Woman Power, Civilian Personnel Pamphlet No. 20, 1945 — WWII Production [Design: Lester Beall]

Woman Power (WOMANPOWER), Civilian Personnel Pamphlet, No. 20, 1945. War Department, Washington, D.C. Stapled, 9.125 x 11.75, 59 pages with English text. Printed on low-cost wood-pulp paper with black and terra-cotta colored ink and illustrated throughout with black and white photographs. Front cover and interior page design by Lester Beall (1903–69).

Rare. Woman Power was published for the information and guidance of War Department operating and personnel officials and called upon the “vast reserve of woman power” in industry to aid the war effort during World War II. The booklet presents the Department’s findings and forward-thinking initiatives advocating for “a still greater use of women in industry.” 

The memorandum from the Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson to the Commanding Generals of the Army, dated August 14, 1942 states: “Women are now working in practically all War Department activities, including our depots and arsenals. They are producing and assembling guns, tanks, bombs, and planes. They are running fifteen-ton cranes and operating machines which have as many as thirty-nine separate machining operations. They are driving trucks, riveting airplane wings, welding frames, and doing hundreds of other mechanical, clerical and supervisory jobs.” Furthermore “The ability, the spirit, and the determination which women war workers have already shown can leave no doubt of the part in which they are playing and will play in this war.”

Contents include authentication notices, a foreword and detailed sections devoted to: Industrial Working Conditions: Helps and Hindrances; Placement: The Right Woman in the Right Job; Training: What Kind, For Whom and How; and Supervision: New Workers with New Problems. Also included is a partial list of more than 100 jobs performed by women in War Department industrial establishments. A significant wartime publication, further distinguished by Beall’s innovative graphic design.

Beall’s striking photomontage front cover employs overlapping planes, dramatic photographs and symbols to create contrast and dynamic shifts in scale. A copy of this booklet was featured in The Moderns (p. 127) and also included in Lester Beall & A New American Identity, the outstanding Poster House exhibition held from September 26, 2024, through February 23, 2025.

A very good wartime booklet with light wear along the edges, a few faint spots and a scuff above the right eye on the front cover. Slight bending to some of the upper page corners and a few page creases, though the interior remains clean. Note: The right-edge of the cover and the first approximately 24 pages have been crudely and unevenly trimmed, resulting in minor loss of paper; likely a printer’ defect. Despite this flaw, the booklet remains rare in any condition.