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Women in Defense

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Women in Defense
Directed byJohn Ford
Written byEleanor Roosevelt
Produced byJohn Ford
Narrated byKatharine Hepburn
Distributed byWar Activities Committee
Release date
24 December 1941
Running time
18
Country United States
LanguageEnglish

Women in Defense is a 1941 short film produced by the Office of Emergency Management shortly before the United States entered the Second World War.

Synopsis

Opening with a shot of a statue of "the pioneer woman who helped win a continent", the film briefly outlines the way in which women could help prepare the country for the possibility of war. Among the various way women could help were:

  • working in a war materials manufacturing plant
  • sewing parachutes for US servicemen
  • attending free lectures on how to prepare nutritious meals on presumably rationed food
  • Joining the WAC or the Red Cross
  • donating blood

There is also a segment on the types of costumes women would wear while engaged in war work. At the end of the film, the narrator explains women are vital to securing a healthy American home life and raising children "which has always been the first line of defense".

See also