TRAINING WOMEN AT OAMC
through regular curriculum and special defense-related instruc-
tion, with the necessary skills to mobilize the state and the nation.
The shortages caused by the loss of male workers to the armed
forces created demands for women to enter the work force. Many
women readily entered the work force; others did so after urgent
calls were made for their services. In 1940 women constituted 24.3
percent of all workers in the paid labor force. By March, 1944, their
ranks increased to 32.9 percent and 37 percent of all women held
paying jobs.'
The war years required co-ed students, like their male counter-
parts, to choose between continuing their college education or
leaving for defense-related employment. Many women at Okla-
homa Agricultural and Mechanical College (OAMC) chose the lat-
ter. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, a larger percentage of
women than men left school, presumably because of work oppor-
tunities previously not available to them. The spring semester of
1942 revealed a 32.9 percent decline in enrollment for women
compared to a 28.5 percent decline for men. Nationally, colleges
experienced an enrollment drop of 11.2 and 15.5 percent for women
and men, respectively, between October, 1941, and October, 1942.2
Throughout the war years, college officials made a considerable
effort to encourage students to stay in school. Dr. Henry G. Ben-
nett, president of OAMC, appealed to "civilian students, including
all women" to re-enroll for the spring semester of 1943. Nora A.
Talbot, dean of the Division of Home Economics, told members of
the Home Ec Club to stay in school, especially if they were close to
graduating. According to the college newspaper, the Daily O'Col-
legian, "More women than expected" did re-enroll for that semester
with "a surprising number of new co-eds." By the spring semester
of 1944, women students outnumbered men five to one at the
Stillwater campus.3
During the early years of the war, many of the women who
remained on campus failed to recognize the fact that the war would
create the need for technically trained women. On the national
level, less than 30 percent of the 100,000 college graduates of 1942
had degrees in the fields necessary for defense. The Student
Opinion Surveys, a nationwide poll that included results from
OAMC, showed that only 16 percent of the women students wanted
more technical and professional training. Another poll from the
same source revealed women's attitudes towards the role of the
college in their education. Twenty-one percent believed colleges
should train women to be wives and mothers. Seventy-nine percent
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