Forensic Research Archive of Manipulation and Exploitation
Women in the War: We Can't Win Without Them, 1942 US poster: Black-and-white photograph of a woman in a patterned apron using

Women in the War: We Can't Win Without Them

Black-and-white photograph of a woman in a patterned apron using a tool on a cylindrical aircraft parachute-flare container, set against a blue shape, with the headline 'Women in the war' and a red-banded slogan 'We can't win without them'. The slogan makes women's work a condition of victory, an appeal to a shared national aim.

Propaganda techniques used in this poster

Glittering generalitiesIdentity fusion
Date
1942
Period
Second World War
Made by
War Manpower Commission
Region
North America
Country
United States
Medium
Poster
Issuer type
State
Regime
Roosevelt Administration
Leader
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Audience
Domestic public
Purpose
Mobilize or secure compliance
Themes
Home front, Labor, Gender and suffrage
Event
World War II
Regime
Roosevelt administration
Leader
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Source
Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
Source
U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 44, World War II Posters, retrieved October 4, 2026
Rights
Public domain (U.S. government work)
War Manpower Commission. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-233 (NAID 513675).

Text on the object

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

Women in the war
WE CAN'T WIN
WITHOUT THEM
[imprint:] WAR MANPOWER COMMISSION • WASHINGTON, D. C.
[imprint:] U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1942—O—477830

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