[This foreword to the recipe pamphlet, Your Share, is attributed to the fictional "Betty Crocker" of the General Mills Home Service Staff. It speaks volumes about the attitude toward women, motherhood, and homemaking in 1943.]
Hail to the women of America! You have taken up your heritage from the brave women of the past. Just as did the women of other wars, you have taken your positions as soldiers on the Home Front. You have been strengthening your country's defenses – as plane watchers – as flyers – as members of the armed forces – as producers, in war plants and homes – and in Red Cross and Civilian Defense activities. The efforts and accomplishments of women today are boundless!
But whatever else you do – you are, first and foremost, homemakers – women with the welfare of your families deepest in your hearts. Now you face a new and more difficult problem in the management of your homes. You must make a little do where there was an abundance before. In spite of sectional problems and shortages, you must prepare satisfying meals out of your share of what there is. You must heed the government request to increase the use of available foods, and save those that are scarce – and, at the same time, safeguard your family's nutrition. Never has there been such an opportunity, and a need, for what American women can contribute.
So, to you women behind the men, behind the guns, we offer this little book, with its daily helps for wartime meal-planning and cooking. And we salute you all!
[Well, it just couldn't be written that way today. I love to think about that retro world where women worked in the home. "A woman's place is in the home," was an attitude that had its pros and cons. We won't be going back to that. But – when women were at home, the world was a different place, and some of it was very good. And some women loved it. KW]
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