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| 1942 |
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| Although defense industries and training programs initially barred women, by mid-1942 most companies reversed their policies and accepted women workers in growing numbers. By war's end more than 2 million women worked in heavy industries. At the same time, as the number of men enrolled in colleges dropped, the number of women gaining access to higher education also increased. | 1 |
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| Jan. 13 |
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| Donald M. Nelson became chief of the War Production Board, created to speed the armament program. | 2 |
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| Jan. 30 |
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| President Roosevelt signed the Price Control Act, which was intended to limit inflation. | 3 |
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| Feb. 10 |
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| President Roosevelt established as a wartime measure a minimum 48-hour work week for areas where there was a labor shortage. | 4 |
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| April 4 |
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| The War Production Board halted all nonessential building in order to conserve materials. | 5 |
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| April 27 |
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| President Roosevelt proposed that the American people combat inflation by a seven-point program: (1) heavier taxes, (2) a ceiling on prices, (3) wage stabilization, (4) price control on agricultural products, (5) increased purchase of war bonds, (6) the rationing of essential commodities if scarce, and (7) reduction of installment buying. | 6 |
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| May 29 |
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| The Office of War Mobilization, directed by James F. Byrnes, became the supreme federal agency for the prosecution of the war effort on the home front. | 7 |
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| June 26 |
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| The Smith-Connally Anti-Strike Bill made anyone who instigated or aided in promoting strikes in government-operated plants or mines subject to criminal penalties. | 8 |
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| June 30 |
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| The Congress voted a record appropriation of $42 billion for the defense of the U.S. | 9 |
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| July 16 |
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| The War Labor Board decreed that in the interest of wage stabilization, wage increases would be granted equivalent to the rise in living costs between Jan. 1, 1941, and May 1942. This was known as the Little Steel Award. | 10 |
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| Oct. 3 |
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| James F. Byrnes was appointed Director of the Office of Economic Stabilization. | 11 |
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| Oct. 12 |
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| Attorney General Francis Biddle announced that 600,000 unnaturalized Italians in the U.S. would no longer be classed as enemy aliens. | 12 |
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