Waging War and Marriage: Military Service and Family Formation,1940-1950

Abstract

World War II represented a substantial mobilization of American resources, including human resources. Despite the obvious hindrances it posed to marriage, nuptiality on the whole did not slow down during the war. Among the reasons it did not do so was a government policy designed to conserve the already-formed families of soldiers, which also made marriage an economically attractive option to young women. For citizen soldiers, wartime marriage was not simply economically feasible. It was as well an action that connected them with the civilian life that they had reluctantly left. Marriage, moreover, was an action congruent with and promoted by success in the unusual occupational context of the armed services. Even after the war, wartime military service proved to be congruent with marriage, veterans being more prone—after a brief lag—to marry. Often portrayed as a war in defense of the American family, World War II seems to have produced patterns that included surprising degrees of continuity with family formation.