NWHM Presents! Sundays@Home: Colorado Women in World War II

Join the National Women’s History Museum at 1:00pm EDT on Sunday, September 20th for a Zoom presentation as author Gail M. Beaton sheds light on women’s participation in the war, exploring the dangers and triumphs they felt, the nature of their work, and the lasting ways in which the war influenced their lives. This event is free, but registration is required.

Colorado women from every corner of the state enlisted in the military, joined the workforce, and volunteered on the home front. As military women, they served as nurses and in hundreds of noncombat positions. In defense plants they riveted steel, made bullets, inspected bombs, operated cranes, and stored projectiles. They hosted USO canteens, nursed in civilian hospitals, donated blood, drove Red Cross vehicles, and led scrap drives; and they processed hundreds of thousands of forms and reports. Whether or not they worked outside the home, they wholeheartedly participated in a kaleidoscope of activities to support the war effort.

Interweaving nearly eighty oral histories – including interviews, historical studies, newspaper accounts, and organization records to shed light on women’s participation in the war, author Gail M. Beaton offers a new perspective on World War II—views from field hospitals, small steel companies, ammunition plants, college classrooms, and sugar beet fields—giving a rare look at how the war profoundly transformed the women of this state and will be a compelling new resource for readers, scholars, and students interested in Colorado history and women’s roles in World War II.

Author Bio: Gail M. Beaton, a charter member of the National Women’s History Museum, is the author of Colorado Women: A History (University Press of Colorado, 2012) and Colorado Women in World War II (University Press of Colorado, 2020). A retired public-school teacher with master’s degrees in US History and Public History, Gail is a Chautauqua presenter of “Gail Murphy: Colorado’s Rosie the Riveter” and “Sarah Platt Decker: National Women’s Club Leader, Reformer, and Suffragist.” Gail serves on the Advisory Board for the Center for Colorado Women’s History at the Byers-Evans House Museum. She is a member of the Denver Woman’s Press Club, Women Writing the West, and the Western History Association. She is currently serving on the Colorado Historic Preservation Review Board and State Register Review Board.