▲A mid-1940's US armed service recruiting poster features four women in different uniforms (from left, Marines, Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES), Women's Army Corps (WAC), and Coast Guard (SPARS)).

▲A 1940's Women's Army Corps (WAC) recruitment poster depicts a uniformed woman against an American flag background.

▲A 1944 recruitment poster from the Women's Army Corps (WAC) features a uniformed and smiling woman.

▲A mid-1940's US Navy recruitment poster for the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES) program.

▲This poster depicts a woman with her arms around a sailor as she admires his service medals. It dates back to the early 1940s.

▲A poster from 1943 depicts a female nurse as she stands over a man, who lies on a bed with his head bandaged.

▲A mid-1940's poster depicts a kitchen scene where an elderly man in an apron washes dishes while a woman in a suit walks towards the door, swinging a lunch box in her hand and smiling.

▲A US Navy recruitment poster from 1943 for the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES) program, depicts a uniformed woman looking on while anti-aircraft fire explodes above a ship behind her.

▲A 1943 US Employment Service poster depicts a woman using an electric drill on a girder.

▲A poster from the mid-1940s depicts a determined-looking man, woman, and child, accompanied by a list of various jobs.

▲A Women's Army Corps (WAC) recruitment poster states that "the Army of the United States has 239 kinds of jobs for women."

▲A 1943 recruitment poster features a profile portrait of a woman in a dress grey military uniform and cap.

▲This poster from 1943 features a woman as she kisses an American airman.

▲Four smiling women in business attire pose against an American flag in this mid-1940's poster.

▲A 1942 recruitment poster for the US Coast Guard SPARS program features uniformed women as they march in line on a dock under an American and US Coast Guard flag.

▲A group of men and women saluting the massive, spectral head of Uncle Sam, which hovers above a landscape of industrial factories, is the scene on this early 1940's poster.

▲A poster from 1943 encouraging women to join WAVES, a division of the US Navy that enlisted women to help the wartime effort.

▲A recruitment poster for the US Navy WAVES features a father seated at a desk, a framed picture of his uniformed daughter sitting beside him.

▲A US Marine Corps Women's Reserve recruitment poster, dating back to the early 1940s, features a portrait of a uniformed woman.

▲Thelma Cuvage sifts and cleans sand for use in locomotives at the Chicago & North Western Railroad roundhouse in Clinton, IA.

▲Mrs. Marcella Hart, mother of three, works as a wiper at the Chicago & North Western Railroad roundhouse in Clinton, IA.

▲Cloe Weaver, mother of four, working as a roundhouse helper training to operate the turntable at the Chicago & North Western Railroad roundhouse in Clinton, IA.

▲A woman working in an armaments factory.

▲Civil Service employee Irma Lee McElroy paints insignia on airplane wings at the Naval Air Station, Corpus Christi, TX.

▲Members of the Women's Voluntary Service lining up in a New York street.

▲Three official uniforms of the US Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC), from left to right: the officer's winter uniform, the officer's summer uniform and the uniform of an auxiliary.

▲Three members of Women Fliers of America Inc. look on while their female instructor explains the fundamentals of aircraft engineering.

▲A female factory worker folding US Army blankets.

▲Heil and Co. employee Lucile Mazurek works on black-out lamps to be used on US Air Force gasoline trailers in Milwaukee, WI.

▲Heil and Co. employees Helen Ryan (with cap) and Agnes Cliemka unmask and perform checks on gasoline trailers to be used by the US Air Force, Milwaukee, WI.

▲An African-American war worker in a munitions factory.

▲A female riveter at work on a bomber at Consolidated Aircraft Corporation, Fort Worth, TX.

▲Assembly and Repairs Department senior supervisor Eloise J. Ellis stands near the tail of a US Navy plane at Naval Air Station, Corpus Christi, TX.

▲A stock clerk takes inventory in a storeroom at North American Aviation, Inc. in Inglewood, CA.

▲A Vega Aircraft Corporation employee checks electrical assemblies in Burbank, CA.

▲Two North American Aviation, Inc. employees assemble a section of a wing for a P-51 fighter plane.

▲An employee of the Douglas Aircraft Company works on an aircraft engine at Long Beach, CA.

▲A 1943 recruiting poster for the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps.

▲A Firestone Tire and Rubber Co. employee checks 1,000 lb bomb cases loaded with explosives in Omaha, NE.

▲A man of diminutive stature installs control wires inside the fuselage of a Valiant basic trainer while a woman works standing outside. Taken at the Vultee Aircraft Downey Plant California.

▲Mentioned in this recruiting poster for the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps, the WAAC was formed in 1942 at the urging of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt.

▲This 1943 war bonds poster shows a daydreaming teenage girl thinking about what to write in her diary.

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An African-American contingent of the Women's Army Corps, the first to be assigned to overseas service.

▲Mrs. Viola Sievers sprays an H-class locomotive with steam at the Chicago & North Western Railroad roundhouse in Clinton, IA.

▲Chicago & North Western Railroad roundhouse workers pause for lunch in Clinton, IA.

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Patriotic posters appealing to American women for assistance during World War II led to thousands volunteering for the military or opting to work in positions traditionally held by men.

Browse this gallery for a historic and nostalgic look at this fascinating, morale-boosting artwork, and for a series of vintage photographs depicting enlisted women and those employed in factories, rail depots, and military installations.