Since the civil war there have been more women than men public school teachers. Before then, with the exception of the so-called infant or dame schools, “keeping school” was thought to be properly a masculine enterprise. The war changed that. Between 1860–1895, male teachers, most of whom were unable to buy their way out of the draft, were conscripted by the thousands. Few men returned to the schools when the booming economy of the late 1860's and early 1870's brought them employment opportunities at significantly higher wages than school officials were able or willing to match. In some states the percentage of male teachers declined by more than 20 percent during the war period alone. In 1870 the percentage of female teachers in U.S. public schools was 61.3 percent. This percentage dropped slightly during the next decade, but then climbed steadily until the mid 1930s when it reached approximately 80 percent. The ratios of men and women teachers were highly uneven between the states, however. Utah, for example, had 65 percent female teachers in 1935, while Vermont had 90 percent. Since 1964 the percentage of women teachers has hovered around 65 percent.

A sense of urgency gripped educators and federal government officials in the summer of 1942. Word of the imminent lowering of the draft age meant that little time would remain between a boy's graduation from high school and his induction into the armed forces. In July, Robert A. Lovett, Assistant Secretary of War for Air, advised John W. Studebaker, U.S. Commissioner of Education, that “the need for pre-flight training and physical conditioning is every day become more apparent.” In September, an officer from the Navy Department warned that the country could not afford to lose any time in toughening and training all high school youth. Government estimates forecast that 80 percent of the nation's 1,300,000 high school boys between 16 and 18 would enter the armed forces shortly after graduation. The 20 percent physically unsuited for the military, and many girls, likely would enter industrial work and essential community occupations. Consequently, Paul McNutt, Director of the War Manpower Commission, added his voice to the chorus asking that adolescents in the schools compose a trained reserve.