for women in World War II is this woman, Edith Norris Rogers, who's an incredible person. If you don't know her, Google her. But the reason in large part that she was so vocal and so pushy about women in World War II was because of her experience in World War I. Seeing many of the women come back and not get the benefits that they deserve. Suffering from ptsd, suffering from all sorts of comrade adjacent issues and just having no resources. She's sort of the best example of evolution. Unsurprisingly, one of the few women in Congress is the one who actually gets the message. But, but you know, like in general, I think you're absolutely right. There was just, no, there was very little thought given to it. Now I will say in 1948, Women are integrated on a permanent basis into the armed forces. And that sort of starts this much longer process of integrating women fully into the military. But it's not until very recently in most of our recent memories, that women are actually allowed to serve in every combat and non combat position in the US Armed forces. So it takes a long time for us to learn this very big lesson.

[Lena Andrews]

What do you hope that the reader.

[Sharon McMahon]

Takes away from Valiant Women?

[Lena Andrews]

It is such a good book and such an interesting collection of fantastic stories of people you've never heard of but should have of, you know, really illustrates the full scope of how women helped win World War II. They absolutely did. It would not have worked without them. There are no battlefield heroics without women. That's just like period. What do you hope that the reader who picks up Valiant Women and closes the final page, what do you hope they take away?

[Guest Speaker]

You hit the nail on the head. First and foremost, women help in World War II. You've, you know, you have a whole series on this. I hope that everybody gets this. You know, if you haven't gotten it yet, I hope that you get it now even more sort of intimately than you may have before. But the broader ask that I have of readers the broader hope that I have for readers and for listeners is this. Women veterans are as deserving of our admiration and of our attention as anyone else. And they are living among us.

[Lena Andrews]

Believe it or not, they're not dinosaurs. They still exist.

[Guest Speaker]

In fact, women are increasingly part of and at the heart of military operations in the United States. And so. So if you have the opportunity of knowing a woman veteran, I just would encourage you to ask her about her story. Listen really, really carefully to what she says, and if you're like me, you'll find yourself two years later writing a whole book about it. They are just an incredible group of people, and their stories are as worthy of listening to and telling and shouting from the mountaintops as anyone else. So please, remember them, talk to them, get to know them. They're among the best of us.

[Lena Andrews]

I have one other little thing to add to that, which is to have their stories recorded somewhere.

[Guest Speaker]

Yes.

[Lena Andrews]

And to put it somewhere where somebody can find it someday so that people like you, Lena, can come along and actually access their stories. This is one of my fears, learning about history is that with the digital age, so much of the information that we share is password protected and going to be. Unless we create some kind of system or change in the future are going to be very difficult to access what somebody really thought about something or like, what were the conditions? Like, you might have shared it on Facebook, but unless your status is set to public, I can't see it. You know what I mean?

[Guest Speaker]

Yeah.

[Lena Andrews]

Yeah. So the idea that it's just as important for us now to be recording histories for future generations as it has ever been, despite us sharing so much of our lives. I think it's also really important to encourage people, women veterans, just your ordinary person, to record their stories. They are important and they do matter. And Valiant Women is a great example of the myriad of ways that these women's stories matter.

[Guest Speaker]

Exactly right. And for those of you who are looking for a repository, great pitch. The Library of Congress holds the vhp, which is the Veterans History Project, where you can literally record these things. They have whole guides about how to do it, and then you can upload them and they will be remembered forever. So, like, little, you know, nerdy people like me, like you said, can one day go back and listen to you interviewing your aunt, you know, Vera, or whatever, about her experience. So please, please take our word for it. It's so important. Don't pass or protect it. If we need it, we need it for the world. History needs it.

[Lena Andrews]

Thank you, Lena. This was absolutely fantastic. I loved the book and I love chatting with you today.

[Guest Speaker]

Thank you. It was so delightful. I just love this. Thank you.

[Sharon McMahon]

You can buy Valiant Women by Lena.

[Lena Andrews]

Andrews wherever you get your books. You can also Visit her website lenaandrews.com she has a newsletter that you can sign up for there to get even more information. Thanks for being here today.

[Sharon McMahon]

Thank you so much for listening to here's where it gets interesting. If you enjoyed today's episode, would you consider sharing or subscribing to this show that helps podcasters out so much? I'm your host and executive producer, Sharon McMahon. Our supervising producer is Melanie Buck Parks and our audio producer is Craig Thompson. We'll see you soon. Running a business is hard enough. Why make it harder with dozens of disconnected apps? I know how challenging it is to manage a tech stack. When running a business, you're always concerned with like, will this thing integrate nicely with that one? And all of them are so insanely expensive. If your business software is causing you more stress than success, it's time to switch to Odoo. Odoo is the only business software you will ever need. It's all in one one. It's a fully integrated platform that handles everything from CRM to E. Com to HR and more. No more app overload. Plus, it replaces multiple expensive platforms for a fraction of the cost. And it's designed to grow with your business because it's customizable and it streamlines every process. Thousands of businesses have already made the switch. Why not you go to Odoo for free [e-mail], that's o-o o.com.