Girdles for the war effort
February 18, 2008 – 7:00 amAlthough I was well aware of many kinds of rationing and shortages, it was not until a few months ago that I learned of the battle to protect the girdle. At one of my speaking engagements, someone in the audience educated me about this attack on femininity.
After the U.S. entered the war, rubber became one of the items most in demand for the war effort. Some products containing rubber were rationed including shoes and tires, but much of the effort to find other sources of rubber came in a massive rubber drive at the behest of President Roosevelt. Citizens were encouraged to collect rubber products including tires, raincoats, sneakers, and anything made of rubber, including girdles.
Women were asked not only to give up their girdles voluntarily, but the War Production Board (WPB) issued a ban on the manufacture of any new girdles. Women were in an uproar. Some said girdles were necessary to protect their backs as they stood on the production lines. Others claimed wearing girdles was actually an act of patriotism. After all, weren’t they helping the war effort by looking trim and attractive for the soldiers and sailors?
It appeared that these arguments were falling on deaf ears until the women threatened a boycott of the manufacturers’ other products. Finally, with the manufacturers on their side, the WPB agreed to remove girdles from the list of items to be eliminated.
An alternative version is also circulating. It is reported that a group of women went to Eleanor Roosevelt to ask her to speak to her husband Franklin about this injustice. She did and it was he who was responsible for the lifting of the ban on the manufacture of girdles.
I don’t know which version is correct but I suspect there are a lot of you out there who remember those awful rubber girdles.
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