From 1917 to 1920, the Women's Land Army brought thousands of city workers, community women, artists, business professionals and university students to rural America to take up the farm after men were called in to serve in wartime. These women were in military uniform, housed in mass camps and doing what was considered "men's work," which was to plow the fields, drive the tractors, plant, harvest and haul the timber.

The land army insisted that its "farmers" pay equal wages to male farm workers and be protected by eight hours of work. These farms were initially shocking and met with skepticism by skeptical farmers, but when they proved ready and capable, farmers began to rely on working women and became their top heroes.

While the Land Women's Army was deeply rooted in the great political and social movements of its electoral day, urban and rural reform, women's education, scientific administration and workers' rights were pushed into a new untested area and ventured into areas considered beyond borders. More than any other group of women in the war at the time, the ground army ridiculed the breach of rules.

It has challenged traditional thinking about what "right" action women should do, their role in wartime, how they should be paid, and how they should wear their clothes. The short but passionate life of the WLA has overshadowed some of the more profound and controversial social issues America will face in the 20th century: the changing role of women in society and the workplace, the problem of social class discrimination in democracy, mechanization, and urbanization.

, The role of science and technology, and physiological and psychological differences between men and women.

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