“And we need you now!”: comparative analysis of women’s science education in the U.S. and Japan during World War II

Bringing more women into science remains a global policy priority. For many countries, World War II marked the first coordinated attempt to train women in scientific fields. During this time, U.S. and Japanese authorities and manufacturers urged women to pursue science, arguing that it would determine the course of the war.

This dissertation explores the extent to which World War II transformed women’s science education in the U.S. and Japan. It examines historical records on wartime engineering and home economics education. This study reveals that the scope and depth of scientific knowledge available to women remained largely unchanged from pre-war years. The demand for technical personnel in war industries led to short-term training programs for women in drafting, a traditional female role within engineering. Additionally, as both nations framed the mother’s role as keeping her family healthy, regular and short programs provided practical skills in nutrition. Differences in educational governance—local control in the U.S. versus centralized administration in Japan—affected how wartime educational initiatives took shape. Nevertheless, the underlying principle was the same: both countries treated women’s participation in science as a temporary necessity rather than a long-term shift. This dissertation’s findings suggest that framing women’s participation in science through the logic of their usefulness for national purposes does not significantly challenge societal perceptions of women and science. Nor does it reduce resistance to their presence in traditionally male-dominated fields.