Many of us are aware of the WACS and WAVES and the roles they played during WWII. In addition, many women worked difficult civilian jobs in manufacturing and in agriculture during wartimes from the Revolutionary War to the present. Many chose to be nurses and medical drivers. We have many women proudly serving in the military today in various roles.
Frances Perkins was an educated social worker who took on the abuses done against women immigrants in New York City in the 1920s and 30s. She lobbied corrupt politicians (in Tammany Hall) to intervene and pass laws against tricking female immigrants into prostitution and indentured factory work. Later, working for the state of New York under then-Gov. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, she was in charge of factory safety. She had witnessed a previous factory fire in downtown New York City where the doors were locked and women jumped out the windows into nets that didn’t quite work that well. She saw firsthand the corpses lined up in the street. It was only the tip of the iceberg in terms of unsafe working conditions nationwide.
Roosevelt, when elected president, appointed Perkins as Labor Secretary, the first female cabinet member. During those Great Depression years, she and her various contacts recrafted national labor laws: unemployment compensation insurance, workplace safety mandates, workman’s compensation for the injured, and legalizing unions. The crown jewel to all this was Social Security, financed by a payroll tax.
Another prominent woman was Jean Laidlaw, a young accountant who served as a member of the British Western Approach Tactical Unit in WWII. In that role, she crafted and played “war games” to determine how Nazi U-boats were destroying so many merchant supply ships undetected. She figured it out and it led to so many German subs being destroyed that Hitler withdrew most of them from the shipping lanes. There is a series about her on the Sky History Channel.
   Last, but not least, is Francis Oldham Kelsey, Canadian-born pharmacologist. After hiring on with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, she became a reviewer of safety for new drugs being proposed for the market. She went head-to-toe with  the drug company wanting to market Thalidomide to treat morning sickness during pregnancies, etc.  She claimed over and over that the drug peddler had not proven the chemical’s safety and she won out. Unfortunately, the drug was accepted more readily in Europe and other countries and many severe birth defects were the result. Ms. Kelsey later led the Division of Scientific Investigation at the FDA. She was voted into the Women’s Hall of Fame and was the recipient of many awards such as the Presidential Award and many other honors. Thankfully, she kept many of us from a life of disability. 
Mark Roalson
Hoyt Lakes