Women Who Worked on the Home Front World War II Memorial Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. WESTERMAN. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, H.R. 3531 offered by Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, authorizes the Women Who Worked on the Home Front Foundation to establish a commemorative work in Washington, D.C., to commemorate the commitment and service of millions of women during World War II.

During World War II, roughly 12 million women worked in defense industries and support services across the Nation. Women served in critical professional roles in shipyards, steel mills, foundries, warehouses, offices, and hospitals.

Women worked as codebreakers, aircraft testing pilots, trainers, welders, riveters, telegraph operators, radio and electrical engineers, crane operators, surveyors, assembly line workers, and many other jobs that kept America running.

In recent years, Congress established the Rosie the Riveter National Historical Park in California to highlight the incredible contributions of women to the war effort. Authorizing this commemorative work in our Nation's capital is another fitting tribute to the brave, strong, and intelligent women that helped us win the war.

Madam Speaker, I urge adoption of the measure, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Ms. LEGER FERNANDEZ. Madam Speaker, I yield such time as she may consume to the gentlewoman from the District of Columbia (Ms. Norton), the sponsor of the bill.

Ms. LEGER FERNANDEZ.

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Mr. WESTERMAN. Madam Speaker, as I listened to the testimony about the bill today, I thought about all of the women that I was around growing up who were part of that war effort at home during World War II and the jobs that they did that were critical to the war effort.

I think about Representative Burchett's mother from Tennessee who flew planes in World War II. My counsel's grandmother, Mimi Hart, was a codebreaker in World War II, and I think it is fitting that we recognize all these women as they are getting up in years and we are losing a lot of them.

Madam Speaker, I appreciate the gentlewoman for bringing this bill forward. I urge adoption, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Ms. LEGER FERNANDEZ. Madam Speaker, I am so grateful to Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton because she knows how to listen to brilliant women no matter the age. We really need to thank Ms. Raya Kenney for coming up with the idea. Precisely, as we have heard on the floor of the House today, it was not just Rosie the riveter, it was a complex participation of women in the workforce.

In New Mexico, they were participating by running the ranches, they were participating in our national labs on defense issues and some of the most complex scientific discoveries that helped us win the war.

Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support the legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Ms. JACKSON LEE. Madam Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 3531, the ``Women Who Worked on the Home Front World War II Memorial Act.''

I would first like to thank my colleague, Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, for introducing this important legislation to honor these women.

This bill authorizes the Women Who Worked on the Home Front Foundation to establish a commemorative work on federal land in the District of Columbia in commemoration of the commitment and service represented by women who worked on the home front during World War II.

This important legislation would authorize a memorial in honor of these women and their service to our nation, right here in the Nation's capital.

During World War II, over 18 million American women kept the home front running in support of the country's overall war effort.

Not only did they give their sons, husbands, fathers, and brothers to the war effort, they gave their time, energy, labor, and some even gave their lives.

Beyond providing support for their children at home and men at war, the committed women on the home front stepped forward to assume the work and duties needed to keep the country running, most of these jobs were not available to women before the war.

Between 1940 and 1945, the age of ``Rosie the Riveter,'' the percentage of women in the U.S. workforce increased from 27 percent to nearly 37 percent, and by 1945, nearly one out of every four married women worked outside the home.

World War II opened the door for women to work in more types of jobs than ever before.

These women were not only instrumental to the war effort, but they showed the country and the world what women were capable of, fundamentally changing the path for future generations of women.

Eisenhower himself said, ``The contribution of the women of America, whether on the farm or in the factory or in uniform, to D-Day was a sine qua non [or necessary for] . . . the invasion effort.''

These women were fundamental to our defeat of the Axis Powers, and I fully support this legislation's passage to honor their valiant efforts.

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