women of the roundhouse crew at San Luis Obispo’s Southern Pacific railroad yard, put their desire to work at jobs hitherto denied them, before their aim to serve in essential wartime capacities.
The 13 grease-streaked, overall-clad feminine “roundhousers” who work right along with the men in the roundhouse, where engines are brought for general overhauling, repairs and checkups, as machinists’ helpers, when asked why they were at the hard, greasy work.
All of them, from the attractive twentyish Amy Warfield, still bubbling with enthusiasm of it all, having been on the railroad job only ten days, to the cheerful, vigorous Katie Nelms, a grandmother, gave synonymous answers to the inquiry, “Why did you seek work on the roundhouse gang?” Their answers were straightforward — they weren’t going to miss their chance of doing something they never had a crack at before because it had been acknowledged by men as being for men only!
None of the women had previously worked at mechanical jobs. The majority of them were former office workers, laundry helpers and housewives.
Ina Wansley, the first woman to be hired on the local crew, reporting there on Dec. 11, 1942, said of the men’s attitude when she made her first appearance among them in overalls and kerchief, “They made no secret of resenting me, but I went right on with my work, and when they knew that I wasn’t going to be fazed by their unwelcoming attitude, they assured me that neither they or the engines bite. From the very first they proved gentlemen, never using rough language around the girls, and always ‘Johnnies on the spot’ to give a helping hand with a heavy load.”
Great history! Thanks
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