From 1917 to 1920 the Woman's Land Army (WLA) brought thousands of city workers, society women, artists, business professionals, and college students into rural America to take over the farm work after men were called to wartime service. These women wore military-style uniforms, lived in communal camps, and did what was considered "mens' work"--that is, plowing fields, driving tractors, planting, harvesting, and hauling lumber. The Land Army insisted its "farmerettes" be paid wages equal to male farm laborers and be protected by an eight-hour workday. These farmerettes were shocking at first and encountered skeptical farmers' scorn, but as they proved themselves willing and capable, farmers began to rely upon the women workers and became their loudest champions.

Liberty Day -- The girl with a hoe behind the man with a gun -- The right to serve : a British Land Army -- Female preparedness -- An agricultural army -- Suffrage agriculture -- Soil sisters -- A feminine invasion of the land : the Bedford Camp -- Farmerettes and Hoover Helpers : Fall 1917 -- Women on the land -- A hysterical appeal -- A fine propaganda : the Fair Farmerette and her publicity machine -- Enlist now! -- The Patriot Farmerette -- In bifurcated garb of toil : California -- Hortense Powdermaker in Maryland -- Cultivating the soothing weed : Connecticut -- Libertyville : Illinois -- Girls who thought potatoes grew on trees : New England -- The Farmerette in Wanamaker's window : selling the Land Army in New Jersey -- Georgia cotton -- Harsh terrain -- Miss Diehl and the Wellesley Experiment Station -- Tiller, planter, gleaner : New York -- Marriage of convenience -- A hungry world -- Carry on -- Farmerette redux : 1919 and beyond.