"it was a smile of victory, repeated again and again on the faces of nearly 300 women turning out airplane parts in Ampco shops. One of them may be 'Miss Victory of Wisconsin', picked to typify the spirit and skill that women factory hands are putting into the effort to lick the Axis."
- Milwaukee Sentinel
- Milwaukee Sentinel
The Hunt for Miss Victory
During the war, as a "best-publicized appeal" to war work and it's glamour, the Hearst Press (embodied within the Milwaukee Sentinel), decided to organize a search for the ideal women war worker, a.k.a "Miss Victory". This hunt occurred in 12 locations around the country, including Wisconsin. During the early Miss Victory campaign, one of the articles written about the search (in the Milwaukee Sentinel) told it's readers that"life in a typical Wisconsin factory is far from dreary or uninteresting, according to women production workers."
'Miss Victory' newspaper article >>>>>>
'Miss Victory' newspaper article >>>>>>
“Before another year is out at least 30 percent of all jobs in American war industry will be filled with women. Their alertness and their ability to absorb training rapidly will solve the problems of many an employer who must have stable labor force to meet his war production schedules. The rules which you have published for the judging of your “Miss Victory” contest set high standards of achievement: quality of work; being on the job everyday; character and high morale; participation in all the responsibilities of citizenship. The girl who achieves those goals will well symbolize the spirit of American womanhood in 1942. We must remember that the present need for women is not the same in every community. Some communities need many thousands. Others do not yet need additional workers. The woman who wants to know whether she’s needed should ask the nearest office of the United States employment service. That employment office is 'the corner grocery of the manpower system'."
- Paul V. McNutt, War Manpower Administrator
- Milwaukee Sentinel
- Paul V. McNutt, War Manpower Administrator
- Milwaukee Sentinel
