<P> After initially resisting taking a stance, the IWW became actively anti-war, engaging in strikes and speeches and suffering both legal and illegal suppression by federal and local governments as well as pro-war vigilantes . The IWW was branded as anarchic, socialist, unpatriotic, alien and funded by German gold, and violent attacks on members and offices would continue into the 1920s . </P> <P> The AFL membership soared to 2.4 million in 1917 . In 1919, the AFL tried to make their gains permanent and called a series of major strikes in meat, steel and other industries . The strikes ultimately failed, forcing unions back to membership and power similar to those around 1910 . </P> <P> During WWI (1914 - 1918), large numbers of women were recruited into jobs that had either been vacated by men who had gone to fight in the war, or had been created as part of the war effort . The high demand for weapons and the overall wartime situation resulted in munitions factories collectively becoming the largest employer of American women by 1918 . While there was initial resistance to hiring women for jobs traditionally held by men, the war made the need for labor so urgent that women were hired in large numbers and the government even actively promoted the employment of women in war - related industries through recruitment drives . As a result, women not only began working in heavy industry, but also took other jobs traditionally reserved solely for men, such as railway guards, ticket collectors, bus and tram conductors, postal workers, police officers, firefighters, and clerks . </P> <P> World War I saw women taking traditionally men's jobs in large numbers for the first time in American history . Many women worked on the assembly lines of factories, producing trucks and munitions, while department stores employed African American women as elevator operators and cafeteria waitresses for the first time . The Food Administration helped housewives prepare more nutritious meals with less waste and with optimum use of the foods available . Most important, the morale of the women remained high, as millions joined the Red Cross as volunteers to help soldiers and their families, and with rare exceptions, the women did not protest the draft . </P>

How the united states mobilized for war both at home and abroad