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Don't forget the Rosie the Riveters?


vette
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I will be looking forward to seeing it. Who says woman do not deserve equal pay for equal work? Here in Akron the Rosie's made the corsairs and they were made to last. Aside of soldiers fighting in battles they deserve medals.

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Keep one thing in mind as you look at these photos... part of the reason so many were taken was the necessity for the government to make war work for women "socially acceptable".

 

Despite the introduction of women into heavy industry in World War One, women working in factories was not a social norm by the eve of World War II.

 

In the movie "While You Were Away" there is a very telling segment where a young woman informs one of her town's matrons that she is going to go do her part at the local factory. The older woman basically tells her this is not what nice, well educated girls do. I believe it was her mother who intervened and said something like it would be fine if it brought the boys home quicker. It is a pretty blatant piece of propaganda, but it probably reflects the social issues of the times.

 

It wasn't just the women who had to adjust... crusty factory foremen and supervisors had to revised their management methods. Somewhere on youtube.com is a 1940's era training film on "How to Supervise Women". It looks to be very clumsy advice by today's standards, but it was quite the change for the time period.

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Found some more pictures on the NY Times website.

 

The poster was inspired by a Norman Rockwell painting – and by women actually in the workforce like Rose Will Monroe. Monroe, seen here in the 1940’s was a riveter at the Willow Run Aircraft Factory in Michigan. She built bombers for the US Army Air Forces.

 

NYTimes5.jpg

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Women railroad workers are seen in October 1942 along the Long Island Railroad. Here the girls lunch at the Morris Park Train Yard. The women were paid 56 cents an hour for their work.

 

NYTimes9.jpg

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Members of the Women’s Volunteer Defense Corps. Grabbing canes, umbrellas, brooms and whatever they could get their hands on women members of the Volunteer Defense Corps are trained in a rifle drill around the time of World War II

 

NYTimes12.jpg

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I would love to see this thread get pinned because it has such great reference pictures in it. I would hate to see this one get lost in the shuffle.

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I don't recall ever seeing the last images before. They are good examples of just how many vital areas of defense production absorbed women workers.

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