Home > American Home Front WWII > Florence Hall Biography

Born August 1888

Died 1952

Director of Women's Land Army, home economist

In April 1943 the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced the appointment of home economist Florence Hall as chief of the Women's Land Army (WLA). The goal of the WLA was to recruit and organize a large number of women to provide farm labor in place of the many farmers and hired hands who had joined the military or left home to take a job in a defense plant.

Hall had been serving as a senior home economist in the Extension Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The Extension Service, in cooperation with state and county government extension services, provided educational services covering all aspects of farming and homemaking on the farm. Hall drew on her experience to skillfully and quickly begin a nationwide recruitment campaign for the WLA. Hall also over-saw and coordinated efforts by WLA...