"Iowa Women in the WPA is the first survey of how Iowa women fared under the WPA during the Great Depression. No similar study has been written for any other state. The WPA was the Works Progress Administration (later changed to the Works Projects Administration), an agency created by executive order of President Franklin D. Roosevelt to replace direct-relief programs with meaningful employment. It created a variety of projects designed to provide jobs that would preserve the skills of trained workers and also give untrained workers skills that could be transferred to private employment. Louise Noun describes the WPA projects open to women in Iowa - from sewing, cooking, and cleaning to professional and cultural work - and evaluates how the programs carried out the WPA's sometimes idealistic goals."--BOOK JACKET.