Women's Land Army

WOMEN'S LAND ARMY -  The Woman's Land Army of America (WLAA), later the Woman's Land Army (WLA), was a civilian organization created during the First and Second World Wars to work in agriculture replacing men called up to the military.   Women who worked for the WLAA were sometimes known as farmerettes.  

The Woman's Land Army of America (WLAA) operated from 1917 to 1919, organized in 42 states, and employing more than 20,000 women.   It was inspired by the women of Great Britain who had organized as the Woman's Land Army, also known as the Land Girls or Land Lassies.  The women of the WLAA were known as "farmerettes".  The term "farmerettes" derived from suffragettes and was originally used to pejoratively, but ultimately became positively associated with patriotism and women's war efforts.  Many of the women of the WLAA were college educated and had never worked on farms before.  The WLAA primarily consisted of college students, teachers, secretaries, and those with seasonal jobs or occupations which allowed summer vacation.  They were paid equally with male farm laborers and had an eight-hour workday.  The WLAA workers eventually became wartime icons, much as Rosie the Riveter would in World War Two.