Examines the lives of American women during World War II at home and on the fighting front, drawing from personal interviews, wartime letters and diaries, and other sources to discuss their experiences as factory workers, wives and mothers, nurses, spies, pilots, movie stars, prostitutes, and in other occupations.

Prologue :; For Carol Lynn : unearthing our mothers' war years --; pt. 1. --; 1.; To bring him home safely : wives, mothers, and sisters of servicemen --; 2.; Soldiers without guns : female defense industry workers --; 3.; Putting up a good front : female entertainers, fictional characters, and icons --; pt. 2. --; 4.; This man's army : WACs --; 5.; On duty at home : WAVES, SPARs, marines, and WASPs --; 6.; Save his life and find your own : volunteers, Land Army, Red Cross Girls, and nurses --; 7.; Jane Crow : African-American women --; 8.; Behind enemy lines : spies, propaganda workers, and those who worked for the enemy --; 9. A; question of loyalty : Japanese-American women --; 10.; Qualified successes : politicians, journalists, doctors, baseball players, and other professional women --; pt. 3. --; 11. The; "wrong kind" of woman : prostitutes, unwed mothers, and lesbians --; 12. A; war within the war : right-wing, anti-Semitic mothers' groups and Jewish-American women --; 13.; Inside the secret city : wives and WACs in Los Alamos --; Epilogue :; Their legacy : our mothers' war years resounding through our lives --; Notes --; Bibliography --; Acknowledgments --; Index --; Permission credits.