Both images found on http://progress-is-fine.blogspot.com
I've worked at a Sears tire and service center, a machine shop and mechanical assembly shop... and I've never seen or heard of a woman working in either. Anywhere or anytime. I have posted racers, pilots, etc.. but it seems like the machine shops and aircraft assembly plants are without a ratio of men and women equal to the human population. In light of the photo evidence here, women have proven the worth of their work by building and assembling the aircraft the won WW1 and WW2. Below, WW1 aircraft being built
One of my grandmothers worked at Boeing and Cessna in Wichita during WWII. After the war she ran restaurants, worked in gift shops, was a sheriff's deputy, etc. I don't think she liked the factory. My grandfather worked at Boeing for 30+ years. I think he'd rather been farming but my grandmother liked the city. Over the Christmas break I'm taking 3 weeks off and I'll scan some pictures I know you'll like.
ReplyDeleteMy other grandfather was in Europe during WWII and got two Purple Hearts and a Bronze Star. His wife never worked outside the home, they were much more the "traditional" family of the 1950s.
Robert, can't wait to see the pictures. So many stories we still don't know about WWII. Thanks in advance if you can find them.
DeleteWhat happened was well understood, at least by my parent's generation. Within a month of the end of the war, billions of dollars worth of defense contracts were cancelled, and many of the large defense plants laid off thousands of workers. The first ones to go were the women, as the men "needed" the jobs to support their families. At the same time, a trickle, followed a flood of veterans were returning from war zones, and newly expanding industries were hiring/rehiring veterans as they "deserved" the jobs. Obviously, few veterans were women. Women returned to doing what was then culturally expected or allowed them, serving their husbands, making babies, and filling jobs men didn't want, like teaching and clerical positions. It would be another generation before women were again given some space to choose the profession they like, and the playing field still isn't quite leveled.
ReplyDeleteOne of the things that is a little less obvious in these old photos is that there were also a lot of African Americans, both men and women, working skilled jobs in these factories. One grandfather was trained and employed as a journeyman welder at Boston Navy Yard, the other was hired at the post office to fill in for postal workers who were drafted. One grandmother assembled aircraft electronics. The grandfather with welding/mechanical skills continued with similar skilled jobs in manufacturing plants, the other eventually retired from the post office. Black women were let go fairly quickly after the war, although my grandmother, after a few years as a housewife, returned to electronics assembly when that industry started booming again.
Marc, like I mentioned above, so many stories from that time in history we still don't know. God bless your grand parents and the work they did to stop terrine.
DeleteI just have to say that first picture of the woman working the lath is the classic "Rosy the Riveter", or should we call her "Mary the Machinist", photo. I love it. Not the watch eye of the gentleman directing the young woman. A foreman perhaps. Even the guy working the drill press on the other side of the isle can't get enough. ;-}
ReplyDeleteI read her name actually, as she was doing that work before the US entered the war... as she was in Canada, and they were in the war on Englands behalf. She was famous in Canada, and you can read about her if you like in the progress-is-fine.blogspot.com if you care to look into it. They mention her name and circumstances, and relative to Rosie situation
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